Opinion piece: Hallelujah! An eyesore is on the way out
Posted by Judy Walker August 09, 2007 10:19AM
This recent opinion piece on the editorial page is about my family's struggle with the blighted house behind us -- and even worse problems that my neighbors have because of it.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
METRO - EDITORIAL Page 07 Point of View
Opinion
By Judy Walker
Last week was fantastic. I nearly went blind finding it in all that tiny legal notices type, but the first and second notices of the impending demolition of the blighted house behind our home were published Wednesday and Friday. The notice must be published once more before the house can be bulldozed.
Hallelujah.
I called my neighbor, Dwayne, who lives next door to the blighted house. He was equally happy. In our continuing dialogue over the last two years on this topic, he said recently that a staffer for our City Council person told him the house was due to be demolished soon, and here was confirmation.
At last.
In this house I see all the similar stagnating properties around New Orleans, spreading noxious funk to all the houses around them, adding another layer of vexation to the long hard slog of recovery. Though some undoubtedly can and should be saved, the Reggie White Foundation, operators of the Crescent Rising program offering free demolitions to New Orleans residents, estimates there are 15, 000 storm-ruined structures that need to come down.
In the old pre-K world, this house already was on the city's blighted and adjudicated list (whatever adjudicated means). But a good neighbor lived a semi-rural life there, with a big garden and flowering trees. For his grandchildren, he had rabbits, beagles, chickens and an above-ground pool. He sent his rent checks to a guy in California. Post-K, he lives with his daughter in eastern New Orleans.
The house was never gutted.
Hurricane winds miraculously twisted a giant branch from the 50-foot pecan tree on this property so as to miss the five houses it could have smashed, including ours and Dwayne's. It fell on top of the above-ground pool, creating a perfect mosquito environment. After about a year of our semi-continuous phone calls, FEMA paid for the removal of the downed part of the tree, a task that took two days and several dump trucks.
Somebody -- I wonder who? -- carried out stealth Round-Up spraying on this property, which kept the weeds down until summer. But then, aggressive vines spring to life, flex their tendrils and grow before your eyes, the giant squids of horticulture. Currently, three different types of vines are flourishing on the blighted house.
Finally, a year and a half after three feet of water covered it, I had time to focus on our outdoors. As is the case for many local gardeners, my space went from full shade to full sun after the overhanging hunk of pecan tree fell.
But the biggest challenge is that the most aggressive of the vines wants to grow on our side of the new fence. Every morning, I scour my flower beds for sprouts pushing through the soil, and the fence for tendrils sneaking between the boards, clawing toward my Meyer lemons and antique roses. (At times like this, an obsessive compulsive attitude toward pulling weeds comes in handy.)
Dan Gill, our resident plant expert, told me he once had a patch of this same vine on his property, and after four years of vigilance he eliminated it.
Four. Years.
The vine is invading the attic of the other neighboring house and is attacking Dwayne's fence. Then I found out Dwayne has a far worse pest.
"Do you have a rodent problem?" he asked.
It seems that rats are coming from the blighted house up through the drains into his bathtub. Because the rats are able to push the plug out of the way, he has to keep the bathtub half full of water at all times.
Did I mention that Dwayne has the cutest young kid you've ever seen?
"It's enough to make you question your commitment to New Orleans, " Dwayne said.
Now, multiply the problems that one house can cause times 15, 000. I'm hoping for much more of that tiny legal type soon, a giant step toward whatever might pass for normalcy for all of us who live near blighted houses.
We'll be singing a chorus of hallelujahs.
And pulling weeds for years to come.
. . . . . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment