Sherman update, post-primaries.

My assistant Marisha has sent a few interesting links my way, both regarding our old pal Sherman.

One from Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic's political blog: "As Clinton's campaign draws to a close, non-essential Clinton staffers such as "senior youth advisor" (who knew Hillary had a "senior youth advisor"?) have been given their notices..."

Another post on the "housing wanted" section on Craigslist: "Looking for a good, cheap, sunny apartment in the Cassock District! Non-smoker! Just back from an exciting couple of months in Washington D.C. and enjoyed it quite a lot, but I am really excited to be back in our beautiful neighborhood! References upon request."

It would seem Sherman is back in the neighborhood.

Neighborhood Focus: The Trunnion District

Well, I get a lot of press releases faxed here, and sometimes there's some pretty interesting stuff. Take this, for example: something called Urban Beat magazine named the Trunnion District in Kendall Park the "most quickly gentrifying neighborhood in America" this month. Sherman used to do a thing called "Neighborhood Focus," so I guess I'll format this thing like one of those.

The Trunnion District, at its height in the 1870s, produced more trunnions then any city in the United States. Trunnions are critical to the manufacture of heavy artillery cannons, and no one made finer trunnions than our local companies -- United Trunnion, American Trunnion Works, Mishipeshu Trunnions. I remember it pretty well. My grandfather on my mother's side was trunnionsmith, a big, brooding Irishman. He hated trunnions to his dying day, but he used to say that trunnions kept his 27 children fed and clothed. "Charlie," he used to say, "I have dreams about feckin' trunnions every night. But those trunnions are what made us a family. Trunnions are what made this city great."

Anyway, the trunnion business fell on hard times after the Spanish-American War, and eventually, all the trunnion plants closed, leaving only the Mishie Trunnion Foundry by 1920. They hung on through the fallow trunnion years of post-cannon warfare by landing an exclusive contract with the Principality of Pinerolo, manufacturing the trunnions used for that city-state's elaborate bi-annual ceremonial battlefield drilling re-enactments, and occasionally landing lucrative one-off contracts with eccentric billionaires, historic arms dealers, artisanal artillery buffs, LARPers, producers for medium-budget BBC costume dramas, and miscelleaneous cannon perverts. The Pinerolo contract expired in 2003, and two years later, the plant was shuttered and its nineteen employees were laid off.


Mishipeshu Trunnion Foundry, 1856-2005

By 2006, the area was an urban wasteland, beset by arson, homicides and gang wars. Between 2005 and 2006, the Mishipeshu Police Department reported that violent crime in the precinct had skyrocketed 300%. The area was generally considered off-limits for residents of the city, and for several months in 2006 acquired the inelegant and stupid nickname the "Runnin' [From Gunshots] District." There was an influx of dozens of poverty-stricken native Esperanto speakers from the nearby Esperanto District, mostly separatists whose embrace of the Ido constructed language had lost them their jobs and homes in the more prosperous sections of Kendall Park. Average household income for the Trunnion District, a once fairly propserous working-class area, sunk below $9,000. The area continued to decay into 2007.


The corner of North 18th Avenue and East Wilson Street, March 2006.

Stories of cheap warehouse space, delicious ethnic Esperantan food, lax noise ordinance law enforcement and gorgeous brownstone Victorian architecture began to bring in a few dozen rock bands, artists, monogmaous gay couples, scooter enthusiasts and bohemians into the neighborhood in early 2007. Local zines and alternative media outlets began to declare the Trunnion District the "new Cassock District." By the end of 2007, a thriving new art and rock scene had sprung up along Wilson Avenue, much to the dismay of more conservative Esperantans and trunnionsmiths.


Free-Press noise-rock darlings Frost Creep at STORE, their rehearsal space/art gallery in the old Steve's World of Store Fixtures at 1800 East Wilson Street, April 2007.

"The Trunnion District, once known for something called 'trunnions' and then briefly for poverty and crime and now apparently for exciting new developments in twee-revival rock music and time-based media art is also now apparently the hottest new thing in upscale urban living!" crowed the Mishipeshu Herald-Tribune in a Lifestyles section editoral from early 2008. By early this year, construction had already begun on three new loft-style condo developments, a MINI Cooper dealership, two Starbucks coffee franchises and a Sonoma-Williams outlet.

The new Cannon Flats Lofts, set to open in July. The old Steve's World of Store Fixtures / STORE Gallery now houses a Mini Cooper dealership.

Urban Beat notes that this is an almost unprecendented opportunity for at least four generations of neighborhood residents to interact simultaneously. And believe me, they do, too. I get complaints from this neighborhood about everyone. I get probably a dozen variations on the "Those trunnionmakers/poor people/gay rock bands/condo developing yuppies are screwing this neighborhood up" email per week. "That this entire cycle could happen in the space of three years is nothing short of remarkable," says the magazine. I guess we'll take accolades where we can get 'em.

Urban lifestyles, available now.

There's been some criticism in the local press as of late regarding the condo boom we've been enjoying here in the Heights recently. Specifically, a few naysayers have predicted that the slight slowdown we've been experiencing in sales is the beginning of a long-term trend. In fact, the Heights Free Press goes on to say that many of the flagship condominium developments are "poorly-conceived, badly marketed, cynically developed, economically dubious and generally, just completely lacking in even the most basic comprehension of the fundamentals of urban living, city planning, real estate, aesthetics, ecomonics, construction, historic preservation, engineering, taste or human decency."

The Free Press is entitled to it's opinion, of course, but let's not be ridiculous. The condo developments we have going on at the present time are affordable, sustainable and attractive, and just because there's been a slight downturn in sales doesn't mean we should all go into hysterics. In fact, I'm going to list here a few of the exciting developments that we have going on in the real estate market, and you can see for yourself how attractive, affordable and responsible urban condo living really is.

A lot of these developments are throwing in special bonuses, like plasma screen TVs, association fee waivers and coupons to delicious restaurants, so act fast!

• Zeppelin Flats - art-deco luxury in the heart of the Zeppelin District
• Les Resevoir - fine water-side urban living
• Poutine Flats - old world-style luxury in the heart of the Poutine District
• The Refinery - refined urban living in a Steam Age setting
• Harbour Docks Flats Highrise - lakeside living at shipping-yard prices
• The Esperanto Lofts (Apartmentos Luksaĵos Esperantos) - Mi ŝatasrenkonti novajn homojn en Arondismento Esperanto!
• Olde Section 8 Village Centre - the rebirth of a new luxury address in South Hanley
• Cassock District Arts and Leisure Quarter - let yourself be blessed with urban luxury, my son
• Mishipeshu-Akron-Buffalo Railroad Switchyard Lofts - get on the fast track to luxurious urban living
• Gruyere Flats Luxury Condominiums and Artisanal Cheese Depository - sharp, dry, delicious living in the historic St. Aloysius Greek Orthodox Veterans Hospital & Sanitarium in Kendall Park

The Zeppelin District's Demisesquicentennial!

The S.S. Armitage prepares to dock near the Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria Von Papen Memorial Zeppelinarium on Evarts Avenue, circa 1933. Note the old Amalgamated Gravy Building on the left.

Friday, March 17 will mark the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Zeppelin District in Armitage Heights, and the creation of the country's first dedicated Zeppelin port, the Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria Von Papen Memorial Zeppelinarium!

At the time of its construction, the Von Papen was the largest fully operational dedicated zeppelin port in the United States, and the third largest in the world. It was named (perhaps prematurely) for the contemporary right-wing chancellor of Germany, who actually left office two months after the dedication, and ended up later helping appoint Hitler, and being tried at Nuremberg for war crimes. So in 1941, with the city running a cataclysmic deficit and the nation on the brink of war with Germany, the port was renamed, for the sake of political and financial expediency, the Andreas Wolfgang Von Papen Zeppelinarium, after a minor German poet of the Romantic era -- thus relieving the city of the need to change the building's external signage, stationary and phone book listings. Of course, by 1941, no zeppelins had docked in the port for five years, and none would ever again, so it was a moot point anyway. The Von Papen was largely dismantled as a functioning zeppelin port in 1953 -- indeed, it was the last fully operational dedicated zeppelin port in the world at that time -- and was used as an administrative offices for the port authority and storage for Winter Parade floats throughout the 1950s.

During this time, the Von Papen building was still a landmark in the Zeppelin District, though the site was largely occupied by unemployed itinerant downstate agricultural workers, and notoriously gritty. The building was shuttered in 1962, and stood empty and generally unnoticed throughout the next few decades. Attention was refocused back on the building, however, when in 1982, a group of right-wing academics uncovered reams of unpublished, scandalously homoerotic-themed poems in Andreas Von Papen's private papers. Von Papen was catapulted almost overnight from a minor Romantic poet to a major homosexual literary icon. The name "Von Papen" became synonymous with homosexuality, the once-obscure poet being featured on the covers of literary journals and news magazines all over the world, and hailed as the "Godfather of Queer Poetry" and "The 19th Century's Greatest Gay Writer." The conservative Republican then-mayor of the city, Charles Kirkpatrick Carmichael, immediately demanded the name of the building be changed, despite the fact that the building was largely unoccupied. The resulting furor between gay rights activists, right-wing Christian groups and literary historians was documented beautifully in Kimball F. Burin's 1983 nonfiction work The Butterflies of Fear.

Of course, all of this furor overshadowed the elegant Modernist simplicity of the building and its unique function in aeronautical history. In a compromise that left no one happy, the building was renamed the Armitage Heights Homosexual War Veterans Memorial Zeppelinarium and State Historic Site, and it kept that name until last year. It was acquired through the city in 1985, and used to store transmissions and spare parts for metro transit buses.

In 2005, the site was purchased by wealthy California Internet mogul and amateur zeppelin enthusiast Rockwell Katz, who renamed the site GoSystemsCorp Zeppelinarium, after his profitable dot.com company. He has been refurbishing the site in the intervening years, and just in time for its demisesquicentennial, he promises to dock an actual zeppelin for the first time since 1939!

Of course, I voted against allowing granting Katz a license on the grounds of public safety -- in fact, his proposal is still tied up in the district courts, but if Katz prevails and gets the appropriate licenses and permits in the next week, you may see a sight over our neighborhood that no one has seen for decades: a zeppelin over the skies of Armitage Heights!

Regardless of whether or not that happens, there will be a number of exciting events all weekend!

• A free outdoor performance in Zeppelin Park by The Crunge, the metro's best Led Zeppelin tribute band.
• A record release show by the October Revolutionists at Spike's, at 1206 N. Stanton Avenue. Their new CD a concept album called We Fly On Higher, Ever Higher, which is based on the early history of the zeppelin industry. My assistant Marisha said last month she thought it was the greatest album she'd heard in years!
• A lecture by Kimball Burin on the writing of The Butterflies of Fear, followed by a question-and-answer session, held at the Evarts Avenue Tavern at 3809 E. Evarts Avenue.
• A panel discussion on the legacy of Andreas Von Papen, conducted by the University of Mishipeshu's LGBT Studies program.
• Free Zeppelin-shaped cookies from the Armitage Heights Bakery at 3210 E. Evarts Avenue.
• And of course, tours all day of the new Zeppelin Flats luxury condos, which will occupy half of the space of the GoSystems Zeppelinarium! Visit http://www.zeppelindistrictliving.com/ for more information!

See you there!

Neighborhood focus: Kendall Park's historic Poutine District.

The Armitage Amalgamated Gravy Factory at 63rd Street and Gilpin Avenue (now Guy Lafleur Avenue), Kendall Park, circa 1912. The heart (l'coeur?) of the Poutine District.

Greetings and happy New Year! I hope everyone had a restful New Year's Day -- after the stressful events of the Winter Parade fiasco, a restful day is exactly what we needed.

That said, renegade Communist malcontent and honorary Viet Cong Dr. Thomas Jefferson Harding and unlicensed non-Muslim cleric the Ayatollah Martin Wisniewski remain at large.

Anyway, I thought that this would be good time to begin a new regular feature on the blog, Neighborhood Focus. In this section, I'll take a look at some of the interesting, notable parts of the Armitage Heights neighborhood that you may have yet to discover!

For our inaugural entry in the series, let's take a look at the historic Poutine District in Kendall Park, which is generally defined as the area between 61st and 65th Streets, with Amos Kendall Parkway to the south and Lake Mishipeshu to the north.

The Poutine District dates back to the earliest part of the century, when the Armitage Amalgamated Gravy Distillery was established in 1901. From the turn of the century well through the Second World War, Armitage Heights led the nation in gravy production -- Armitage Amalgamated was the largest and best-known, but it shared the area with many other smaller, forgotten manufacturers whose wares have long been forgotten by all but the most dedicated of collectors and historians. It was estimated, in fact, that in 1914, on the eve of the Great War, Armitage Heights manufactured 30% of the nation's stock of giblet gravy, 25% of its white gravy, and a staggering 45% of its brown gravy. Immigrants from all over the world poured, so to speak, into the city to man these great gravy vats -- a dangerous job that often resulted, if not in death, then in scalding burns, whisking disasters and lumpiness.

Many of these immigrants seeking a better life came in from the great white north of Canada -- specifically, Quebec. They did not speak English, but the Quebecers' knowledge of gravy distilling was unparalleled. The names of these master midcentury gravy distillers like George-Étienne "Terre Frite" Lanctôt, Maxime Francois-Xavier "Le Mélangeur" Lépine and Henri-Raymond "Le Diable D'Abattis" Crémazie have become well-known in the annals of gravy-making. Soon, a vibrant Quebecer community sprung up around the neighborhood.

The rest, as they say, is history. The gravy industry dwindled in the postwar years, as Americans increasingly turned to instant gravy mixes. However, the residents of the area never turned their backs on their Canadian heritage or the neighborhood's gravy traditions. After the old factory closed in 1952, many of the workers stayed in the area and turned to vending poutine on the streets. To this day, you can still stroll down 62nd Street at Guy Lafleur Avenue and be charmed by the aroma of fresh curds, brown gravy and French fries wafting from the streetside stands where flannel-clad, French-speaking vendors hawk their delicious wares.

If you stroll down Lafleur a few more blocks, you can take in some more sights. Catch a hockey game at the Rue Soixante-Quatrième Palais de Sport, or visit the historic Tim Horton's at 3122 Guy Lafleur Avenue -- the very first one built in the United States! Also see the statue of Marc Garneau, the first Canadian in space, on 65th Street.

It's such a charming neighborhood, you may want to move right in! Which you can, because the old Armitage Amalgamated Gravy Distillery building is being converted into the Poutine Flats luxury condominium complex, which will open this summer! Visit http://www.poutinedistrictliving.com/ for pricing and more information!

Foodie heaven!

Well, happy holidays to everyone! Since so many of you will be out and about for the season this month, there's a few new faces in the neighborhood I'd like to introduce to you over the course of the next few weeks leading up to Christmas!

For all you "foodies," I'd like to welcome chef Dan Franklin and his new casual restaurant the Upstairs Lounge to the area. The Upstairs Lounge is located at 2302-1/2 Stanton Alley SW, right on the edge of Armitage Heights. Veteran neighborhood diners will probably recognize that address as the former location of Derek's, the Red Room, the Armitage Grill, Lucy's, the 2302, Charlotte's, the Khyber Pass, Capone's Chicago Steakhouse, the Heights Cafe, the Dinner Bell, Vic's Frozen Custard, the Berliner, the Hillside Sub Shop, the East End Bistro, Dionysus, Mischa's Old World Bakery, the Downtowner, the Mason-Dixon Soul Food Shack, the Stanton Avenue Deli, and several other fine establishments over the last decade.

My assistant Marisha has just reminded me, of course, that the Over Easy was there, too. Do you remember that place? They made an amazing Eggs Benedict. I think that was after Lucy's, sometime in the late '90s.

Oh, and the Wonder Bar! That was a nice little place, too. Really cheap well drinks. I wonder what happened to them?

I think there was a dance studio there, too, for a few months.

At any rate, the Upstairs Lounge boasts an intimate, very "urban" feeling in their upstairs dining room, easily accessible from the rear of the old Jacobson Insurance Building near 22rd Street off of Stanton (not the new Jacobson building, the old brick one just north of it). Just follow 22nd, veer right into Stanton Alley Southwest (not into Stanton Alley Southeast, which is also right there), and the entrance is clearly marked at the second door to the left under the fire escape, up two flights on the exterior stairway. Ample parking is available at the meters three blocks over, off of Arthur Street, after 9 PM on weekends. Call for reservations and more detailed directions at (436) 339-7111, or find a map online at http://www.upstairslounge-armitage.com/. Tell Chef Dan that I sent you!

Our next monthly Coffee With Your Councilman will also be held tomorrow night at 7:00 PM at the Mysterious Brews Coffee Shop at 3900 West Carlyle Street in Armitage Heights, right in heart of the Garden District. I will be answering your questions on the city's exciting new plan to transform the old St. Aloysius Greek Orthodox Veterans Hospital & Sanitarium in Kendall Park into the new Gruyere Flats Luxury Condominiums and Artisanal Cheese Depository. Be sure to stop by and say hello!

Best,

Sherman