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Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/669874
54 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 5.16 surging prices. He and his wife bought a house on Goss a year and a half ago for $95,000. She works at the Quills at U of L and he's a musician in several bands and often plays at nearby Zanzabar and the New Vintage, so the location is ideal for them. Tey haven't yet moved in because they are adding a two-story addition on the back and have had issues with permits and sluggish construction, so the cost of renting and paying mortgage has put a strain on them. "A house on this street just sold for $230,000. Two years ago there's no way you would have gotten $200,000. I don't care how nice it is. As soon as somebody hears they're gonna open some fancy lofts down the street, they're like, 'Oh, we can sell our house for triple what its worth.' Tat kind of attitude really bothers me. But on the other hand, nobody wants to buy a house and lose money on it." I meet Danny McMahon, the owner of Danny Mac's Pizza, at the AMVETS Post No. 9, which houses his business. Te 42-year-old grew up playing in the Germantown baseball league, which has been around since 1952. Six years ago, he started the Germantown- Schnitzelburg Facebook page to try to gather history about the area. He'd go down to the U of L Archives, look through photos and post them to the page, which has become a hyper-local news source for many. Everything gets posted, from lost pets to sketchy activity to fundraising events. Te page now has about 13,000 followers — for an area with about 7,000 residents. But he says he has started to realize that his eforts to improve the neighborhood may have unintentionally led to some of the negative aspects of its growth. He and several others mention the parking problem. For a patron from another neighborhood visiting any of the bars and restaurants, it may not seem like a problem. But for the residents without driveways who have always been able to park outside of their house, it's beginning to be an issue, especially for older folks. "Certain lots have gotten aggressive about only allowing their customers to park," Brunton tells me. "Tis was always a friendly, working-class neighborhood, not where you sold $12 sandwiches and had your neighbors towed." "Really, there's only one new bar," says Mike Morris, an attorney who's ofce is at the front of his home on Goss. "Tey're just replacing others. It's like a generational change. I laugh and tell people: Look, there's articles in Hauck's Handy Store, old newspaper articles, they talk about George Hauck. He was the young guy who came back from World War II and took over the store from his parents and renovated it. He was the new thing back in the '40s. Flabby's? Where Lydia House is? Tat was Flabby Devine, old Flabby Devine, but at one time Flabby was a young guy that was doing something diferent in the neighborhood. Maybe not diferent, but fxing it up and doing something a little diferent than what was there before. Te previous generation has gotten to the age where they're retiring, so the natural fow of things is people are gonna come in, younger entrepreneurs, and someday maybe Laura and Nash Neely at Te Post or Emily Ruf at Lydia House, they'll be icons in the neighborhood because they've been there so long." Morris, who is on the Schnitzelburg Area Community Council board, was a realtor in the neighborhood back in the '80s and remembers articles about Germantown being the up-and-coming place for young people. "To me, it's always been that way," he says. While the lofts might have helped increase property values (and cause growing pains), Morris sees it as a good thing for the neighborhood. "It's gone from the biggest eyesore to the biggest gem," he says. "Instead of sucking the life out of the area around it, it's bringing up the area." Hank Oechslin may have his complaints, but he admits that he doesn't blame investors and businesses trying to make a dollar. "If I were younger I'd be out there with them," he says. Mark Foxworth says that, from an architect's standpoint, it's nice to see things get renovated. "We used to joke that what was nice about Germantown is it was so quiet. You go to the really wealthy neighborhoods and people are always working on their houses 'cause they can aford to. Couldn't do that in Germantown. For so many years it was really quiet. Not so much anymore." Nora Christensen says she doesn't much like the construction noises but that the neighborhood feels safer now, with fewer packs of idle youth that had been known to break into people's houses. "Tere were two houses for sale on this street the same time mine was and I went dumpster-diving," she says. "Tere were all these Catholic photos in the garbage and it was this changing of philosophy. (Te neighborhood) does seem to have lost some of its history. I guess that's progress, but it seems kind of sad that a phase had ended." Te frst redbud Susan Brunton planted was at Mo's Food Mart on Goss. Tey named the tree Rosie, Brunton says, after the queen of the Schnitzelburg pageant that Danny McMahon held at the AMVETS post. Te redbud would have been taller, except a guy who came to Mo (Makhtarei Mohammad) trying to make a few dollars trimmed the tree and did a poor job, so its growth is stunted. Casey was second, on Hickory Street, named after a lady's dog that had passed away. Te third, on Mulberry Street, is named Amelia after someone's baby. Te tree at the AMVETS post is Susie, named after the post's frst female commander, Susie Siewart Bruner. Brunton drives around and checks on many of the trees she's helped plant, pruning them if needed. "Eiderdown had (a redbud) and chopped it down when they put in a patio," she says. "Tey put in a row of trees after they chopped ours down. None are redbuds. After you plant a tree for somebody, it's theirs and you walk away." "Certain lots have gotten aggressive about only allowing their customers to park," Brunton tells me. "This was always a friendly, working-class neighborhood, not where you sold $12 sandwiches and had your neighbors towed." Opposite page: Susan and Brian Brunton with sons Ethan and Everett at their home on Lydia Street.