Ogden's Helena Hotel Artifacts Go Up for Auction Tomorrow

Folks who plan to stroll Two-five Drive early tomorrow should take note, and bring along their checkbooks and pickemup trucks

Thanks to a tip from yet another sharp-eyed and alert Weber County Forum reader, here's an alert for restaurateurs, antique aficionados and plain Old Junk "pickers."

And here's our heads-up for tomorrow's auction event that's coming up, which ought to be of interest to Ogden City folks who might be looking for a few lo-price Ogden History Mementos.  Apparently former Helena Hotel owner and  former former Boss Godfrey antagonist Bruce Edwards forgot to move ALL of his valuable artifact collection, after he was evicted.

Here's the link concerning tomorrow's scheduled auction:

• Livingston Auction & Appraisal Co.

Folks who plan to stroll Two-Five Drive early tomorrow should take note, and bring along their checkbooks and trusty pickemup trucks, wethinks.

Edwards Removes His Offensive Signage

Historic 25th Street Association intervenes and offers to mediate

As a followup to Saturday's story, this morning's Standard-Examiner announces a tentative solution to the Bruce Edwards/Ogden City F-bomb signage stalemate, which has filled our lower comments section with 133 highly intense comments during the past week. Thanks in part to the efforts of a member of the Historic 25th Street Association, who has offered to mediate with the city, this unfortunate chapter in 25th street squabbling may well be on its way toward reaching a cooperative and relatively friendly final conclusion. Read Scott Schwebke's encouraging writeup here:

• Owner removes offensive sign

We'll be keeping our fingers crossed that everybody involved will continue to behave like grownups, and that this unfortunate tempest in a teapot will soon fade away as just another colorful story in the long annals of colorful Two-five Drive.

Reader comments are solicited, as always.

Bruce Edwards Drops An "F Bomb" on Emerald City - UPDATED

Downtown property owner may be charged with a misdemeanor unless he removes obscene language painted on windows of his building

And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love
You make

The Beatles
The End --Abbey Road Album
Recorded 23rd July 1969

Bruce Edwards officially went off his rocker today, spray painting an F Bomb on his own building. Here are the stories from the Standard-Examiner and Salt Lake Tribune:

• Property owner may face charges for obscenity
• Ogden feud heats up with threats and grafitti cusses

Update 4/25/09 8:00 p.m. MT: Here's an instructive JPEG image from the Trib:


So what say our ever-gentle readers about all this?

Bruce Edwards Finally Prevails, After A Painfully Extended Battle with the Boss Godfrey Administration

Significant property rights victory for a non-FOM*

Heartwarming story in this morning's Salt Lake Tribune. We incorporate Christopher Smart's lead paragraphs below:

Ogden » It could be seen as a battle over a sign. But perhaps more accurately, it's the story of one man's decade-long war with City Hall.
And, it's been a beauty.
Last week, Ogden's Landmarks Commission approved Bruce Edwards' proposal to restore a sign on his historic C.C. Keller Building on 25th Street -- a full 10 years after his original request.
"I outlasted 'em," Edwards chortled Thursday. "And the bottom line is, I was right."

Read the full story of the smart, persistent and ever-resourceful Bruce Edwards and his painfully extended battle with with Boss Godfrey, over what should have been the straightforward restoration of an historic Ogden City sign:

• It took 10 years, but Ogden man beats City Hall

Next time you're prowling Two-Five Drive, by the way, don't neglect to check out Bruce's historic C.C. Keller Building, at 201-25th. Quite an interesting informational "gallery" displayed in his front window too, as the SL-Trib's Mr. Smart reports.

Great job, Bruce... and a hearty Weber County Forum Tip O" The Hat goes out to you this morning. The same for the new Landmarks Commission, who finally got around to doing whats right.
--------
* Friend of Matt (Godfrey)

Windsor Hotel Residents Told to Hit the Road

New owners reportedly have no clear idea what they'll do with the property; but they nevertheless want the present residents gone

We received this comment this morning from gentle reader Southsider in the previous article thread:

A little OT, the Sunday SE has an interesting story about the old Windsor Hotel, which the current owner (Villalobos) was trying to redevelop.

"The city gave me an ultimatum, either sell it or clean it up," Villalobos said. "I wanted to renovate it myself, but I guess the city wanted to get it done right away."

The Std-Ex website incidentally has a most excellent podcast version of this story too, leaning heavily upon the "human interest angle."

Current residents have been given two-week eviction notices by the new owners. Many of them apparently don't know where they'll be residing a fortnight hence. This story smacks of the same brand of callous disregard for those economically marginalized souls in our community which we've reported other times in this space before. Once again, Emerald City residents who have barely the means to keep a roof over their heads in the best circumstances, have been summarily told to pack their bags and hit the road.

Notably, the new owners are reportedly a little foggy about the prospective use of their newly-acquired downtown property. They'll hopefully know more, once they've consulted with their architect and engineers.

Oddly, they're opting to turn a rent-generating property into a vacant one. That's their prerogative as property owners though, we guess.

Still we wonder if it might not have made more economic sense for these young and eager new property owners to have formulated their plans BEFORE they kicked out their paying tenants. At the $140 a week per unit this fully-tenanted property is reportedly generating, this property appears to be something of a cash cow which could have been sensibly milked by these young fellows, at least in the short-run, while they get their act together.

Maybe these guys are made of money though. Maybe Boss Godfrey wanted the building vacated yesterday. It's stories like these, however, that give landlords their reputation for ruthless cold-heartedness. We think these guys may well be starting off on the wrong foot -- public perception-wise -- and these guys are certainly doing humane landlords no favors.

As for the outgoing former property owner Villalobos, we suppose it was easier to just cut and run, with Boss Godfrey and his henchmen breathing down his neck.

Not every downtown property owner has the grit of a Bruce Edwards or a Michael Moyal.

We're posting this on the fly, in the interest of continuing the discussion which has erupted in the previous article thread. We'll go ahead and move existing comments on this new topic over here. Once we've done that, we hope a few more of our gentle readers will chime in.