NHS Bilingual Homeownership Center Grand Opening

NHS staff (and staff spouse) at the grand opening celebration of the new Bilingual Homeownership Center in the Park Federal Savings Bank branch at 1823 W. 47th Street.



Paul Lopez, NHS board member and vice president of Park Federal, gave remarks and facilitated the program.



NHS Back of the Yards/Garfield Boulevard local advisory board members kibitz during the festivities.

Going to tonight's much less formal event--the barbecue, featuring some great carne asada and barbecued beef short ribs--reminded me I was behind schedule in posting these photos.

Oh, and in some sad local real estate news, I found out tonight that my block's first gay couple aren't sticking around. I still don't quite understand what happened, but from what Ms. Ribs told me, it sounds like the seller and/or the mortgage company tried to jerk them around for more money than seemed reasonable for this area, so they have decided to sell and try to unload the property. It's not that they can't afford their mortgage, it's that the house was overvalued. (This sounds weird to me.) I've found it listed for $227,525.

While I was at it, I did a little more real estate research and found Trulia has an overview of real estate in Back of the Yards. Here's a chart showing how the median home price has changed. I tried to paste it in here, but this format can't take the whole chart, which defeats the purpose, so check the link here and scroll down to Median Sales Price. It's not a pretty sight.

Principal Valerie Brown Wins Neighborhood Leadership Award

Well, it wasn't the Hyatt, and Bill Daley wasn't there, but five Neighborhood Housing Services local advisory board members had dinner with Principal Valerie Brown of Hamline Elementary to honor her with the 2008 NHS Neighborhood Leadership Award for Back of the Yards/Garfield Boulevard.

Oscar Contreras invited the guys who play basketball in the Hamline gym on Tuesday nights to join us. About eight or 10 young men came up to the former kindergarten room where Principal Brown was once a teacher for steak fajitas, rice and beans and pork in a red sauce from Nuevo Leon. Two of the young men are recent graduates of Second Chance Alternative High School.

Before dinner, Oscar presented Ms. Brown with the official award plaque and she said a few words. "God put us on this earth for a reason, and it wasn't to serve ourselves. It's to serve others," she said. "Just the way a priest opens his church, so should principals open their doors to the community."

Especially in an area like East of Ashland, where community gathering places are few and far between. "I know that without Hamline, there's nothing here," Brown said. She's pretty much right. "I know this community better than I know where I live, because I spend all my time over here," she added. She's been doing that for about 30 years now. She even learned Spanish so she could communicate better with parents and community members.

Over dinner, I heard there's some interest in the NHS board's effort to jumpstart block clubs around the neighborhood. We'll see what comes of that.