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Notd is a revolutionary publishing network: a go-to source for unbiased news, podcasts, newsletters, poetry, and more.
Finally! A Fully Customizable, Ad-Free News and Information Network
Notd is a revolutionary publishing network: a go-to source for unbiased news, podcasts, newsletters, poetry, and more.
Ted Ihde
Streams
“Little Sweden” in Kansas
0 Subscribers Located near the center of the Sunflower State you will find a city whose history – and whose present-day “DNA” – link to old world Europe. And to be more specific, to Sweden.
A city nestled cozily in Kansas’s Smoky Valley. A farming community in the heart of Kansas’s wheat belt.
This city, with a two square mile footprint, and just about 4,000 townsfolk, is Lindsborg. “Little Sweden.”
Lindsborg was settled in 1869 by a group of immigrants from Sweden who ventured into America’s heartland....
Shadow Inventory and Affordable Housing
0 Subscribers Vacant homes. Vacant lots. Distressed homes. Each, categorized as shadow inventory.
Properties in foreclosure. Bank REO’s. Properties which will soon be listed for sale…but have not yet been listed for sale. Shadow inventory.
City-owned properties? These properties should be included in the same category – shadow inventory. But technically, they are not.
Shadow inventory is all too often overlooked as a property category through which the provision of increased access to affordable homes could be expanded....
Budgeting your Home Rehab
0 Subscribers When rehabbing a home, let’s say Plans and Specs are $3,000. Within your Schedule of Values (“S.O.V.”), that $3,000 for Plans and Specs will be categorized as a dollar amount - "Plans and Specs, $3,000.”
The $3,000 for Plans and Specs will also be categorized within the S.O.V. as a percentage of the overall project.
For example…
Let’s say your rehab budget is $125,000, in total. Plans and Specs - at $3,000 - would represent 2.4% of the overall project.
So, within the SOV, Plans and Specs will be represented as a dollar amount - $3,000 - and then listed once again as a percentage - 2.4%....
The Ironbound - Newark, NJ
0 Subscribers During the middle part of the 19th Century – as Newark transitioned from being an economy which was based upon farming, to becoming an economy which would be built around heavy industry – steel rails began to be used in the United States as replacements for the iron rails which were used, up until that time, for train tracks.
So, as the mid—19th Century transitioned into the latter part of the 19th Century, the trains pulling into The Ironbound in Newark rode in on train tracks made of iron. Lots of iron in Newark.
Hence…The Ironbound....
Construction loans: the change order
0 Subscribers With a construction loan, your change order – also known as a variation order – is an amendment to your original build plan.
For example, a change order could consist of increased time costs incurred by your builder. Resulting from the alignment of construction to an amended build plan. Or, to an amended build schedule. The amended build plan - or build schedule - arrived at, also, by way of a previously enacted change order....
“…the greatest college cheer.” - Teddy Roosevelt
0 Subscribers Limestone is chalk rock. Chalk rock – transposed – is rock chalk.
Hence, the famous “Rock Chalk Jayhawk” you will hear at a KU game.
Rock Chalk Jayhawk? This famous fight song emanates from the limestone chalk rock found in Lawrence, Kansas. And the fight song? The fight song was originally coined by the KU students who would have been most interested in limestone. And in chalk rock. Those students…the university’s science club. Rock Chalk. A famous college fight song. Coined by a university’s science club....
Your Paver Patio Subsurface
0 Subscribers A well-prepared patio subsurface is crucial for long-term stability and drainage. Your patio subsurface is your patio’s foundation. With the proper foundation, you will ensure that your patio stays level. Preventing pavers from shifting.
Quarry process, Dense Graded Aggregate 1″ blend and crusher run. Four denominations of an ingredient used to establish a strong patio sub-base....
Strong City, Kansas by Ted Ihde
0 Subscribers …this is for the next time you see one of those BNSF freight train chugging along the tracks. Whether you see one of those BNSF freight trains in Los Angeles. Or in New York City. Or in Dallas. Or in Chicago. The next time you see one of those BNSF freight trains, you can think about a town located along the Flint Hills Scenic Byway in Kansas. You can think about Strong City, Kansas. Population, 388.
Five years after the Kansas Territory was first organized… Two years prior to Kansas becoming our 34th U.S. State…Chase County, Kansas was born. That year? 1859....
UCONN, and how the Huskies’ school came to be
0 Subscribers Storrs Agricultural College evolved into the University of Connecticut. I.e.: UCONN.
One of those old buildings which had been given by the Storrs Brothers to the State of Connecticut went on to become the very first Storrs Agricultural College campus building – Edwin Whitney Hall. Which today, on UCONN’s campus, is the Edwin Whitney Residence and Dining Hall.
Today, the village of Storrs, Connecticut remains anchored in academia. The village’s stalwarts being UCONN. As well as the Connecticut Repository Theatre.
UCONN’s address? 110 Storrs Road, Storrs, Connecticut....
Kansas City, an American Crossroads
0 Subscribers By 1945, nearly 700,000 rail passengers stepped foot in Kansas City’s train station. At its height, close to 200 trains pulled into Kansas City every single day. Crossroads.
A Crossroads. A gateway. To an exciting new 19th Century American frontier. A Crossroads for 20th Century American train travelers. A Crossroads for American soldiers during wartime. A Crossroads for American industry. A Crossroads for freight trains. Crossroads....
Tax Incremental Financing
0 Subscribers Tax incremental financing is a subsidy whereby a municipality directs property tax revenue towards development.
In order to establish a TIF subsidy, an urban renewal district - I.e.: a TIF district - is established. A TIF subsidy typically has a lifespan of twenty to twenty-five years.
The idea?
Development leads to increased property values within a TIF district. As well as in surrounding neighborhoods.
Increasing property values - which lead to an increase in property tax receipts collected by the municipality - offset TIF subsidies....
Colts Neck Township
0 Subscribers In 1676, two Native Americans brokered a real estate sale. This was a land sale. The land sale totaled just under 1,200 acres. To be precise, this was a 1,170-acre land sale. The acreage was sold to four Monmouth County locals - Nathaniel Leonard, Thomas Leonard, Henry Leonard and Samuel Leonard. The real estate sale, culminating into what would go on to become Colts Neck Township....
Land Banks
0 Subscribers Municipalities enter into land bank agreements with redevelopment entities. In doing so, municipalities designate redevelopment entities as land bank entities.
Procedures are written into land bank agreements which spell out the processes land bank entities utilize to acquire properties on behalf of municipalities.
“Mr. Market” isn’t absorbing land bank properties. There are reasons for this. Such as…
Back taxes. Clouded titles. Rehab budgets which could exceed appraisal values. Limited “comps.”
We do have an inventory challenge. We do have housing affordability challenges.
Don’t we?...
