(originally published in the March 2009 Free Press Houston)Hardly anyone even knows it by name, but virtually anyone who has spent time in Montrose at all knows of Wilshire Village. Seventeen mostly vacant apartment buildings largely obscured from view by beautiful old magnolias and oaks. The buildings are in varying states of decrepitude, the consequence of generations of benign neglect. Most of them are effectively uninhabitable and uninhabited. Others are surrounded by carefully tended gardens, patio furniture... children's toys. The parking lots between the buildings contain an unusual assortment of vehicles. Vintage Cadillacs sit on blocks next to Cooper Minis while late model American pickups stand next to motorcycles, motor scooters and bicycles of every description.
Over the years, tenancy at Wilshire Village has become a matter of word-of-mouth referral and waiting lists. Since its construction in the 40's, a close-knit and private community of residents has come into existence. Consisting primarily of artists, students, families of modest means and increasingly the elderly and/or disabled, the residents of Wilshire Village were, and very much are, a microcosmic reflection of the diverse community that surrounds them, with little more in common than a shared love of the place they call home.
Of course, it could not last. It has been considered a given for decades that there would come a day when the slow decay would be accelerated by bulldozers. Years of rumors of demolition began to segue into fact in 2005, when plans were announced for the construction of a pair of high-rise residential condominiums on the property. Although the plans never got beyond the press-release stage, public records show that within a year the property had changed hands. This change was largely invisible to residents. They continued to make out their rent checks to Wilshire Village and continued to drop them off at the same on-premise office. The property owner, Jay Cohen, went so far as to send tenants a letter advising them to ignore the news stories.
Ignoring the stories of impending demolition ceased to be an option at the beginning of February, when eviction notices began to arrive via certified mail. Although there were and continue to be questions regarding the legitimacy of these notices, it became something of a moot point on February 19 when city workers affixed notices from the Fire Marshal's office to the buildings of Wilshire Village. The notices state that the buildings are unsafe for human habitation.
It seems highly unlikely that anything can save Wilshire Village. Only 20 to 30 of the 144 units are currently leased, and not a single tenant has had a formal lease agreement in years. Even if the tenants were to organize, it is highly questionable that they could do anything to protect or retain their homes. There are virtually no city statutes to protect historical buildings and even less interest in the community at large in using what few protections do exist.
The purpose of this story is not to rally support for a worthy cause, no matter how worthy the cause might be. Allen Parkway Village was just as historically and architecturally significant, actually inhabited, and had residents who did fight for their homes. It was still destroyed.
There is a purpose served, though, in commemorating this place and its place in the community. There is a purpose served in speaking on behalf of people who are losing homes they love. There is a purpose served in pointing out the more dubious aspects of how this story unfolded, and how Houston's values and lack of values permitted it to happen.
Most of all, there is a purpose served in asking what, exactly, makes a place a home or makes a city a community. There is also a purpose served in questioning the unquestioned assumptions behind the story of Wilshire Village and wondering if this city can sustain itself... or if it even deserves to.
Houston is a little over one hundred seventy years old--but compared to other cities of comparable age, it might as well have been founded in 1950. What little urban planning the city's aggressively pro-business culture permits makes absolutely no provisions for the preservation of anything of historical or cultural value. There are no legal or social mechanisms to protect anything that might tangibly contribute to Houston's identity as a city. At the same time, that pro-business orientation means that property owners have no obligations beyond paying their taxes... and experience considerable leeway in even that obligation.
What it all adds up to is a city that is literally a hundred miles across and a few inches deep. A place where a sense of civic identity extends no further than cheering for the home team in your sport of choice, and any sense of shared social responsibility is derided as "socialism." In no instance are Houston's failings as a city more apparent than in the case of Wilshire Village.
Designed by Eugene Werlin, the same award-winning architect who gave the city Miller Outdoor Theater and Allen Parkway Village, Wilshire Village received widespread acclaim at the time of its construction in 1940. It was one of the largest FHA-insured garden apartment complexes in Houston and represented the pinnacle of New Deal-era public policy. As Houston expanded and became denser, Wilshire Village's eight acres of beautifully landscaped grounds became ever more of a rarity in a city not noted for attractive cityscapes. For decades, it served as an affordable and attractive housing option for students, artists and young families, as well as the elderly and the disabled.
Unfortunately though, when Wilshire Village wound up in the hands of a property owner who came to consider cheap rent a fair exchange for property neglect, it was considered the landlord's business, the tenants' business, and nobody else's business. And so Wilshire Village became a happy well-kept secret for the people who lived there and a subject for speculation and urban folklore for those who did not. Located in the Southwest quadrant of what is commonly considered The Montrose, Wilshire Village further benefited from being in one of the few parts of Houston where not minding the business of one's neighbors is virtually written into the cultural DNA.
The original owner of Wilshire Village was the Wilshire Village Corporation, which was registered in 1939 with J. Howard Cohen listed as its registered agent. In 1987 the deed for the property passed to Jay Cohen.
Described by residents as “a Howard Hughes-like" figure in his 60's, Cohen seems to have had the best of intentions over the years, if perhaps not the resources to carry those intentions out.
A Wilshire resident recalls that there had been a property manager who passed away in the 80's, and that Mr. Cohen sought to save money by assuming those responsibilities himself. Doubtless, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Wilshire residents have, for some time, had responsibility for basic maintenance and upkeep of their apartments, Cohen continued to take an interest in matters like landscaping and upkeep of common areas until recently. He has, according to tenants, always been prompt in attending to matters like roof or plumbing repair. Over the last two years, attention to matters like landscaping has all but completely waned. Nevertheless, the residents I spoke with were unanimous in their praise for Cohen's generosity and caring spirit.
His finances and business acumen, however, are another matter. In 2002 Cohen filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The title for Wilshire Villages then passed to two subsequent limited partnerships, both of which had the same registered agent, Matthew Dilick.
Even after Dilick assumed ownership of the property, rent checks continued to be made out to Wilshire Village and continued to be dropped off at an office on the premises that may at one time have been Cohen's residence. Cohen continued to represent himself as the property's owner to tenants. After residents received the eviction notices Cohen promised several tenants that he would provide a letter clarifying matters by the end of the month and advised them to ignore the notices from Dilick's office.
The first contact any of Wilshire Village’s residents have had with Dilick dates from the arrival this month of the eviction notices mailed from his office.
While Matthew Dilick's name may not be familiar to his tenants, it is very well known in the world of Houston real estate. Between 1994 and 2001, he served as Director of Real Estate for Landry's Restaurants, Inc. During that time Dilick supervised the development of the Kemah Boardwalk. More recently Dilick's current company oversaw the demolition of the Bayou on the Bend Apartment complex. Bayou on the Bend was a 40-year-old, 31 unit complex on four acres of land facing Memorial Drive. It has been replaced with 242 units of high-density luxury housing.
The proposed pair of 16-18 story residential towers that have been on the drawing board since 2005 to replace Wilshire Village would sit at the intersection of a pair of narrow two-lane streets, neither of which has much possibility of being widened. The same criticisms leveled at the proposed Ashby Highrise, which developers are attempting to create at the nearby intersection of Dunlavy and Bissonnet, apply with equal, if not greater force in this case.
West Alabama and Dunlavy streets can’t handle the traffic two high rises would bring. Such a development would also inevitably alter the character of the neighborhood. The only real difference is that the developers of Ashby High-rise are dealing with protests launched by relatively affluent home owners, while the majority of those who live in the near vicinity of Wilshire Village are neither affluent nor property owners.
It is also difficult to understand where Dilick thinks he is going to get either financing for his project or potential buyers in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. It seems all too likely that he intends to follow the example of the developers of the Sonoma midrise project in Rice Village. They apparently had enough money to tear down several blocks of vintage mid-20th century commercial property, but not enough money to actually start building anything in their place. Recently, the rented fences restricting access to the property went away... not a good sign.
It would be easier to assume that Dilick intended to deal in good faith if he had done so to date. The eviction notices distributed at the beginning of February to Wilshire Village Residents were plain-paper typed documents advising residents that they had until the end of the month to vacate, at which time utility services would be cut. The only problem is that, at that time, no formal eviction process had been carried out.
When contacted, City Council Member at Large Sue Lovell expressed doubt about the notices' legitimacy, stating that there "appears to be a dispute amongst the partners.” Lovell also stated that her office is “trying to find out who has [the] legal authority" to evict. Lovell also pointed out that the normal eviction process requires a Justice of the Peace order, which is delivered by a Deputy Constable, and a 30 day period to vacate.
Wilshire residents contacted for this article characterized the notices as "intimidation"-- a description also applied to handwritten lists of available, low-income housing options that appear to also have been distributed from Dilick's office.
The most confusing thing for residents has been lack of consistent communication. Cohen has been assuring them that they have no urgent need to vacate, even as his apparent partner tells them they are being evicted. The Houston Department of Public Works stated that “the City of Houston is not shutting down the property” mere days before another city agency, the Fire Marshal's office, posted condemnation notices.
Public Works’ claims are even more suspect in the light of the extensive street and sewerage repairs now underway on Sul Ross street between Wilshire Village and South Shepherd Drive. At the very least there is one colossal failure to communicate taking place; whether it is intentional or not remains to be seen.
None of this will be sorted out by the time this story goes to press. In all likelihood, it will all still be in a state of confusion when the bulldozers finally show up to settle matters, at least in the short run. In the meanwhile, I want to share some of the thoughts and comments that Wilshire residents have shared with me.
All of the people who spoke to me requested anonymity--partly to avoid possible legal issues, partly out of respect for Cohen's well-known desire for privacy. A desire for privacy is one of the few well-known things about him.
One resident wrote they “hate to see this place go. It kept me and a very dear friend safe through Ike without even a sound. If I had not seen the news or listened to the radio, I would not have known we were having a hurricane. My grandchildren have played in the courtyards and hidden Easter eggs in the structures each year. They have climbed in the big magnolias and played hide-n-seek among the buildings and the landscape... What a shame. It's destined to become another huge plot of land that will have a honeycomb of tiny residences that no one can afford in this economy. It will be filled with people who will further congest the small streets, and the utility capacities. In the name of progress, I think we will regress..."
Another resident told me that "this place, for all the pain it has sometime brought, allowed my wife to take five years of maternity leave to raise our daughter. The affordable rent gave us the chance to travel. Leaving here will change our lives completely."
A former resident who lived in Wilshire in the 60's as a Rice student wrote "...I believe that most of the other residents of Wilshire Village were older people – people who had retired and had sold their houses to live more simply... My husband’s father, who I never knew, lived in Wilshire Village in the forties after he and his first wife were divorced and while he was building himself a house... I met my husband while I lived in Wilshire Village...
"I hate to think of Wilshire Village being torn down. Houston has changed so much since 1965 when I went there to attend Rice. All the old places have changed. Rice Village is unbearably overbuilt and congested...
"I actually liked Houston back in those old days. It had a soul back then, which I think has since been sold to the devil."
