ONSLRG Welcomes Matt Fernandez as new Community Development Specialist
This week ONSLRG welcomed Matt Fernandez as the organization’s new Community Development Specialist, which means Matt now is getting paid to show up for work every day, after the past several months as a part-time contract worker and two previous stints as an intern.
On his first full day on the job, Matt showed his willingness to do the dirty work of community development.
Already known to many in the neighborhood through his involvement in various projects over the past several years, Matt has been able to hit the ground running due to his familiarity with the community, the organization, and the broad range of issues affecting Old North. Meanwhile, Matt’s educational background is uniquely suited for working with us, not just because he has an undergrad degree in Urban Affairs and a master’s degree in Urban Planning & Real Estate Development. While those degrees are good training for neighborhood development work anywhere, Matt took that one step further and made Old North St. Louis the focus of his research throughout his education, including using his Master’s program “capstone project” to explore redevelopment options for the Mullanphy Emigrant Home area. In addition to his two internships with us, Matt also worked at Landmarks Association while he was in grad school and gained significant experience working on preservation issues.
One important part of the job of the Community Development Specialist is to meet with prospective homebuyers and/or people interested in rehabbing opportunities in Old North. As someone who has purchased a vacant, deteriorated building in the neighborhood and is in the midst of his own major rehab project, Matt can speak with credibility about the attraction of the neighborhood – and can offer firsthand insights about the process of putting together and managing a project. And, with direct experience with the challenges of construction & historic rehab, Matt can speak the language of the construction contractors and development partners we have to deal with in our current and future projects.
Another key factor in Matt’s selection was his demonstrated willingness to do whatever needs to be done – whether that means mopping the floor, carting tables and chairs, swinging a hammer, scheduling an appointment with an appraiser, or meeting with a real estate agent at odd hours. Matt was able to put those skills to work on his first full day on the job, this past Monday when an army of 40 college students arrived to tackle some of the interior clean-out of the future Old North Grocery Co-op building.
Matt (in the brown jacket, back to the camera) providing last-minute instructions to the volunteers from Students Today-Leaders Forever on Monday.
If you’d like to send your own welcome to Matt - or ask him about homebuying or rehab opportunities in Old North, send him an email at Matt@onsl.org or give him a call at the ONSLRG office, 314-241-5031, ext. 101.
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Life in ONSL, ONSL people, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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3 COMMENTS:
"ONSLRG Welcomes Matt Fernandez as new Community Development Specialist"
Perhaps this gentleman will jump start you all’s otherwise stalled so called development. I recently drove through the area and was shocked. From all of the news I hear about “Old North”, I had expected to see so much more. You all have been working for over 25 years and I see a glimmer of something, but you still have a long way to go. What you all have done is “spotty” to say the least. I hope you all open up 14th street. Whoever decided to close it virtually commited suicide to the area in the first place. I really think if you all focused more on your own issues, instead of complaining about what somebody else is doing accross the way, you would be further along. It takes a lot of energy to complain.
Much success to you and I wish you progress. Stay more focused on what you all have to do and perhaps you will be more successful. Stop complaining about the gentleman who wants to develop across the street in North St. Louis and handle your business. North St. Louis would greatly benefit from the efforts of all!
Thanks for your interest, PreciousWon. However, I think you must have us confused with another group because we’re too busy with a huge amount of work here to complain “about what somebody else is doing across the way.” The next time you drive through the area, please stop in to see us so that we can show you the phenomenal changes that have happened just in the past 5 years.
In the meantime, feel free to look around the rest of our website to see more details about all of the work we’re currently busy with - and you’ll see that Old North is a very active community of people engaged in the hard work of transforming the neighborhood. And before you reach a final conclusion about our track record of achievements, take a look at the partial catalog of before and after photos posted elsewhere on our website: http://onsl.org/images/uploaded/OldNorthRevitalizationViews030510.pdf. (If you have trouble with the link, just visit our Real Estate page and look for the downloadable PDF document on the right side.) If this is disappointing to you, please let us know where else you’ve seen as much postive activity in recent years.
One more thing: we agree with you about 14th Street. That’s why we’re re-opening the street. We’re just waiting for MODOT approval - but we’re definitely going to make that happen!
I agree, Admin. The commenter has obviously not seen all the new construction and renovation that occurred on N. Market Street, or the thoughtful and award-winning renovations on Hebert Street, or all the work that has happened on 14th Street north of the mall, or the restorations that have happened on 19th Street, or…well, a lot of things. Or maybe s/he has seen them and not realized what these houses and buildings used to look like. Perhaps s/he’s not familiar with the coming grocery co-op, or the community gardens, or the farmer’s market? Maybe s/he hasn’t heard of the work done by the green space committee, the social outreach committee, or the real estate committee?
A windshield tour is a poor way to gain a full understanding of a neighborhood’s past, present and future. Sean is right: get out, meet the neighbors, talk to the Restoration Group - and then judge, if you must.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?