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| Front porch...no renaissance |
Well, in addition to stiffing the city for nearly $200,000 in property taxes, why don't we look at what else the Ingersolls have "given" to Bay City!
A SIMPLE PLAN FOR BAY CITY
Recruiting a board of directors and community leaders to oversee its activities, Ingersoll saw the new effort as a community improvement entity charged with development, internal dissemination and execution of a comprehensive community improvement plan.
Ingersoll proposed to establish small neighborhood schools as part
of his neighborhood restoration strategy. In his plan, Ingersoll stated that "these schools will give residents the attractive option of small neighborhood schools and provide evening venues for adult and
vocational educational programs. Extra-curricular activities, on a pay-to-play basis, will utilize Bay City’s many existing youth athletic, artistic and recreational offerings."
And, of course, the project-based learning and character education contained in the Smart Schools curriculum would integrate just perfectly with neighborhood improvement projects such as community gardens.
In April 2009, the Bay City Commission granted tax breaks on $500,000 Ingersoll claimed he was investing in two home renovations.
WHEN GOOD RENOVATIONS GO BAD
Telling the Bay City Times that Bay City has "the most extraordinary housing stock in the state; we've just mismanaged it," Ingersoll proposed a $300,000 historically correct restoration of Judge Sanford Green's house at 1501 Center Avenue, across the street from his own home. Green was one of the most notable individuals to come out of Bay City, having risen to the level of Supreme Court justice and having written much of Michigan's original code.
Ingersoll planned to make the judge's former home into four apartments, two of them one-bedroom and two of them two-bedroom. (The property was on the National Register of historic buildings.)
Although it's difficult to see in the photo, some of the windows are broken and the entire home sits empty—years after crews gutted it.
Ingersoll reportedly planned to construct "executive apartments" in the building, but the only tenants today are a growing commune of squirrels.
At 615 N. Grant Street, Ingersoll started another "historically correct" restoration of the Newell Eddy house, claiming he would sink $200,000 in the home built around 1870. The Michigan Chapter of the American Red Cross was founded in the parlor of the house in 1881, and the Mitchell family—which founded the first Cadillac dealership in the nation—also lived in the house for many years before moving to Essexville.
The house is boarded up and unoccupied, like two houses directly across the street.
In 2009, Ingersoll told the Bay City Times that he planned to ask Bay City to establish a "Neighborhood Enterprise Zone" along Grant Street, between McKinley and Sixth streets, to provide more tax incentives for restoration work. Ingersoll revealed he was in the process of acquiring multiple properties on Grant Street.
And here are two of them: 616 N. Grant and 620 N. Grant.
Looks like the only "enterprise" going on at this house is rock-throwing.
But Steven Ingersoll was extremely successful with one turn-of-the-century gem, and it has a stunning garden to gaze at while you're sitting on its expansive front porch.
And it's the home Steven Ingersoll shares with his wife, Deborah.
Renaissance this!
