NORFOLK
For more than a decade, Wards Corner residents say, their area has been the city's stepchild: While tens of millions of dollars were spent redeveloping downtown, Ocean View and Broad Creek, neighborhoods near Wards Corner continued to deteriorate.
On Thursday, city officials took a huge step toward ending that perception, and, they say, the deterioration. The Denby Park, Monticello Village and Oakdale Farms neighborhoods are now part of a community revitalization program. The effort will allow the city's housing authority to offer grants and loans to homeowners to enlarge and repair their homes.
Norfolk has set aside $1 million for the project through June.
It took more than a year to negotiate the agreement, a partnership between the city and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. The three neighborhoods have now been declared special services areas, similar to conservation neighborhoods.
City Manager Regina V.K. Williams wanted to exclude some portions of Monticello Village and Oakdale Farms so that there was enough money to focus on the neediest areas. The housing authority wanted all of the neighborhoods included.
In the end, there was a compromise. All 2,100 homes in the three neighborhoods are covered, but special attention will be paid to Denby Park and areas that border Little Creek Road.
A University of North Carolina study designated the communities as blighted several years ago.
"This is the first time we've set up a special services area," Councilman Don Williams said. "Rather than rush, we took our time to get it right."
The announcement came at a meeting of the Wards Corner Task Force, a group of city, business and civic leaders. In recent years, task force meetings have erupted into emotional exchanges between officials and residents tired of waiting for the city's help.
"It's been a long time coming, but the city is paying attention to our neighborhood now," said Bud Blanchard, 85, who has lived in Denby Park since 1949.
In October, the city included Denby Park in a new initiative called Project Focus, a crime-fighting effort that brought increased police protection and stepped-up code enforcement. Since the program's inception, police say, they have made 199 felony and misdemeanor arrests in Denby Park. In May, a bicycle patrol was started in the Little Creek Road area. A rental inspection program and surveillance cameras are also coming as part of that plan.
Although Norfolk police say crime has dropped significantly in Wards Corner, it remains a pervasive problem in Denby Park. Figures provided to the task force by police on Thursday show a slight increase in robberies and burglaries in July and August compared with last year. The number of crimes jumped from seven in July 2007 to 18 in July 2008, though for the most part crime statistics have been steady in Denby Park over the past two years.
Blanchard said that at a public meeting more than two years ago he vented at Mayor Paul Fraim.
"I told him, 'I'm disappointed as hell in you,' " Blanchard said.
The next time he sees Fraim, he said, "I'm going to tell him how proud of him I am."
Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com
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You can only blame the city & Developers
For over a decade the City of Norfolk has been concentrating on downtown and financially supporting Boone Realty in Ocean View, and they still are. Therefore there has not been enough money for area's like Wards Corner. On one side of Granby Street you have nice neighborhoods, and the other you have very low income and Wards Corner sits in the middle rotting away. So when you want to point a finger, aim it at our City Council. If enough people would take the time to call or email our Councils, as concerned citizens we could get a lot more accomplished than sitting here positng on these blogs.
Lamarr
Or we could have the attitude of my friend's husband (supporting seven homeschooled children and his wife) when he was laid off from his engineering job for over a year. He stocked supermarket shelves all night long and delivered pizzas during the evening rush to make ends meet. 'Course, he was a man with training who did eventually get another job in his field. Sometimes poverty comes to those who never had a good job to begin with, so they never saw their jobs outsourced (generally, the outsourced people tend to find another good job eventually). The untrained people can be helped via private-government initiatives for job training. But it does cut both ways--they have to want to give up the 40 ouncers and drug dealing, too. If someone is determined to drink himself to death, I don't see any good return on money invested in his job training. Cheers, MGM
Wards Corner
Do we as American irregardless of race, gender, or religion understand the word poverty? Poverty means lack and when there is a lack of employment, jobs, medical care, and adequate housing, then whose responsibility is it when Corporate America and the federal government has taken sent jobs overseas to keep from paying an acceptable wage for American workers. We have to conclude that the working class of the 1950's through the 70's no longer exist in all of America and that leaves a portion of America disenfranchised.
TO THE NAIVE POSTERS
One cannot really understand the problem unless one spends a bit of time there. Do a little experiment: Park your car at the Sentry Mart any weekday morning and observe dozens trek back and forth with their 40 ouncers. Drive into the parking lots of some of the apartment buildings there and see how many beer cans, bottles, used condoms there are on the ground. Children run wild among this trash.
Ask who the "rent man" is - ghetto parlance for "landlord". He'll tell you of people stealing electricity, stealing electric meters, not being able to keep up with the abandoned shopping carts stolen from Farm Fresh, furniture dumped illegally almost daily, people dealing drugs out of apartments, prostitution inside and outside the property hip-hop music blaring 24 hours a day, people packing their toilets until they break and never reporting it.
Root causes
The root cause of the problems at Ward's Corner are the city allowed unregulated, unplanned growth of aparments, trailer parks, etc. and the commonwealth's ruling blocking the city from tearing down the resulting blight as everyone here has rightly suggested needs to be done. Its a shame judges can't condemn absentee landlords to live in their own properties, starting with Ms. Martone.
$$$$ lots to give away
American politicians sure do love giving away freebies. Must be a win win situation for them when they do. They take the credit for throwing money at a problem to fix it and as a bonus there helping the poor who cant help themselves. I just wish it wasnt my hard earned money they were using. My assessments have steadily risen even in this weak economy. Our home in Norfolk is very similar in home value as these neighborhoods that are being lauded the grand prize of freebies. Where do I sign up? Unfortunately I dont want their handout. I take care of my home myself and so should all in these neighborhoods. My good friend lives in Oakdale farms and takes very good care of his home. I guess he was one of the people city leadership wanted to exclude from the deal. Isnt that ironic, if you take care of your stuff, you should get any assistance. As a country where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Gentrification v racism
Gentrification at its best always comes to so-called blighted neighborhoods where low-income whites and poor Blacks reside. The element of poverty in Norfolk is a direct result of econoomic conditions not people drinking 40 oz beers. As a former resident of the area I can say that it was a viable working community where the apartment complexes provided housing for working class mothers with children and people on fixed incomes due to being disabled. The problem is the housing in Norfolk is landlocked and there is no where for low income working class people to live. Everytime the City of Norfolk wants to use the element of Gentrification to acquire property the same element is used. The open air drug markets that flourished in The wards Corner area were allowed by the City because the statistics are then taken to the federal government and federal funds are allocated to tear down all of the
Attention on the area . . .
The $1 million won't go far but the police attention is perfect. The added number of arrests these past couple of months may move some of the riff raff onward. For example, how can big, strong men (another poster) stand outside drinking all day--if they are able-bodied they should be working, and if they were working night jobs, they would be sleeping most of the day. I still don't get it about welfare--when we reformed it, it went to ladies with children, for no more than five years in a lifetime. Are these guys sponging off of welfare moms, or off of girlfriends/wives who have jobs and just let them bum around? Sad commentary on society. Cheers, MGM
$1M for 3 neighborhoods?
This paltry allowence is nothing more than window dressing, a publicity stunt for the city to say it is being "proactive". I lived in an apt on San Antonio in the mid 80's, and it was going bad back then. I moved to Oakdale Farms (lived there through the late 90's), and watched that neighborhood go downhill. I dont blame the home owners; it is the slumlord apt owners that brought these neighborhoods down. Take one look at the gang graffiti in the "Texas Streets", at the groups of young men loitering in their gang apparel , and you relaize that $476 per property is not a long term solution. I now live in Bay View, where we are seeing criminal elements being pushed into our neighborhood from the slum clearing and redevelopment in Ocean View. And on it goes....
Ward's Corner
My Father moved out of the area way back in 1956 and it was going down way back then.Why don't ya'll just bulldoze the whole area and start from scratch?It needed it when I was a kid back in the 60's and 70's.
DOOMED
I am a former landlord in this area and say from experience it is a lost cause. There are too many people doing too many drugs for the cops to handle. Because the cops can't handle it, they send the city's attorney after the landlords. That's when I checked out.
Children with no fathers run the streets at night. Young, strong, black men just hanging out sippin' their 40 ounce beers in the morning. And some very hard working young black women trying to hold it all together.
The city's managers can't change a culture.
Yet another waste of our tax money!
That's right. I said WASTE! Those 3 'hoods are blighted. Want to know why? Section 8 housing is one reason. Another is welfare. Yet another is the lack of personal responsibility! Sure the idiots on city council want those 'hoods revitalized... they want to rape them on taxes just like they rape the rest of us so they can fund their pet projects and hire convicted felons for high paying positions! The fact that this helps them get votes doesn't hurt either, I'm sure! Vote these idiots OUT of office my fellow citizens or lose your homes to high taxes and an idiotic council!
Hmmm
Isn't this the Granby school district?
Wow, another handout!
Isn't it nice to know that people who live in the area will get "free" money from the government to take care of their property-which was SUPPOSED to be their responsibility???
Where can I sign up for "free" money to improve my home? I want a new hardwood floor and I think I can expect the city to pay for it-it's the LEAST they can do for me!
I agree
No matter how much you polish a turd it will still be a turd!
I love the USA!!
My grass needs to be mowed...hmmm...I could go through the trouble of mowing it myself, or if I wait long enough, the tax payers will do it for me, and I won't have to do a thing. Waahooo...I'm going back to bed...I love the USA!
So a year from now I can see
So a year from now I can see a real return in these areas to something beautiful for my tax money! Don't hold your breath. It will still look like a dump because a lot of the people that live here don't care. If they did it wouldn't look like it does now. I think it is a waste of money but I do however applaud someone for trying - once!
Watch Out!!
Government is coming to help you.
If you don't understand that now, wait a year.
you just aren't getting it
The neighborhood is not a mess because the people that owner occupy don't take care of their houses its the rentals. Can you say after me SLUMLORDS. I don't want the government's help in any way other than to enforce occupancy codes and force these slumbag land lords to either fix it or sell it, or pay the city. I will bet the properties that need the most help haven't had the owner stand on the property for years if not decades.
Good Job Norfolk
Hey, its possible some landlords in Denby may not keep up their properties after they get assistance, but I do think that most will and I do believe that people want to have a safer environment to live. As a resident of Norfolk (not near Denby Park), I'm proud to see our city take these steps to help make a better quality of living for people in these so called problem areas. If you lived in a neighborhood and you suddenly saw an increase in crime and owners not able to take care of their homes, what would you do? You could move, or you could fight to save your community and your investment. Give the city some credit.
Swept under the rug!
But where does the dirt go! Nowhere! it just moves to another spot!
Pride
There is no excuse for blight anywhere.....if you live in a home, rent or own, it's up to the owners or renters to clean up. It's NOT the responsibility of government.
Handouts at a time like this?
We're headed for Great Depression II and they are giving out handouts. Once the middle class is dead, then what?
I'll never see any of the money
Both my wife and I pay our property tax on time, and would be deemed middle class. We will not see a dime of that money because of all the above. The issue of Wards Corner is not about money to revitalize the neighborhood, it's about tearing down the apartments which breed crime. When Norfolk takes a true stand on that, and protects the hard working, property tax paying residents of Wards Corners, then, and only then will the neighborhood flourish. Give the money to to the people who truly care about their property, not the people who are looking to take advantage of more government handouts.
SLUM LOARDS ARE THE PROBLEM
The city of Norfolk has always had a big slum loard problem. The way they solved it in Ocean View was to buy them out and bulldose then.That is the only way to solve this problem elsewhere. Or create laws that would force land loards to properly maintain there properties or loose them.
Bulldozer
I bet a bulldozer could clear a lot for $476.
a band-aid...
...for a gaping wound!...how much will go to landlords to repair property rented to thier crack head tennants?...and what about the infrastructure of the Wards Cornor / Southern business district?...and the commercial blight?...geez...don't mean to seem ungrateful but...$1million could purchase 125 gum pickerupper machines...or...200..DOGGIE BAGS...OR
bulldozer ?
I think it's time to just take a Bulldozer and flatten all of them and let the cards fall where they may. If these people can't afford to take care of their homes,.......try a TENT !! Stop taking our tax money !!!!
More is needed!
I have lived in Monticello Village for 35 years and it USED to be a decent neighborhood UNTIL they decided it would be a wonderful idea to build apartment buildings. The apartments are what has made this entire area go down hill. I am fed up and disgusted with the city of Norfolk. If they had responded quickly the apartments could have been torn down but nooo they had to wait until the apts were considered an iminent domain so now they can't be touched. Way to go Norfolk! Most drugs, prostitutes, gangs and have all come about from the low encome apt housing. I personally get sick and tired of seeing people who live there in trash but yet are driving around in a fancy car. Get rid of the trash and better things will follow. And by the way, I do take care of my home and property but I bet I make too much money to qualify to make any improvements.
I beleive this statement
FITS quite well.
"No matter how much lipstick you put on a pig it is still a PIG."
Has there ever been more truth in a statement?