Posted on 03/23/2014 4:25:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway
From Indiana Street near the edge of the University of Kansas campus, you can barely see the top of Georgia Bell’s house.
Georgia Bell bought her modest home near the University of Kansas campus in 1946 for $850. On Wednesday, she was formally offered $600,000 for it. A five-story residential and retail complex could soon spring up uncomfortably close by. The developer says she can stay, but things will be very different.
It sits at the bottom of 26 old, steep and uneven concrete steps. Two city officials descended those steps recently to talk to Bell about selling her place to a Chicago developer.
The man has offered what seems a reasonable price for a one-bedroom, 840-square-foot house built nearly a hundred years ago, especially considering the roof sags and leaks. She’s got a plywood patch in the kitchen floor, and the front door has no header so Bell, 91, crams a towel up there to block the cold wind.
The siding is rotting away like old food.
The developer’s offer: $600,000. Considering Bell and her husband gave $850 for the house in 1946, one might think she saw this Chicago fellow coming. But after nearly a year of talk, she’s turned him down. She feels like she’s being forced out of the home where she raised six children. Their photos hang on the walls.
“I done broke the ice here and now they want to sweep me out,” she said. “I got nowhere to go and it’s like I don’t matter.”
Lawrence officials and the developer, Jim Heffernan of HERE LLC, made clear she can stay. No one is talking about forcing her out through eminent domain.
“We have no desire for that,” Heffernan said.
His company’s plan calls for a five-story, state-of-the-art residential and retail complex with 156
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
At 91 years old....take the money and go someplace tropical.
Batteries Not Included.
Here a hospital wanted to buy half of a block of residential property to expand a very needed parking lot. The difference here was this was a Baptist hospital and a little old lady who wanted to stay in her home. She sold her property to the hospital but continued to live there until she died and the the hospital tore down the house and made her lot into a little garden spot at he entrance of the parking. Funny how compassion works.....
Offer her an even million ... she might do it then ... :-) ...
Interestingly, she was interviewed on the radio. She is, in fact, asking for 1 million and claims she is not getting that much because of the color of her skin. Hmmmm....
Maybe she doesn’t want to.
Old folks get stubborn. I know, my dads 93, WWII pilot, and he’s stubborn as ever, why not, he fought for it. It becomes a pisser at times but you have to respect and accommodate your elders.
“Go someplace tropical”, yea, maybe, if that’s what she wants. If not, leave her alone.
End of story.
"In the 1980s when she refused to move from her apartment building after it was purchased by Donald Trump. He wanted to evict her in order to tear down the building, but after going to court, she was allowed to stay. In 1998, it was ruled that Trump could turn the apartments into condos, and she was, therefore, given $750,000 compensation."
*Kelo's Little Pink House* New London, CT
This is what the piece of land that Kelo's house occupied now looks like:
After the houses were destroyed, nothing happened. No R&D complex, no gentrified condos, no influx of high-net-worth PhDs. Nothing. An empty lot with weeds
Edith Macefield Ballard, Seattle WA
You always see some odd house in an industrial area where the owner refused to sell and now the owners can’t even give the property away. You feel bad for them, but once the majority of the owners have sold out and the project is moving forward with or without you take the money before it’s too late.
I understand the attachment to the house, but the neighborhood is gone now, and but it’s not like they’re offering her chump change...$600K is good money.
I hope to Heaven neither you or anyone in your family are faced with being forced from your home by developers/city fathers. I don’t think you realize what happens to elders when they are uprooted without their consent.
Is that property worth $600K or should she haggle with them for a million? I’m sure there is a FReeper who is into real estate that can give a more informed answer.
I understand the elderly just fine. I know that they get fixated on principle.
I drive by two houses every day that are essentially worthless. They are both surrounded by 10’ chain link with razor wire on three sides. A major chemical plant on three sides, and there they are several hundred feet apart. The value of these houses is gone, and the company is not interested in buying them as they went ahead with their project without them. The elderly people who lived the last years of their lives there died years ago and they essentially got zilch.
This is one of those unpleasant situations where an elderly woman is being displaced from her home. But in this case, she wants the money, it’s just not enough for her.
I hate these new college dorms. And people wonder why they graduate with 6 figure debt. However, the developer is not kicking the woman out of the house using eminent domain. They offered her a very fair price for her home, and she didn’t take it. Now she has to live with that decision.
Ouderkirk...Do you remember, when you sold your principles? How much did you ask; and what have you settled for, in warm compensation?
Just wow!
What I’ve learned is that preaching at someone is a one-way convo leaving one side feeling self righteous & the other side misunderstood.
I love it when the *self-righteous* become zealots. ;D
Perhaps the house could be moved (or rebuilt) in an acceptable location?
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