COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE 3-STEP FREEDMEN’S TOWN PRESERVATION SHUFFLE 
“1. Buy a block (maybe the vacant one on W. Gray . . . the blocks are small). 2. Move all extant historical structures to said block and make it a park, with public space for outdoor events. 3. Rehab the brick streets. Anything beyond this, in the name of historical preservation, is in name only.” [Turning_Basin, commenting on City Wants To Create Historic District To Protect What’s Left of Freedmen’s Town Historic District] Photo of torn up brick street section at Andrews St.: Chris C.
Sign up for the Newsletter
If they want the old bricks so bad, start passing the hat.
“Historical Ghetto Marker”…. the sign should be orange or yellow to assert caution….. the half torn up street compliments the neighborhood. Ghetto preservationists unite! You’re winning!
Keep in mind that most of these “preservationists” don’t live here. They’re carpetbaggers that want their pretty historic bricks without having to deal with the crappy roads, plugged sewers, and brown tap water from failing infrastructure.
Off the top of my head, I can think of at least 5 “historic” homes in the area that are in various stages of preservation. Only one of them, the Yates home on Andrews, has had anything serious done to it. Three were moved to a half-empty block right next to the drug front/grocery store and left to rot, and a fifth (the “Yates Museum”) has been up on blocks with a fence around it and a sign asking for donations since before I moved to the neighborhood in 2008. So someone is going to have to pony up some serious money, and maybe properly organize, to get that done.