demolishing midtown: eleventh street

i knew it was in the works, but looks like the demolition of the entire south side of eleventh and half of the frontage on piedmont south of eleventh for "mixed-use development" is gonna be sooner rather than later --- including nine formerly single-family houses, one dating to the 1890s but mostly the sweetest little bungalows (ca. 1910) you've ever seen, everything divided into multiple units; a ca. 1920 apartment, probably with twenty or more units; two ca. 1960 red-brick apartments with probably sixteen or more units each --- and a champion red oak on eleventh and a big-ass magnolia at eleventh and piedmont ---

that's probably close to a hundred units of affordable housing in midtown gone ---- and with them a big chunk of midtown's economic and architectural diversity --- in their stead, several hundred "luxury" apartments and "retail" --- the big yellow house on piedmont was a landmark from the days when only hippies, artists, and queers, and maybe an architect or two, thought midtown was cool --- they kept their freak flag flying til the bitter end --- there's still a little of that left here and there in the neighborhood, but not for long . . . . many will rejoice at the news; not me