Block Changers

It's nice to be associated with architectural masterworks, bag hefty commissions, bask in reflected glory.  But my greatest source of professional satisfaction is representing buyers on block changers, typically long neglected, tenant-occupied dwellings, spewing adverse impacts.

While it's important to shepherd the comings and goings of swans, neighborhood trajectories are altered most by the passage of ugly ducklings.   Because seldom is an entire block guilty of impiety; instead, a single residence is the source of horn honking, the feral cat population, late night shenanigans.

Bad apples put to compost.  "The Christmas House" lay vacant after evicting a deadbeat tenant, vandalized and collecting refuse.  At "La Casa Azul" people slept two to a bed, and in bunks, in violation of occupancy restrictions.  The yard grew wild and brown (photo is post trim).  

Homeownership may be a right, but it's also a responsibility.