THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 14, 1994 TAG: 9410120153
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 300 lines
IN PORT NORFOLK, a neighborhood filled with architectural treasures, the civic league counted 40 old, inoperable cars junking up a three-street area.
One car had been in a back yard for eight years. A dog lived in it.
In the historic Park View neighborhood, proud homeowners pour time and money into renovating beautiful Victorian homes only to find their block marred by dilapidated rental properties.
Just one landlord owns about two dozen rental properties, according to a civic league officer.
Elizabeth Randolph, past president of the Park View Civic League and currently a member of the Architectural Review Commission, gets tired of a simplistic view that says ``if the citizens cared about their community, they wouldn't allow this to happen.''
People in Park View do care, she said. They expend great energy and suffer great discouragement sometimes by the futility of their efforts.
``We can't even find the landlords of some of these buildings,'' she said. ``They have these front companies and you can't even locate who owns it.''
Added to the problem of deteriorating properties are the property owners who come in and feign ignorance about the historic codes.
Two residents of the neighborhood are on the city's Architectural Review Commission, but ``they don't have enough teeth in enforcing the historic codes,'' said Carleen Smith, the Park View league president.
When Smith saw someone painting a house an electric blue, she called the city and a stop-work order was issued. But someone came in and finished painting it anyway.
``If they slapped them with a $1,000 fine, that would stop them in their tracks,'' said Smith.
Another property owner painted a stoop purple.
``I reported it, but it dies at the city some place,'' said Smith. ``I know the city is real understaffed. But if they could do something quickly that had some teeth in it, I don't think this would happen.''
Despite such problems, there is plenty of hope in Park View. Residents see the city's new emphasis on Scott's Creek as an indication that their neighborhood will begin to get the kind of attention that was poured into areas like Olde Towne.
Leaders of other neighborhoods express a similar optimism and determination, even a belief that the city is behind them.
From Port Norfolk to to Cavalier Manor and Simonsdale, many residents know their worth in terms of the city's success.
They are the citizens who don't need to be sold on Portsmouth. This is home.
Many have taken a stand. They join the ranks of neighborhood patrols to drive the criminal element off their streets and they take active roles in civic leagues, helping to prioritize the problems and working with the city to correct them.
Marilee Hawkins, director of environmental services, said her department handles almost 300 complaint calls a month and cited about 6,000 properties last year.
They work most effectively, she said, with neighborhoods that have a strong civic league.
The president of the Bide-A-Wee Manor Civic League, for example, calls Hawkins regularly.
``He says, `Thank you for what you did, here's our list,' '' she said. ``I know that way I'm doing what the civic league - the people who live there - want us to do.''
While Madalyn Grimes, president of the Port Norfolk Civic League, would like to see offenders hit with stiffer penalties, she gives the city high marks for working with neighborhoods.
When Port Norfolk had its clean-up day, city staff came out and helped. They showed residents how to do certain things better.
When some of the neighborhood's residents wanted to paint in the Cape May style of multiple colors, the city worked to develop paint guidelines.
``Weekly, I have contact with someone down at the city, if nothing else just going down and saying, `Hi! Is there anything we should know about?'
``I think the city listens to us. . . because they know there are people in this neighborhood who are concerned, not just about the neighborhood, but about the city,'' said Grimes. ``They know we're not going to go away.''
City officials also know that strong civic leagues will take on their own projects and seek many of their own solutions.
After Port Norfolk's big cleanup, the league's environmental committee took pictures of problem properties and sent 100 letters to landlords - some as far away as Texas and Florida.
``There were those who didn't like us too much, but by and large it got a lot of action,'' Grimes said.
Property owners, she added, seem to pay more attention to a letter from neighbors than they do a form letter from the city.
League members gave the city their list of old cars tucked away in yards, something they hope ticketing and towing will one day erase from their neighborhood.
Like Grimes, Park View's leader sees self-help as the answer to some of the neighborhood problems.
When a police officer told Smith she could take warrants out against residents who were disturbing the peace, she went to the library and researched the code.
``They would play the radio so loud you could hear the call letters coming across the station,'' she said.
Smith documented the incidents, lined up witnesses and went to a magistrate.
``I had to argue with the magistrate for two hours,'' she said. ``He said `You take out 19 warrants and the judge will laugh you out of the courtroom.' ''
The judge didn't laugh. He slapped $100 fines on each count and suspended all but one, but told the offenders if they showed up in his courtroom again, he'd impose the other fines.
``In a couple of weeks they moved out,'' Smith said.
Although Smith gives city staff members credit for showing an interest and a willingness to talk to citizens about problems, she still sees room for improvement.
``Sometimes you feel like you're doing everything you can as a person and as a civic league and sometimes you feel like (the city's) not holding up their end,'' she said. ``I think they have to use their civic leagues a little more effectively.''
``We live here. We've got the most stake in our neighborhood,'' she said. ``If they would tap us and say you know this is the best way you can go about this, we would turn cartwheels.''
Smith is like a lot of homeowners who were drawn to the better aspects of the historic neighborhood. She still remembers the first time she walked into her house and fell in love with an open oak staircase that rose up to the third floor.
``Sometimes you throw up your hands and say `Good Lord, what have I done!' '' she said. But, she added, ``we couldn't afford to buy this house anywhere else.''
So Smith joins forces with like-minded homesteaders.
Randolph, her predecessor as league president, describes a changing breed of neighbors.
She remembers the way she used to look at a neighborhood - a place her children had other children to play with, a place she'd find friends to share a cup of coffee with.
``That was in a sense the Ozzie and Harriet neighborhood,'' said Randolph.
The neighborhood she now chooses to live in is different. It's filled with people - black and white, rich and poor, young and old - who don't necessarily socialize.
``They're busy with jobs and life and so forth,'' she said. ``But they come together over an issue or cause or something that affects their well being.
``They've rediscovered a common bond and it isn't personally social.''
Out of such bonds, she and others hope a city can survive and prosper. MEMO: WHAT'S BOTHERING YOUR CIVIC LEADERS?
What's driving neighborhoods crazy these days? Everything from crime
and traffic to absentee landlords, old cars and trash.
Here's a sampling of neighborhood concerns we gathered from an
informal poll of some of the city's civic league leaders:
CAVALIER MANOR
Neighborhood nuisances: Abandoned cars; a big open ditch that runs
down Cavalier Boulevard and businesses that allow loiterers to harrass
customers.
Bright spot: All in all, Cavalier Manor is a model neighborhood where
residents have solved many of their own problems through the partnership
of a strong civic league and a volunteer crime patrol that works nightly
with the police department.
Quote: ``We're reasonably satisfied. I think some of the self-help
has helped us.''
- Carlton Carrington, president,
United Civic League of Cavalier Manor
CRADOCK
Neighborhood nuisances: Go-go bars on George Washington Highway are
closing in on the historic district.
Bright spot: Although the issue is currently in litigation, residents
are hoping that a new adult entertainment ordinance will stop the newest
bar which is practically across the street from the neighborhood.
Quote: ``You can't legislate morals. . . but as a community we still
have to think like that.''
J. Robert Gray, president,
Cradock Property Owners Association
EBONY HEIGHTS
Neighborhood nuisances: Drug trafficking and abandoned houses that
serve as drug havens; need for lighting and curbs and gutters.
Bright spot: An old rural neighborhood now surrounded by apartment
complexes and businesses, Ebony Heights still has a committed core of
old families, including many relatives.
Quote: ``I was born and raised here. I came back and built my home
here. At the time it was a quiet, down to earth neighborhood. Now it's
becoming a little dangerous.''
Angela Hill, President,
Ebony Heights Civic League
LEE WARD
(Brighton and part of Prentis Place) Neighborhood nuisances:
Vacant houses that get taken over by drug element, street dealing in
some areas and absentee landlords.
Bright spot: Area patrolled nightly by one of the city's most
diligent neighborhood crime- watch organizations.
Quote: ``The city is not really tight enough on the codes. They're
trying to do it but. . . don't have enough people to check things like
they are supposed to.''
Raleigh Harsley, president
Lee Ward Civic League
PARK VIEW
Neighborhood nuisances: Property owners who ignore historic and
architectural guidelines, absentee landlords, trash and drug dealers;
Bright spot: Large number of Victorian homes and a diverse
neighborhood, including a civic league that reflects the interracial
population of the community. Also, the police department's Tactical
Response Team has adopted the neighborhood.
Quote: ``We don't have to live here. But sometimes I just think
you're going to run out of places to run. The only other option is
buying an island and declaring my sovereignty.''
Carleen Smith, president
Park View Civic League
PORT NORFOLK
Neighborhood nuisances: The civic league calls it the ``Four T's'' -
traffic, trucks, trash and trees. More specifically, traffic from the
Western Freeway; trucks that use the neighborhood as a shortcut;
residents and landlords who put out everything from mattresses to old
appliances with no regard for pickup schedules; and trees that are taken
down by the City and not replaced with the same type of tree.
Bright spot: Gorgeous old homes and civic league that works well with
city on environmental concerns from codes violation to the establishment
of a tree policy.
Quote: ``I think the city has listened to our concerns open-mindedly
and addressed many. But by and large I think the city addresses our
concerns when we have the answer.''
Madalyn Grimes, president
Port Norfolk Civic League
SIESTA GARDENS
Neighborhood nuisances: Need for curbs and gutters promised when the
neighborhood annexed.
Bright spot: Other than curbs and gutters, the neighborhood is pretty
satisfied, according to a civic league president.
Quote: ``We haven't even gotten a drain pipe. When the water's up, I
can't even get to my mail box. But the last time I said something about
it, a councilman said I doubt if you'll get it in your lifetime.''
Robert Sebrell, incoming president
Siesta Gardens Civic League
SIMONSDALE
Neighborhood nuisances: Right now the neighborhood is concerned with
some problems centered on the Elmhurst Square shopping strip. Recently
senior citizens were followed home from the grocery store and robbed,
according to civic league president Karen Jordan. Jordan wants the
businesses there to provide better lighting, do something about vagrants
living behind the strip and do a better job of keeping back of property
clean.
Bright spot: Previously, there have been noise problems because of
delivery trucks but the city has responded to complaints and contacted
store managers about the problem. Jordan gives City Hall a thumbs up for
being responsive to citizens concerns.
Quote: ``The biggest complaint I have against City Hall is there
needs to be an ongoing communication if they're doing something for the
civic league. If you tell me you're going to do something, let me know
how you're doing it.''
Karen Jordan, president
Simonsdale Civic Club
TRUXTUN
Neighborhood nuisances: Old cars and a vacant lot and building on
corner of Deep Creek and Portsmouth boulevards that are an eyesore.
Bright spot: Neighborhood itself is doing pretty well.
Quote: ``People come to the league and complain, and the city hasn't
done anything about it as of now. Anybody who chooses to stop by and
drop something off they do, right there on the corner. It seems to me
the inspectors could see that.''
Lucy Overton, president
Truxtun Community League
WATERVIEW/GLENSHEALLAH
Neighborhood nuisances: Vandalism, burglaries and even a shot fired
into a window in the middle of the night.
Bright spot: Neighbors have banded together to hire private
security.
Quote: ``It's low-level stuff, but its expensive. There's been no
violent crime, not even a hint of it - just scary stuff.''
William Julian, chairman
Waterview/Glensheallah Property Owners
WESTHAVEN
Neighborhood nuisances: Since the neighborhood was switched to
automated trash collection, some residents leave the large black
containers on the curbside all week.
Bright spot: Civic league is trying to get the city to enforce an
ordinance that limits the time a trash container can be left on the
curb.
Quote: ``I don't know of anything more of an eyesore than that.''
Louis Whitehead, president
Westhaven Civic League
WESTHAVEN PARK
Neighborhood nuisances: Trucks that take a shortcut through the
neighborhood, tearing up the streets.
Bright spot: Good security patrol and neighborhood pride.
Quote: ``You know how some neighborhoods are going to pot? Ours is
still beautiful and that makes ol' grandmother happy.''
Hannah Flora, president
Westhaven Park Civic League
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos on cover by MARK MITCHELL
Carlton Carrington, president of the United Civic League of Cavalier
Manor, detests the ditch along Cavalier Boulevard.
Go-go bars are moving closer and closer to communities.
Staff photos by MARK MITCHELL
Simonsdale Civic League president Karen Jordan, above, wants the
businesses at Elmhurst Square Shopping Center to provide better
lighting, do something about vagrants living behind the strip and do
a better job of keeping property clean.
Civic leagues are trying to get the city to enforce an ordinance
that limits the time junk and trash cans can be left on the curb.
KEYWORDS: NEIGHBORHOOD CIVIC LEAGUE by CNB