Pictured: five abandoned structures at the intersection of Hyat St and Koussuth St in Providence, RI. From left to right 51 Hyat, 47 Hyat, 43 Hyat, 71 Kossuth, and 63 Kossuth.
Myles has previously been over in this area before. I recognized the street name when I saw the news report pop up on the Providence Journal(/Providence Pamphlet). He was not wrong in calling it one of the roughest/sketchiest parts of town. I haven’t spent much time in Olneyville, but the flea market itself suggests many adventures to be found.
A week after the fire that gutted 43 Hyat and partially torched 47 Hyat, the air still smelled of wood ash and burnt vinyl siding. Three fire fighters received minor injuries during the blaze. It took 50 of them to put it out.
Sadly, this exact intersection was the site of a press conference held by Providence Mayor David Cicilline just five weeks ago announcing two new foreclosure prevention initiatives.
Too late to save this block.
ProJo fire story and video from the press conferences below.
—
Arson suspected in Providence fires
ProJo 03/10/09
01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, March 10, 2009
By Kate Bramson and Cynthia Needham
Journal Staff Writers
PROVIDENCE — Fires Sunday night that engulfed two vacant houses in Olneyville and injured three firefighters were deemed suspicious and are under investigation, according to Deputy Assistant Fire Chief Daniel Crowley.
Fire was reported at 43 Hyat St. and 47 Hyat St. at 9:30 p.m., Crowley said. Fire was more involved in the building at 43 Hyat St., on the corner of Hyat and Kossuth streets, Crowley said.
One firefighter remained in Rhode Island Hospital yesterday morning for cardiac-related care, Crowley said. He was expected to be released yesterday. The other two firefighters fell through stairs and were treated for contusions and sprains at Roger Williams Medical Center, Crowley said.
Crowley said the approximately 50 firefighters who responded to the blazes “did a tremendous job holding [the fire] to those two houses.” The volume of fire and its proximity to other houses in the area, he said, required that many firefighters — about half of the on-duty firefighters in the city.
The fires were near another vacant house and across the street from the William D’Abate Elementary School, at 60 Kossuth St., Crowley said.
With two fires next door to each other, it would ordinarily appear that fire in one extended to the other building, Crowley said. Although that did happen, with the fire at 43 Hyat St. more heavily involved and extending to 47 Hyat St., Crowley said fire actually broke out on multiple floors of both buildings at approximately the same time.
“They are definitely suspicious, and we expect incendiaries to be the causes,” he said yesterday morning.
Neighbors said they watched one of the houses on Hyat Street go up in flames just after 9:30 p.m. Both were believed to have been vacant for several months.
Crowley said no one was living in either building, and they were empty at the time of the fires.
Tony Walker, 19, was walking to a nearby convenience store when he spotted the fire. He ran to the front door of the first house and banged loudly on the door to see if anyone was inside. That house, and the one next to it, appeared empty and the smoke was overwhelming, so Walker backed off and yelled to others on the street to call 911.
Firefighters swarmed the scene. They were able to enter 47 Hyat St. and fight the fire from within the building, but at 43 Hyat St., they needed to knock the fire down from outside before they could enter the building, Crowley said.
By 10:30 p.m. the fires in both structures were extinguished.
The city’s fire prevention bureau and arson investigator were investigating the fires, Crowley said.
Also Sunday evening, around 5:30 p.m., firefighters extinguished a burning truck inside a truck-repair facility located at 90 Reservoir Ave., next to a rental storage facility, Crowley said.
cneedham@projo.com
—
Hat tip to civilian commentor data geek over at the ProJo
“Oddly enough, these buildings happen to be the backdrop when the Mayor made his foreclosure presentation. Even more strange was the inspector checking out these same building at the exact time the TV camera were rolling.”
I had to go find those videos. Didn’t take long.
—
Press Conference Video From Same Corner
The house directly to the rear of Cicillini is part of 43 Hyat.
All of this, of course, is right across the street from William D’Abate Elementary School.
Update May 2009
43 Hyat was scraped by the city in early May. I wonder why this house came down sooner than many other gutted fire damaged homes.
* demo photos taken by Jessica Vega and submitted by Jean C. Thanks much!
Nearby Houses:
None yet photographed. Please take a picture if you see one.
Thanks for the nod and for finding the link!
This blog is really great. You should check out the RIC students neighborhood-walk data of abandoned and boarded properties @provplan.org
Hi data_geek
Good looking out on your part.
The walk data you’re referring to can be found in the Forgotten Providence Wiki under “taking pictures”
http://www.forgottenprovidence.com/wiki/index.php5?title=Forgotten_Wiki:Community_Portal
It’s a great starting point for assessing some damage in these neighborhoods.
This is so sad .The area was once a thriving Polish American neighborhood,where occupant/ owners took pride in their houses and of having achieved the ‘American Dream’ of home ownership.
The US Census site states that there are 45,000 vacant homes in RI,but maybe they mean living units.
The Olneyville area of Providence was part of my caseload as a social worker for many years. The deterioration started during Reagan’s S&L banking crisis. Housing prices were inflated for the same reasons as today, easy credit and fraud. During the ’80s, Massachusetts real estate “investors” who had seen housing prices skyrocket in MA, starting buying and flipping properties to the greater fool. Real estate investment partnerships were all the rage. When the bubble burst, the owners started burning them or walking away.
Virtually all these properties had been sold to absentee landlords. If they were not torched or lost to foreclosure, the owners had cash-flow problems. As the neighborhood deteriorated, the rents had to be lowered. The landlords would not or could not maintain or improve their properties. Today, the housing along Manton Ave. is in such disrepair that I can’t conceive of a turnaround. It is inhabited by people who live on the margins of society, the throwaways. The South Side and the West End, at least until the recent swindle, were far better by comparison.
This area is a monument to greed and the “free market” system. DON’T EVER BLAME THE PEOPLE(victims) WHO LIVE HERE!
The PFD division of Fire Prevention maintains a list of all the vacant properties in Prov.That would be a good starting point for a complete photographic essay of the problem in Prov.
John St. Lawrence, you nail it. It all started with the free market capitalism of the Reagan years.
I know one case intimately. I was renting an apartment in the building at 219-223 Atwells Ave. I now the original owner paid around $70K for the building back in the late 80’s. Sold it to Ocean View Properties an MA firm for $600,000.
Ocean View had to rehab the building, new roof, new siding, gut and rebuild interior, etc. Last I knew total tally for it was a cool $1.2 million. I also knew it was sliding into foreclosure, not so sure how that worked out.
What we’re seeing is a reset to the levels of 1973. My parents first home was bought brand new in 1973 for $22,000. I’m seeing a return to those price levels.
I have strong words for the police department though. They could have prevented the copper theft and didn’t.
What needs to be done is to publish the names of these “investors” and banks who own these properties. In a society where private property is sacrosanct, an owner can just board-up their property and leave it for years. They have no responsibility to the neighbors or the neighborhood. What happens eventually is an urban no-man’s land, where no bank will offer credit and no owner/occupant will purchase. Block after block will be torched or abandoned.
In a just society, owners would be forced to either bring their houses up to code, sell, or tear them down. Instead, we have peacock politicians doing photo-ops while conditions inexorably deteriorate. Even the Diocese of Providence has closed St. Theresa’s Church, which provided advocacy, activism, and support to this community. This neighborhood and its people have been written-off until the area can be profitably exploited by urban developers using taxpayer subsidies. This is the reality despite what anyone tells you.
The above comment extolling a form of socialism simply ignores the facts of life. Neighborhoods, like almost everything, have a lifetime. They come and go. They serve a purpose and then require “rebirth”. The neighborhoods we see here were products of a time when America was far less mobile, families rented apartments for 20 years. At that time, everyone walked. It may seem “romantic” in retrospect, but it is nonetheless gone.
For all of the evils of capitalism. After watching the government at work in New Orleans, would you want FEMA in charge of housing programs.
Can’t help myself, I need to go on. Government is part of the problem here. These buildings were built when families were larger, and people walked. What is needed now is smaller apartments and parking spaces. The lot sizes are very small, Zoning regulations require a minimum square footage of “lot size” per unit. This hampers subdivision of the buildings into smaller units. (most of the multi units you see in these neighborhoods are probably “illegal”, code enforcement would shut them down) There is no correlation between unit size and the lot size required. Small units require the same footage as large ones. There is just not enough lot size to provide sufficient parking for a formerly 2 unit building which is converted to a 4 unit. This is part of what made these neighborhoods undesireable over time. Zoning typically requires a minimum number of parking spaces per unit.
is this what we have come to in rhode island? i stay here for my wifes sake and all i see are houses left for dead and are bad on property values. i am in the market for a new home and every house i go to see has a house like this next to or on the same street. i have three kids and don’t want them to live next to a eye sore or safty risk like this. i wish someone in rhode island goverment would help us
gregg j, your thoughts reflect the experience of many “urban pioneers”. They move in and begin fixing up. Soon, the kids reach school age and they rethink the entire situation. This usually means a move to the suburbs.
The tough part of this situation is that there are plenty of foreclosures in suburban areas. Prices are only slightly higher, but all in, the final cost is about the same. It is no accident that over 50% of the forclosures in the U.S. are located in 37 counties. They were never desireable areas.
@Faust
You don’t know what you’re talking about. If neighborhoods have a “lifetime,” then what about the East Side where the housing stock is older and the occupancy denser? Does this have a lifetime? And what about the parking? This neighborhood has more than the East Side and actually more than most areas of the city. Your attempts to justify and rationalize this blight are pathetic. It tells me that you’re just like the “investors” and assorted vermin who came into this neighborhood and destroyed it by trying to make a quick buck.
You and the absentee landlords should be forced to live in this area, preferably next door to one these boarded-up houses. I’m sure it would change your perspective.
Real people live in this neighborhood with hopes and dreams, just like you. They should not have to live in conditions not fit for the shelter of human beings.
As I said earlier, this area is a monument to the “free market” system where everything and anyone is for sale.
Mr. St. Lawrence,
I am sorry that you found my comments to be so “wrong headed” but please allow me to respond.
@Faust
You don’t know what you’re talking about.
This is America, and you are entitled to your opinion. On the other hand, you should know that I supported myself for many years by renovating buildings much like those pictured here. So far as I know, they are still considered desireable, are happily occupied and none has ever been foreclosed.
If neighborhoods have a “lifetime,” then what about the East Side where the housing stock is older and the occupancy denser? Does this have a lifetime?
You have selected a poor example. By the East Side, I assume you are talking about Benefit street and the area of Fox Point around Wickenden (that has only become the East Side since the real estate brokers began marketing it as such). Perhaps you are not old enough to remember when Benefit Street was a rooming house/flop house area. It had run out its “lifetime” and required “re-birth”. Lady Fortune stepped in. Doris Duke (American Tobacco) killed her husband in their driveway, many said it was murder. She then began attempting to buy her way into heaven. One of her projects was to buy several flop houses on Benefit Street and renovate them. She also persuaded several of her fashionable friends to do so. This was financed out of their pockets. As luck would have it, this tied in with the “back to the city” movement of the 70’s and a HUD that was amenable to dealing with individuals. The Providence Preservation Society also aided. The downside of the HUD program was that it was restricted to the “Historic District”. I don’t recall the street names, but you can still see the borders of the district. On one side of the street (inside the district) the houses are renovated, on the other side they are not.
And what about the parking? This neighborhood has more than the East Side and actually more than most areas of the city.
Look around the East Side and consider the sums which must have been expended to create parking. This only emphasizes its importance.
Your attempts to justify and rationalize this blight are pathetic.
That is, of course, your opinion. I am not given to pathos.
It tells me that you’re just like the “investors” and assorted vermin who came into this neighborhood and destroyed it by trying to make a quick buck.
I wouldn’t know about that, I strive to avoid associating with vermin.
You and the absentee landlords should be forced to live in this area, preferably next door to one these boarded-up houses. I’m sure it would change your perspective.
In my lifetime, I have lived in neighborhoods like that.
Real people live in this neighborhood with hopes and dreams, just like you. They should not have to live in conditions not fit for the shelter of human beings.
Admitting that they have hopes and dreams, the question then becomes do they have ambition. In the current climate housing prices have been much reduced, both for rental and purchase. One wonders why they are not voting with their feet. I can assure you that acceptable housing is now available at costs far less than renovating much of the property shown here. “For Rent” and “For Sale” signs abound.
Something to consider, particularly with your reference to the East Side. Blighted areas make a greater demand on municipal budgets than areas like the East Side. These blighted neighborhoods do not pay enough taxes to support themselves. Consequently the “East Sides” of the world are heavily taxed to support the blighted neighborhoods. As the blighted neighborhoods become more so, the tax base reduces and civic costs increase. As the tax burden on the more dessireable neighborhoods increases, they become less desireable. Consequently, the tax payers depart. The formerly “fashionable neighborhoods” become blighted, increasing the burden on the city for want of funds. New Haven is a rather good example of this, but there are many.
As I said earlier, this area is a monument to the “free market” system where everything and anyone is for sale.
I suspect you believe that the “free market” has not treated you very well and that has caused you to prefer a Robin Hood theory of economics. To quote one economist, or another, “you eventually run out of other peoples money”. On reflection, I am sure you will realize that the “free market” has created America out of almost nothing. That is not a small accomplishment, it is unique in the world. If you think the system is poor here, visit Rio. Almost 50% of the population is homeless. Brazil has all of the natural resources we have, so why? Could it be the economic system? Almost everything is regulated by the government there. As it was with the British in the 60’s and 70’s, well to do Brazilians are fleeing to America. The situation in Brazil worsens. England lowered taxes significantly and “muddled through”.
Good luck. If you have any questions on “rehab”, post them and I will attempt to respond.
Still looks like a hell hole.
Have you been by Desert T?
It’s been about 20 years, area still looks as ugly as ever.