The one-story cottages are typically one room wide with each room opening onto the next like railroad cars. Shotguns are great for renovators because they re straightforward building types with few nasty surprises, Gay said. What you see is what you get. The resource center offers workshops for prospective homebuyers and renovators, annual open-house tours of blighted homes, property listings, help in finding loans, and assistance for those working to get a house through New Orleans convoluted expropriation process, the equivalent of condemnation. Ever since HUD was created, cities have been declining because we have begun to think of them in terms of poor people only, Gay said.
Cities can t survive on the poor.
They need homeowners of all income levels. The mention of Jersey City, a gritty grease spot on the wrong side of New York Harbor, once caused Manhattan sophisticates to scrunch their noses in distaste. Today, refugees squeezed out of the Big Apple by rising real estate prices are eager to call Jersey City home. Of the six major cities in New Jersey, Mayor Bret Schundler said, Jersey City is the only one that is experiencing steady population growth. We re hoping that with the latest census we will surpass Newark as the Garden State s largest city, Schundler said.