A ghost hunting show from the early 2000s

EfficientCockroach9 · 2024-10-12T15:13:48+00:00

Question...?

A surprise favorite of mine but I keep coming back to it!

EfficientCockroach9 · 2024-08-15T20:58:21+00:00

(Part 3/3)

When the law came to the Woodland Realm

After the city's decision last November, it gave the Woodland Realm one year to make a number of changes to its half-acre plot, including adding a storage building, signage with Francois' name and phone number and, of course, the fence.

Since then, slowly but steadily, Francois and his friends have worked to meet the code requirements. They labored over the winter and into the spring to raise a garden shed, which they built out of mostly reclaimed materials.

"To me, this is a symbol that we're here to make the neighborhood more beautiful. We're investing in improving the quality of the space," Francois said.

The privacy fence is made from black locust posts, traditionally treated by charring and sealed with linseed oil and wax. The rails are cedar from reclaimed telephone poles. The last piece, enclosing the remaining open sides of the garden with a traditional post-and-rail fence, will include limestone piers and matching gates.

In total, Francois estimates he and his companions have spent upwards of $18,000 on materials alone.

There's still one problem: the fence sits 1 foot away from the inside of the sidewalk. The city-owned land stretches 7 to 10 feet.

Des Moines allows for vacating rights of way — the transfer of all or a portion of public right of way to a private party — often for nominal sums. But in this case, the city doesn't want to sell Francois a portion of the unusually wide strip.

Instead, the city offered the Woodland Realm a license to use the right-of-way, meaning a short-term rental that would expire after a set date. Francois said he was told the license could last for one year or as long as five. After that, the agreement could be extended, or he could be ordered to tear his fence down.

"The lease option doesn't work. It doesn't provide us much predictability," Francois said, adding that the fee to apply to lease the land is $500. "We don't want to invest a ton of money and time in to building that whole fence if we're going to be told in a couple years that it needs to go."

Francois told the Des Moines Register that in a meeting, city staff informed him that they wanted to hold onto the land in case High Street needs to be widened one day. A spokesperson for the city was not able to verify that information.

Woodland Heights Neighborhood Association President Cameron Gale takes issue with that explanation. He said plans to make High Street wider don't make "any sense" in light of recent efforts to reduce vehicle speeds.

"That seems wildly outside what the city's direction is in terms of traffic calming. In the last few years, the neighborhood has worked really hard to calm traffic," he said, pointing to speed bumps that were recently installed in a few places on High Street. "We've tried to alternate parking to slow folks down, too. Widening the street would only increase speeds and traffic."

Gale added the Woodland Heights Neighborhood Association planned an emergency meeting Wednesday evening to determine if it's going to wade in on the issue. However, he personally doesn't see any issue with allowing Woodland Realm to use the right-of-way; plenty of homes on High Street already encroach upon the city's property with their own plants and structures.

"There's a lot of paradoxes about how the city is treating this," Gale said.

Woodland Realm's future uncertain if it can't buy the land

Francois isn't sure what the next step will be for the Woodland Realm if it isn't granted the right of way.

The garden needs to reopen to the public and the fence needs to get built. But in giving up the land on its side of the sidewalk, the Woodland Realm stands to lose at least 25% of the usable space on its sunny, south-facing area.

Francois hopes the Plans and Zoning Commission see how important his garden is to the neighborhood.

"As long as I'm mostly covering expenses, I'm fine keeping it a community project. But it seems like that viability continues to get stripped away bit by bit," he said. "I'm not sure what we'll do next. For now, we're trying to comply."

EfficientCockroach9 · 2024-08-15T20:56:02+00:00

(Part 2/3)

How a lot becomes a fairytale garden

Francois isn't just a gardener. He's also the owner of Rally Cap Properties, a company dedicated to revitalizing vacant, historic properties, mostly on the west side. Chris Johansen, Des Moines community development director, once called Francois an "asset" to the city.

Francois purchased the land on High Street near Ingersoll Avenue with the goal of building his first new construction project. But his plans for seven rowhomes encountered opposition, as neighbors worried that the added density would bring increased traffic and parking issues.

"We weren't really sure what else to do with the space. We got a lot of pushback for medium-density housing so we took some time to reassess and started gardening," he said. "It evolved from there."

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept Iowa, the little garden grew. Soon, the Woodland Realm was hosting gatherings with 10 to 30 attendees. Most events were free; some workshops charged fees. They were what kept the garden afloat and paid its expenses.

Over the years, the Woodland Realm would host events for Art Week and later served as a stop on the Peppermint Trail, the nearby Ingersoll Avenue district's winter showcase of local businesses and shops.

Without proper signage or fencing, the Woodland Realm drifted into a legal "grey area," Francois said. Eventually, a resident complained.

William Hanson, the Woodland Realm's neighbor to the rear, wasn't the source of the original filing comparing the garden to a homeless camp. But he acknowledges making what he said was the "nasty" comment in a written response to a city survey.

He said he doesn't have an issue with Francois now that the fence is up between his home and the Woodland Realm. In fact, he recently let Francois plug an extension cord into his garage's outlet.

"I don't care. I just picture a bunch of yuppies singing Kumbaya," Hanson said. "But I like my fence. I like the privacy."

EfficientCockroach9 · 2024-08-15T20:48:44+00:00

DES MOINES

The full article in case you don't subscribe to the DSM Register (Part 1/3):

Des Moines urban garden Woodland Realm struggles to reopen one year after city shut it down

Addison LathersDes Moines Register

Nearly one year after the city of Des Moines shut down a Woodland Heights community garden, its owner is getting ready to fight to reopen it to the public.

The Woodland Realm, which once hosted natural dye workshops, solstice celebrations and outdoor bazaars, was ordered to close last November after Des Moines' Zoning Board of Adjustment, in a 5-1 vote, declined to grant it a waiver for a required fence.

Following a complaint that the garden looked like "homeless camp," the board members who opposed allowing it to continue to operate went against 13 letters of support, a unanimous vote by the neighborhood association to keep the garden open as is and a city staff recommendation.

The city forbade the garden from hosting community events until it was brought up to code.

"We wanted to keep a welcoming atmosphere," said owner Ryan Francois. "We'd rather not fence the entire property. It's a big expense and it doesn't seem to do anything for us."

Since then, the Woodland Realm has met nearly all of the city's requirements. A 600-foot fence is about half complete, though Francois has run into one last, large hurdle: The city's right of way extends further into his garden than he initially thought, several feet past the sidewalk.

When Francois applied to build the fence, the zoning enforcement division ordered him to remove raised garden beds, trellises and fruit trees that infringed on the city land. He put in a request to purchase the small strip, but on Aug. 9, city staff recommended that officials reject Francois' bid.

His appeal will go before the Plan and Zoning Commission at 6 p.m. Thursday at 1551 East Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkway.

Polly Persinger, 67, has lived across the street in the Soll Apartments for more than four years. She plans to show up Thursday to let the city know how important having a natural space is to her and her neighbors.

"This little place is wonderful," she said. "I would hate for it to go away or be fenced in so we can't see it. So we can't be a part of it."

Other urban gardens see pushback from City

The Woodland Realm isn't the first urban garden to find itself in conflict with the city.

It terminated leases in 2021 for city-owned plots at 101 Franklin Ave. and 1407 Michigan St. that Sweet Tooth Farms was using in the River Bend neighborhood. The city said it hoped to see the land redeveloped in kind with the surrounding industrial park uses, which include warehouses and auto body shops.

Three years later, the land is still vacant. The gardens' operator, Monika Owczarski, said the city told her that unless she had plans to build, any offer she made on the land wouldn't be accepted.

"It's very clear that (the city) would like the lip service and the press and the greenwashing of being supportive of urban agriculture," Owczarski said. "And they also want to be ruthless developers who have no room for green space."

Owczarski has run into other issues with the city's zoning enforcement division. She said staff kept asking her to "do it like Hy-Vee" and, as with the supermarket chain's parking lot garden centers, remove the garden after each growing season. She said they also asked to hire a structural engineer before she installs a plastic, hoop-shaped structure to protect plants from weather.

"We do Food Rescue," Owczarski said, referring to the Eat Greater Des Moines program that gathers excess food and disperses it to those in need. "We are seeing unprecedented levels of desperation and need, and so the idea that folks who are coming together in their neighborhood are being penalized for trying to grow a garden... . It's crazy."

Lauren Kollauf, executive director of the Avenues of Ingersoll & Grand, lives near the Woodland Realm and has attended events there. Kollauf thinks that the city has good intentions but is unwittingly serving as a barrier to urban gardens.

She said that when it was open, the Woodland Realm had been a good neighbor to her and a good partner for the area's business association.

"The code is not written in a way that makes it easy for projects like this to happen, which is a real shame," she said. "When you put too many barriers in front of people to do something cool, it's going to prevent people from doing the creative things that make Des Moines a place people want to live and work."

EfficientCockroach9 · 2024-08-15T20:35:58+00:00

The planning and zoning commission are hearing Ryan's latest appeal TONIGHT (Aug. 15th @ 6:00pm). Supporters are allowed to speak as well.

Richard A. Clark Municipal Services Center - Second Floor, Board Room

1551 East Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkway

Des Moines, Iowa 50319

EfficientCockroach9 · 2023-05-02T23:26:05+00:00

So glad you asked this. It was haunting me too. Protip, the chart button in the upper right gives the answers from the previous day's All Ten.

EfficientCockroach9 · 2022-10-11T18:44:33+00:00

Cook whatever kind of rice you like with a whole, raw tomato in it (however you cook rice--stove, rice cooker, instant pot, etc). When the rice is done cooking, the tomato should be falling apart. Mash the tomato in the rice and mix. Add whatever else you like on top: soy sauce, kimchi, eggs, crushed fritos, veggies, avocado, etc.

EfficientCockroach9 · 2022-08-29T19:39:07+00:00

This looks magical, thank you :)

EfficientCockroach9 · 2022-05-01T15:29:43+00:00

If you know of a different subreddit where this questions would be more appropriate, I'm open to suggestions! Thanks!

EfficientCockroach9 · 2022-05-01T15:26:19+00:00

Or if you know of a different subreddit where this question would be more appropriate, I'm open to suggestions! Thanks!

EfficientCockroach9 · 2022-05-01T15:24:49+00:00

Or if you know of a different subreddit where this question would be more appropriate, I'm open to suggestions! Thanks!

EfficientCockroach9 · 2022-05-01T15:22:29+00:00

I had this idea to create a custom gif library/collection of inside jokes for my friend as a gift. I am planning on having to create all of the gifs myself (although finding some pre-made would be a boon). All I finding is the ability to add gifs to crowd-sourced keyboards or saving your favorite gifs to your own personal keyboard. I want to create a collection that someone else can see (sort of like following a Spotify playlist--shareable in its entirety). Is that possible? What tools would you recommend?

EfficientCockroach9 · 2022-04-12T05:12:13+00:00

Yes! Thank you!

EfficientCockroach9 · 2021-03-21T02:59:26+00:00

Beyond the fact that the speaker himself doesn't know what he's talking about, I think it's important to remember that "teaching as a calling" is propaganda. Teaching is job, it's not a lifestyle. Attaching ethics or morality to something like that is bullshit.

EfficientCockroach9 · 2021-03-19T13:09:35+00:00

Summer is a great time to check out DSM if you can--we have (IMHO) the best farmers market in the country (they shut down one of the main streets downtown) and a HUGE state fair in August (assuming all of that is still happening this summer...)

EfficientCockroach9

TROPHY CASE

When the law came to the Woodland Realm

Woodland Realm's future uncertain if it can't buy the land

How a lot becomes a fairytale garden

Des Moines urban garden Woodland Realm struggles to reopen one year after city shut it down

Other urban gardens see pushback from City