THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 22, 1994 TAG: 9411220639
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
The lone couple still living in the soon-to-be-demolished Sea King Motel in East Ocean View got one last reprieve Monday.
The motel is a cornerstone to plans for a 90-acre redevelopment project of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
But Ronald Bubb and Patricia Kramer have been holding back the bulldozers since Sept. 30, when they received their first eviction notice.
The city plans to serve the couple with a writ of possession today, a procedure that would normally give them 72 hours to get out.
But instead of forcing the couple out by Friday, city officials decided to give the couple until Monday.
``Throwing them out over the holiday would be wrong,'' said Robert Draper, the housing authority's director for renewal services. ``That wouldn't be hospitable. Hopefully by next Monday, they will have moved on their own.''
Come Monday, whatever remains inside the couple's Room 16 will be left in the street, Draper said.
Bubb and Kramer plan to be gone anyway. Despite the city reprieve, the couple plans to spend Thanksgiving in a three-bedroom trailer less than a mile away, eating ham and turkey with their daughter, granddaughter and six cats.
The couple bought the trailer about six months ago and could have moved at any time, Bubb said.
The reason they stayed in the motel, they say, was to protest the way the housing authority has handled the problem.
The couple claim that the city isn't going far enough to help those displaced by the evictions.
The city has allowed the couple to remain in the motel well past the Sept. 30 deadline and has not charged any of the residents for rent or utilities.
``We've had a place to stay all along,'' said Bubb, 30. ``They're more worried about the bad media they'd get throwing us out. I certainly don't see this as City Hall with a heart.''
The Sea King is slated for demolition as part of a 90-acre redevelopment project. The city plans to redevelop the tract with middle-income to upscale homes.
In 1993, the City Council decided to clear most of the neighborhood after declaring the section was too blighted to be revived. For years, the area has had a reputation for crime, drug trafficking and other social problems.
The Sea King, at 4140 E. Ocean View Ave., was blamed for many of the problems.
Almost every window of the motel is boarded up. There is no heat. After thieves stole copper pipes from the motel's boiler room, there was no hot water.
Fire extinguishers have been ripped from the walls and people frequently break into the boarded-up rooms to use drugs or turn tricks inside, Bubb said.
``Every time they boarded them up,'' said Kramer, 48, ``someone breaks in.''
The couple had been living in Room 17 until the roof collapsed.
``It's a dump. It's the armpit of Norfolk,'' Bubb said. ``We're anxious to go. But we have to make our protest known.'' by CNB