Holdouts who refuse to sell their "nail houses" to developers

Seattle’s history reaches further back than Edith Macefield - http://www.seattlepi.com/local/seattle-history/slideshow/The-Denny-regrade-in-Seattle-31845.php

As an aside, it bugs me every time she gets brought up as an example of sticking it to the man and not letting unwanted development occur. She had zero interest in that aspect of it. She simply didn’t want to move because she was old. She didn’t want to sell, even for a bajillion dollars, because she had no heirs. Her story is not nearly as compelling as everyone makes it out to be.
The endgame of course, is that she died, leaving her now condemned house in the middle of a new building, with more debt on it than it’s worth. The recent sale follows a few others which all lead to the owners walking away from it as it’s more work and expense than could ever be recouped. It looks more like this now, except the fence is all covered in deflated balloons.
I certainly don’t fault her for it, it was her house to do with as she wanted, but I don’t share the reverence that everyone seems to have for her.

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Carl Fredricksen should have navigated to china instead. Nice little homage on Edith’s house there.

Edit: Of course i posted this mere moments before i saw the state it’s in now… does that mean it now won’t be going to paradise falls? :sob:

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Eminent domain is all fun and games and public good, until it happens to you.

This makes it even more compelling. Plain activism can be cheesy. She was genuinely going for what she wanted. It’s the results that count, much more than the motivations behind.

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Here’s an example from Washington, DC (go to slide picture 7). This property recently turned into a Le Pain Quotidien after being basically abandoned for years.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/hell-no-we-wont-go-homeowners-who-wouldnt-budge/ss-BBi9rtK#image=7

The owner was offered up to $3 million, but it wasn’t good enough, and eventually it foreclosed for $800,000.

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The third-to-last picture with the road going around the house has a couple “There, I fixed it” ideas going on.

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I really want a mod for Cities Skylines that requires you pay off the owners of each individual thing you want to bulldoze and randomly have nail houses occur from the ones that just refuse to sell.

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Same thing in Portland, but in 1949. Remember being fascinated by this house as a kid.

http://bojack.org/2012/11/from_china_a_familiar_tale.html

Narita Airport has only one runway that can handle heavy aircraft (there ia another shorter runway) because of farmers who refuse to sell.

I will have to bring this out to show to libertarians who don’t realize that most of their property value comes from the connections that it has to the world. The road to your house goes away, the utilities are shut off, and your home is no longer structurally stable, and inevitably the value of your property drops to a fraction. All without violating those sacred property rights.

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And that’s exactly why island systems (electricity today, water recycling perhaps tomorrow) are of such importance.

But what are the results? It being a pain in the butt to redevelop established areas? And therefore an increased tendency for cities to sprawl outwards while inner areas become neglected slums?

We defend by default the people who are there first, but we don’t think about the families living in temporary accommodation waiting for their apartment to be built, the people unemployed because their workplace hasn’t been completed? Their plight is simply less photographically dramatic.

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She can die in peace in the house she lived in for decades, without being forcefully uprooted. Without having to give up her place just because of Another Road, Another Shopping Mall, or Another Office Building.

The new developments are usually posh apartments for the rich or semi-rich who can afford to go elsewhere, or posh corporate buildings that can be as well built elsewhere.

The house in question is not some unused, owned-for-speculation property. It is an actively occupied house with a real inhabitant.

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I should point out that developers and government work pretty hard to avoid conflict and pay fair compensation precisely because private property laws are so strong. Things like the Narita Airport war are a nightmare no governor or developer wants.

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There was one of these in the 90’s on the West Seattle waterfront, two nail housed surrounded on three sides by a 6 story condo. How does a planning board sign off on such things?

I’ve really got no dogs in this fight, I was just saying I don’t share everyone’s reverence for her. But I will offer a few points of clarificarion:
Eminent Domain never came into play (clearly) The only thing that happened is that she refused all their offers, all of which would have offered her what most people would consider a much higher quality of life than living in the middle of a construction site. Mike’s Chili (literally right around the corner) did exactly the same thing and is completely overlooked by the balloon installing crowd. I wonder if her deification is based in large part to the coincedent release of Up! and it’s subsequent advertising tie-in (or tie-on, as it were…)
Somewhat relevant - the development that went in contains a number of very popular businesses including the high end department store chain Ross, and also Trader Joes.

In the US “property rights” only matter between the Government and “the people”. Since corporations are people too, this leads to the inevitable conclusion, property rights mattering more than human rights.

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There’s a house in a Boeing parking lot down at Boeing Field, too. There used to be another right in the middle of one. Is Seattle a hot bed for these things?

See also the Lusty Lady that refused to sell out to the Four Seasons.

I drive past Macefield’s house every day. Don’t think it did sell, For Sale signs are still up. The auction got no bids because of the associated debts, and the sale after doesn’t seem to have gone through. The owner is insisting that the purchaser include some kind of memorial when they develop the house.

Not sure what it could be used for, a cafe perhaps?

Some people put a very very high premium on staying where they are. Uprooting them, especially after most of their life spent in that one spot, can then hasten their demise significantly. Moving is a very stressful thing.

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High end? Is this the Ross chain you mean?

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Yep.

(On the business, anyway, not if it’s high end, 'cos y’know…)