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Etienne owns up
A we reported last Wednesday, the city’s new chief administrative officer in charge of housing, land use and community development Freed G. Etienne owns a long-time eysore on Clay Street. Today he issued a press release (not to us, I guess we’re not press…) explaining himself… [via]
The press release explains that he bought the house intending to renovate and occupy, and was then offered a position out of town. He was then unable to sell the house, and now that he is back in town he is having the house renovated and will be living in the area.
“I am looking forward to living in the Chimborazo area and contributing toward the further revitalization within this wonderful neighborhood. The house is being restored in accordance with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s historic preservation standards, and we are planning to move into our new home by December of this year.
“I regret any appearance of property blight or neglect while I lived away from Richmond, and I am apologetic for this. Even though my intentions have been explained, there is still no excuse for not having been more diligent and this matter will be fully corrected.”
Again, props to the tipster that brought this to my attention.
Does everyone know that you can go to the city website and find the owner of any property?
go here.
A caring neighbor or association can then notify the out of town owner of the blight of his/her property.
WOW, I can’t believe the city finally responded and that Mr. Etienne was so open and took responsibility! I have to say that is pretty impressive…granted the house sat for a decade but at least we are moving forward.
and the RTD picks up the story
I think Dr. Etienne did the right thing by taking responsibility for the problem. He certainly deserves some credit for his honest response. I hope in his new job– he will do a better job of encouraging folks to fix up their blighted properties, and enforce building code violations. He has put himself in the unenviable position of encouraging others to do what he was unwilling to do himself. Best of luck to Dr. Etienne- Richmond needs a good leader in this area.
Heather – would you be interested in helping me contact some possible owners of blighted properties – i’ve got 3 w/in close proximity to my house on Leigh – they are beautiful places and many people ask me if i know if the owner would be interested in selling. i’ve tried to locate the owners using the city’s property search engine, but some of the owners have only P.O. boxes for addresses and others are listed with first initial, last name only. i’ve got a list of numbers to call to see if i can’t narrow down the list and locate the actual property owners. interested in helping out? if you know of a better way to go about tracking these people down, please fill me in! i need all of the help i can get! mary anne
Style has the story, too.
Kudos to CHPN!
Mary Anne – the City’s CAPS (community assisted public safety) team is a great resource for remedying blighted properties. They address some of the worst code violators in the city. Someone has to alert them, first, though, to get them involved. Check the City website.
I recommend CAPS keeping in mind that many absentee landlords cannot be found by anyone. If there is no one to cite or take to court, the enforcement avenue won’t work.
I just saw channel 8 in front of the house and they interviewed the next door neighbor. She let him have it. i’m guessing it will be on the 11 news.
Does anyone know if there is a way to force Section 8 rental property owners to clean up their areas? 32nd St. is a potentially beautiful street if the problem child blue wheeler market and the 600 block Section 8 housing were removed. I have owned in Churchill at the 600 block for almost four years now and have gone to war with the drug dealers and hand gun owners living with their baby’s momma. I’ve even invited the police to use my home as a base camp to photograph and monitor the area. But for everyone I’ve had arrested or kicked out, there are 20 to replace them. Can we somehow condemn or force those buildings to be given up for all the problems they cause? I will be happy to do whatever paperwork is necessary to have those places closed up.
Will, document the incidents and call RRHA. If that doesn’t work call the feds…they’ve got oversight for the Section 8 housing voucher program, part of which your taxes subsidize.
The June 2006 issue of the Richmond Defender has the story, too.
Interestingly, the article characterizes the chpn as “a pro-gentrification website”, which at least 1/2 correct if a little simplistic.
‘pro-gentrification’? Well, then I suppose almost everybody would be classified pro-gentrification if the defining criteria is keeping up with what’s happening in the community…and in maintaining a forum for those who want to keep our neighborhoods safe and clean! Right on!
If chpn.net is pro-gentrification, I guess it’s OK to label Richmond Defender as pro-criminal?
Dear John, ann, j and other readers of the CHPN —
I’m the editor of The Richmond Defender newspaper and the guy who wrote the piece in our June issue characterizing the CHPN as “pro-gentrification.”
Let me explain.
From December 2000 to April 2006 I lived in Church Hill on East Marshall Street, across from Chimborazo Elementary. During that time, eight African-American families on my block were forced to move because of rising rents, tax assessments or landlords who sold their property to developers.
All that housing was then occupied by white tenants or homeowners further up the income ladder.
This is the process of gentrification. What’s wrong with it? Lots.
For one thing, houses that in 2000 were going for $50,000 in that neighborhood are today on the market for 3-4 times that amount. That means that Richmond’s really affordable housing is disappearing, in Church Hill and many other neighborhoods.
The new folks moving in may personally be saints or sinners — that’s not what’s important. (Although the ones that don’t seem to be able to fetch a newspaper from their front porch without taking along a German Shepherd aren’t doing much to dispel the “settler” stereotype.)
The problem is the wholesale loss of affordable housing that is the result of speculative buying, renovating and reselling.
I read CHPN and rarely see any pieces that tackle this issue. Instead, there seems to be an underlying assumption that this process is fundamentally good.
Moreover, the articles are almost uniformly written from the perspective of white homeowners — the same ones who can claim the name Church Hill Association for an organization that is almost entirely white and sees progress as the block-by-block gentrification of the Black neighborhoods north of Broad.
No, the Defender is not “pro-criminal.” It’s pro-people, with the emphasis on the working poor, many of whom are now being forced out of Church Hill by rising rents and property taxes.
So if the CHPN doesn’t want to be known as “pro-gentrification,” then how about some News about the “other” people in Church Hill — from their point of view, reflecting their interests and struggles?
In the interest of dialogue and a better Church Hill and Richmond,
Phil Wilayto
Editor
The Richmond Defender
Phil
Thanks for the nice and thoughtful reply.
As a long-time renter & food service worker, I understand the need for affordable housing. I also know that affordable housing doesn’t have to mean living in a blighted neighborhood.
I take particular interest in your characterization of the folks that displaced the renters on Marshall. You describe them as other folks “up the income ladder.” I grab this because it is a race-blind description, and a little easier to talk about, maybe…
I live on a block that is 80% owner-occupied, with almost 60% of that being single African-American women that are all first-time home owners. None of the these women were living on this block 10 years ago, when this block was decrepit rental property and rooms for rent. This block and others around it are being cleaned up and fixed up, are heavily minority owned and occupied, and are safer than when we moved here 3 years ago. This is not good?
The long-time residents of the area that I’ve met, women that have lived here 40 and 50 years, all applaud the changes as progess. These are individuals that are active in the schools, their churches, and the local government infrastructure. These women have been fighting for exactly this for a long time. They want neighborhoods that are safe and clean — not neighborhoods of vacant houses, prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics, and grubby corner stores.
I invite you to attend a meeting of the New Visions Civic League. New Visions represents the area bound by Mosby, Fairmount, 25th, and Venable. You would meet some folks that can say some of this much better than I am able.
: :
I was thinking about y’all yesterday. I was walking down Q Street through Mosby on my way to J Sarge and I was thinking about the Mayor’s meeting on Monday night (talking about the future of the public housing was a small contentious issue for a moment at that meeting). I had the thought that it would would be interesting and informative to do a series of profiles of some of the families that live in Richmond’s public housing (stereotype?), but that I don’t have the time or resources to do this myself.
: :
Finally, I started chpn to provide a place for exactly this kind of dialogue. Most of my content comes from linking to articles in the media as launching points for discussion. Of the 3 most likely news sources to provide an alternate view point, only the Richmond Voice has a decent website and they are very slow to update. Your website is unusable and the Free Press has no web site at all. There are plenty of free blogging sites that will allow you to easily put your content online.
Phil WIlayto,
Church Hill Association members are people who own businesses in or live in Church Hill and pay the $25 membership fee. Membership is open to any race or minority, myself being one of those. To apply for membership please see http://www.churchhillrichmond.com/ or pick up a copy of the CHA newsletter available at Captain Buzzy’s, The Hill Cafe and several other business in Church Hill.
Dear Phil Wilayto,
Saying people who want to fix up the neighborhood are pro-gentrification is like saying people who get treatment for cancer are pro-hair loss.
The reason many of us moved into this neighborhood is because there is diversity. We didn’t want to live in all-white, cookie-cutter Chesterfield subdivisions.
We don’t want to push out poor black residents. But we will do all we can to get rid of the cancer that is criminals and abandoned properties.
Affordable housing shouldn’t mean homeowners have to live with crime and blight.
Oh, and I live a block from where you used to live on Marshall, and that part facing Chimborazo Elementary was in sad shape 2 years ago. Half the houses were abandoned. I heard the school couldn’t even keep playground equipment there because it kept getting stolen.
Many long-time black homeowners were happy to see us move in a few years ago. The renters before us had a bad habit of getting high and dancing on neighbors’ cars.
Don’t blame white newcomers for pushing out poor black residents, blame absentee landlords that want to turn a quick profit on a piece of property they haven’t invested a dime in for 20 years.
P.S.: The Church Hill Association doesn’t speak for all people in the area. They seem to care more about dog poop in Libby Hill Park than they do about shootings a few blocks north of Broad Street.
Lots of CHA bashing… Does anyone ever complain or sneer about civic organization up here that are mostly Black? What does mostly White have to do with anything?
The CHA is a really good organization that contribute a lot to the community including donating money to serveral schools and community causes, cleans up the neighborhood and lobbies for better infastructure and community services.
Anyone can join, and the organization does what the membership tells it to do. I wish there was more diversity in the membership, but there isn’t – maybe you could attend some meetings and encourage other to do the same.
I guess it’s O.K to bash White people nowadays, but God forbid we should question anything that Black people do. I don’t understand. Enlighten me…
Did Phil leave the neighborhood because to many White people were moving in?