hyde park: believe the hype?

[alpha_glamourina]

Congratulations on becoming a home owner, and congratulations to all of S. Hyde Park for scoring such a good neighbor! 

[chrizow]

haha.  thanks!  i will do my best to make my little corner of hyde park just a little bit more snarky. 

[Highlander]

haha.  thanks!  i will do my best to make my little corner of hyde park just a little bit more snarky. 

When's the house warming party?

[chrizow]

When's the house warming party?

every night is a housewarming party at casa de chrizow.  come one, come all!

[FangKC]

Will there be porch-sitting?

[Pastense]

The tax credits that allow for Section 8 housing last 15 years, after which those apartments can go market rate or condo.

There is no real connection between rental housing tax credits and Section 8 rent subsidy although they do often co-exist allowing lower-income households to occupy "affordable" housing. Recent allocations of rental housing tax credits by the Missouri Housing Development Commission may have much longer compliance periods, up to 45 years in some cases. The 15-year period is referred to as the "initial" compliance period. As I remember in the case of some of the Armour Blvd. buildings, there were existing Section 8 contracts and the rental housing tax credits allowed for their renovation.

[FangKC]

The buildings in the affordable housing portion of New Quality Hill had tax credits that lasted for 15 years. They have expired and now the apartments are undergoing a conversion to condos.

[Pastense]

The buildings in the affordable housing portion of New Quality Hill had tax credits that lasted for 15 years. They have expired and now the apartments are undergoing a conversion to condos.

Those were credits issued in the late 80's or 90's. MHDC has changed the rules since then. Additional years have been added to the Land Use Restriction Agreements (LURA) to preserve the units as affordable beyond the initial 15 years. In fact, in an agreement with MHDC or the IRS, a portion of the Quality Hill condo conversions are being reserved for purchase by households who have incomes under 60% of area median income and qualify for affordable housing.

[FangKC]

I knew some condos were being reserved for purchase by low-income residents, but I didn't know that the length of the tax credits had been extended on these types of projects. Good to know.

[HydeParkKC]

All of the above give question again as to why the redevelopment by Eagle Point was allowed to be Section 8 only.

Mixed income redevelopments should be the standard.

[midtown guy]

All of the above give question again as to why the redevelopment by Eagle Point was allowed to be Section 8 only.

Mixed income redevelopments should be the standard.

Yeah, it goes against the HUD standards of the current day. Apparently though it was approved by the former mayor's office with little fan fair (and no community involvement).  I know there are issues about not being able decrease the amount of Section 8 available housing (so if they made it a 50/50 split, or 80% market rate/20% Section 8 per HUD standards they would have had to find another place to move more Section 8 units.  Still pretty unacceptable to have verticle segregation in this day and age.  We'd never let them gate off an entire area of town to put poor people, but for some reason they allowed this to happen.

[rxlexi]

as long as it does come down to gating off areas and putting poor people there, essentially, I sure wish KCMO could do it in the Northland, or in south KC along State Line somewhere.  Something tells me neighborhood associations in those areas would flip out and be heard, but in midtown?  Sure, Section 8 all the way, we didn't "hear any complaints".

[chrizow]

Troost continues to be a bit of a problem, but is becoming less so as some of the neighborhoods east of Troost (Manheim/Squire Park/Center City) become more developed and active. 

out of curiosity, what exactly is happening east of troost that people in hyde park (and kcmo boosters generally) should be happy about?  if i were to drive or walk around these areas, what would i see?  rehabbed houses?  where are these neighborhoods located exactly anyway?

[rxlexi]

  Chriz, Squire Park, b/w Troost and Paseo and Armour - 39th, is somewhat quickly seeing many of the large old houses there rehabbed (homes comparable to central Hyde Park, in many cases).  East of Paseo b/w Linwood and Armour there are quite a few new, old-style homes that I believe may have been built by Habitat for Humanity, not sure, but they look reasonable.  I would say Troost itself near Hyde Park, where large numbers of retail storefronts remain, and neighborhoods like Squire Park (which you should definitely check out if you get a chance, it's very small and walkable/bikeable) hold the most hope for the east side in that area, as they are closest to pockets of relative prosperity and gentrification.  I've said it about 2 million times, but I really, really want to see Armour come back hard, and if it does I think we'll see the kind of rapid change in the whole of Hyde Park that residents have been hoping for for years.

[lucuspukus]

haha.  thanks!  i will do my best to make my little corner of hyde park just a little bit more snarky. 

Heyhey--
We live in S. Hyde Park too, just moved in last year. And I think that if people like you and the rest of us participate, we *can* make this place really rejuvenate. It just takes some persistance and unity. Come join Hydeparkc.org and get involved in our action. you'll meet so many friends and connect with a lot of people in our neighborhood who have similar goals.

[midtown]

Welcome to the neighborhood, Chriz!  I have been living in South Hyde Park for just under a year now.  I thought I would share some of my experiences, both good and bad.  I moved here from Iowa for work (some small company in the area that makes personal navigation gadgets...  :P) and settled in this area rather than the burbs for many reasons.  First, my wife and I, as outsiders to KC, were immediately attracted to the Westport and Plaza areas.  Secondly, we both have a dsitate for suburban homes and love old houses.  And third, well, we just got sick of looking for places after four trips down and settled for an apartment on Harrison.  About a month later, we found a really cool house around the corner and bought it.  Everyone on our block is pretty cool.  Unfortunately, we did have some crime happen within a couple months of moving into our house.  My wife's bike was stolen from our garage (we later got it back from the pawn shop it was sold to), as was our weed whacker.  We had a new heat pump installed, didn't protect it, and it was hacked off our house and carried away for scrap the same weekend.  At this point, we thought about moving out, but decided to stick with it, and we haven't really had anything happen since.  The vast majority of people we've met in this neighborhood are the sweetest you could ever hope for.  However, the neighborhood does face challenges, mostly encompassed by the high concentration of section 8 housing and HP's proximity to Troost.  

I've found, in talking to native KCers, that their attitude about HP varies inversely with the amount of time they've lived in KC.  It seems like a great neighborhood to me, crime notwithstanding, and it's only going to get better.  There's tons of rennovation going on all around me, and the neighborhood association is working hard to get rid of some of the nuisance properties and landlords.  I can really see great things ahead for the neighborhood, especially as we get more upstanding people in the neighborhood who are active in making it better.  I get a sense of "in transition", for sure.  It has a way to go, but I am confident it can get there.  As I said, the key problem for the neighborhood is crime originating from section 8 housing and east of troost, and inroads towards reducing that stuff are slowly being made.

A couple things you should know about as a homeowner in the area:
1) Please, please join the HPNA and become an active member.  The current group of active members is heavily slanted towards north and central hyde park, so the actions the group takes is often heavily slanted towards improving those areas while overlooking south hyde park.  HPNA's website is http://www.hydeparkkc.org/ and you can join from there.

2) Neighborhood Housing Services of Kansas City (google it for the webpage) has an excellent program that we are using.  They offer a loan of up to $5000 ($10000 if doing some roofing work) for exterior home improvements in hyde park and other urban core areas at a rate of 2-3% (depending on the neighborhood).  Money does not come that cheap, ever, so take advantage of it if you plan to do exterior rennovations.

3) Anyone living in HP or surrounding areas who might read this, feel free to drop me a line to get together for a beer or something sometime.  My wife and I are always looking to meet cool people in the neighborhood.

Welcome to South Hyde Park, and enjoy the ride.

[chrizow]

any south hyde parkers out there enjoy the companionship of the nice ladies who work the corner of 45th and troost?  it warms the heart when they surreptitiously wave or, more boldly, actually run (barefoot) towards your vehicle trying to flag you down!  sigh, i feel like i am finally part of something...

[alpha_glamourina]

You're such a good sport, Chrizow. 
I'm glad you found a colorful neighborhood to finally belong to, too.  It's nice to hear that you're already making new friends too. 

I'm seconding Midtown's request of you to join HPNA and become an active member. 
Since, as he said, "the current group of active members is heavily slanted towards north and central hyde park", your voice could help round things out a bit more.  Hyde Park is a wonderful, historically rich area of KC, and south HP will only become better as people like yourself become involved in improving it. 

[lucuspukus]

any south hyde parkers out there enjoy the companionship of the nice ladies who work the corner of 45th and troost?  it warms the heart when they surreptitiously wave or, more boldly, actually run (barefoot) towards your vehicle trying to flag you down!  sigh, i feel like i am finally part of something...

Yeah, I honestly find this amusing. The cops did a sting last week. 42 arrests, one felony. The felony was from some guy dealing crack to the prostitute decoy. They did it in North Hyde Park.

The problem with the bad prostitutes down there is that the police try and try and try and the county prosecutor can't get anything significant for soliciting, the whores have to be caught in the act. but the neighborhood association is on it and meets with Veronica's Voice (rehab for pimps and johns) to solve the problem, but it's hard to eradicate prostitution entirely.

Just dont make the mistake of waving at them to be friendly. My friend did that once and it was hilarious.

We're having a party this weekend in south Hyde Park if you wanna come.

[ignatius]

I've been flashed the beaver at the corner before.  Welcome to the edge of midtown.