Heidelberg fires and tax foreclosures?

I'm surprised that the property tax [[and now city ownership) issues at the Heidelberg Project have gotten no play here.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...=2013312290075

Read the article. It's got a lot of interesting data points, including refusing to pay property taxes, property tax dumping, and now city/outside ownership of some of the land. If you have nonprofit governance experience, it's hard not to look at this and shake your head.

And that's before you get to the issue of whether Guyton knows the arsonist [[some news reports suggested this) and is not giving that information to the police. Hopefully, that is an urban myth.

You can really like the HP from an artistic/social protest standpoint - but still wonder, "what the hell?!" But of all the things in this article, I think that Rob Anderson's comments are the most telling - given that pretty much every administration has taken out at least one building, I would speculate that the Duggan administration is going to finish off the HP this year.

HB

I am one of the people who doesn't "get" the Heidelberg Project. I don't want to see people's hard work destroyed or artistic vision thwarted even if I don't understand it. But this project does not seem like it is sustainable. Buildings deteriorate. They get looted and burned. Happens all over the city. Setting aside ownership/zoning/public safety/tax issues, I just don't know why anyone would think that these creatively decorated properties would last. I would think it would make more sense to buy and secure one or two properties, and slowly tweak them over time, rather than doing all those houses, just to inevitably lose them.