THE PURLOINED POMERANIAN
It didn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to sniff out a dog-napper over the weekend. In fact, after local TV news ran a story Saturday night about a $400, two-month-old Pomeranian stolen from Northwest Seed & Pet, the thief was hounded by a deluge of tips called into police and the East Sprague store. She turned herself in the next afternoon.
By Monday, the thief was in jail facing misdemeanor theft charges, her child was in state protective custody, and the dog was back in its cage with a new moniker.
“The puppy is named Tippie for all the tips we got,” says store worker Rick Safran.
Safran says Northwest Seed has been so plagued with thefts in the last year — two cocker spaniels, a dachshund and the Pom,
along with a coastal python — that they have recently upgraded the pet room security system.
There are now 16 high-def cameras — police no longer have to struggle with grainy footage. The Pomeranian thief was caught on three cameras and was quickly identified, Safran says. (KT)
MARKET ON THE MOVE
The South Perry Farmers Market is this close to finding a new home, just blocks from its previous location.
Last June, the farmers market lost its spot behind Christ Community Church, at South Perry and 12th Avenue. The state Department of Revenue told the church that it had to start paying about $500 in property taxes for the moneymaking activities on its property.
This new law, which prohibits economic activity on tax-exempt properties, is affecting farmers markets across the state that operate on church property.
“They let us finish the season out,” says Louise Tuffin, who along with husband Tom helped launch the market five years ago.
Last week, the market’s interim board president, Brian Estes, and two other members of the board met with the owner of the Shop, a local coffee shop, and the owner of the property the Shop sits on. “We all came away feeling pretty good with the potential,” Estes says.
The Shop was one of a handful of locations market leaders identified this winter as “ideal sites.”
As the South Perry District has begun to grow — with new businesses like the Lantern Tavern and South Perry Pizza — it has added to the already existing businesses, such as the Shop and the South Perry Café.
Estes thinks things will just keep improving. “Twenty-ten is really going to be our coming out party,” he says.
The farmers market is set to open mid-June. (ND)
NEAR NATURE, NEAR KENDALL
“Next to a wide expanse of dust and rubble” wouldn’t seem to be a great selling point for people looking to purchase property or rent houses.
But a wide expanse of dust and rubble with a future — that’s a different matter entirely. Multiple real estate agents are using the upcoming development of Kendall Yards in their sales pitch.
On Zillow.com, Tomlinson North agent John Courtney lists a single family four-bedroom house on Dean Street for rental with the phase “NEAR KENDALL YARDS!!!” (Yes, he piled up three exclamation marks there.)
In December, an advertisement for a two-bedroom rental house was equally excited: “NEAR KENDALL YARDS AND RIVER.”
And Marie Pence, also of Tomlinson North, advertises that the large four-parcel lot she’s trying to sell is “directly below the Kendall Yards development!” (which is apparently worth only a single exclamation mark). Pence says she started advertising the property before Greenstone reignited the 78-acre project, but expects Greenstone’s development to be another boon.
“That location isn’t known to be an up-and-coming area,” Pence says. “But now that Greenstone’s going to building up there, there’s going to be some value in it.”
Since December, she says, interest in that property has increased, though she credits the ebb of the economy, not Greenstone.
Greenstone owner Jim Frank says he knows of property owners — some along Bridge Street, some along Ohio Street — planning to tear down the houses they’re currently renting and rebuild when the Kendall Yards development is completed.
Time will tell if, as the development grows, the number of exclamation marks will, too. (DW)