THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 19, 1995 TAG: 9510180139
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: JOHN PRUITT
LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
A young woman, who recently moved from California to Suffolk, was perplexed. How come, she asked, that new - and in her view, often lesser - houses are springing up all over the place while so many existing houses, including some perhaps over a century old, are boarded up and decaying?
It's not the first time the question has been posed, of course. But I'm particularly curious about how come it's more often asked by people who are just beginning their acquaintance with Suffolk than by people who've been around long enough to know something of the city's rich heritage.
Maybe it can be explained much the way my friend's father used to justify the choking odor of the cat food and fish meal factories in Reedville, on Virginia's Northern Neck. When you live around it, he said, you don't even notice.
He'd always add that, on the rare occasion he caught a whiff, it smelled like money.
The pity is that, somewhere along the line, this city has not realized that its older housing stock needs not smell like decay but, in some instances, can smell like money.
One needs look only as far as Olde Towne in Portsmouth, the Freemason and Ghent areas of Norfolk and historic Smithfield.
What's missing in Suffolk is commitment from City Hall, including the Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
There just isn't incentive enough for people like residents of Suffolk's Olde Towne. Many of the people who came into that downtown area with great enthusiasm have simply thrown up their hands and retreated as uncaring rental property owners continue to bring in uncaring tenants who only foster decay and as crime continues to encroach.
The Redevelopment and Housing Authority has done virtually nothing to boost Suffolk's redevelopment, and rental property owners continue to degrade neighborhoods rather than becoming partners in revitalizing them.
The Redevelopment and Housing Authority continues dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into neighborhoods so run down that the only hope of upgrading them is leveling them while offering no revitalization aid to neighborhoods that are not only salvageable but important elements of this city's history.
In its search for a new director, the Redevelopment and Housing Authority should insist that the first element of the name be the first priority of the director. First, though, the board must make that commitment.
The new resident is not alone in her perplexity that City Hall is allowing houses to pop up everywhere, at an alarming pace.
She's not alone is wondering why Suffolk does not resolve, in very strong manner, not to allow developers to do what they've done to Virginia Beach and Chesapeake: that is, carve every square inch of the city into the smallest possible parcels for housing and commerce.
If she's counting on City Hall to protect her from this encroachment, she - and you and I - had better be making some noise. Take a ride in any direction, look at some of the development taking place in former agricultural areas and ask if this is what you want crammed all over Suffolk. Will some of this be the city's future slums?
There is time to create barriers before the growth is out of control, but that takes determination not visible so far.
Just as it takes commitment to see that the boarded-up buildings of Main Street and other areas of Suffolk - and the areas that well could wind up boarded up without some infusion of interest - don't get lost in the zeal to create a ``new'' Suffolk.
This new resident asks questions that more of us should be working to get answered.
A young woman, who recently moved from California to Suffolk, was perplexed. How come, she asked, that new - and in her view, often lesser - houses are springing up all over the place while so many existing houses, including some perhaps over a century old, are boarded up and decaying?
It's not the first time the question has been posed, of course. But I'm particularly curious about how come it's more often asked by people who are just beginning their acquaintance with Suffolk than by people who've been around long enough to know something of the city's rich heritage.
Maybe it can be explained much the way my friend's father used to justify the choking odor of the cat food and fish meal factories in Reedville, on Virginia's Northern Neck. When you live around it, he said, you don't even notice.
He'd always add that, on the rare occasion he caught a whiff, it smelled like money.
The pity is that, somewhere along the line, this city has not realized that its older housing stock need not smell like decay but, in some instances, can smell like money.
One needs look only as far as Olde Towne in Portsmouth, the Freemason and Ghent areas of Norfolk and historic Smithfield.
What's missing in Suffolk is commitment from City Hall, including the Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
There just isn't incentive enough for people like residents of Suffolk's Olde Towne. Many of the people who came into that downtown area with great enthusiasm have simply thrown up their hands and retreated as uncaring rental property owners continue to bring in uncaring tenants who only foster decay and as crime continues to encroach.
The Redevelopment and Housing Authority has done virtually nothing to boost Suffolk's redevelopment, and rental property owners continue to degrade neighborhoods rather than becoming partners in revitalizing them.
The Redevelopment and Housing Authority continues dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into neighborhoods so run down that the only hope of upgrading them is leveling them while offering no revitalization aid to neighborhoods that are not only salvageable but important elements of this city's history.
In its search for a new director, the Redevelopment and Housing Authority should insist that the first element of the name be the first priority of the director. First, though, the board must make that commitment.
The new resident is not alone in her perplexity that City Hall is allowing houses to pop up everywhere, at an alarming pace.
She's not alone is wondering why Suffolk does not resolve, in very strong manner, not to allow developers to do what they've done to Virginia Beach and Chesapeake: that is, carve every square inch of the city into the smallest possible parcels for housing and commerce.
If she's counting on City Hall to protect her from this encroachment, she - and you and I - had better be making some noise. Take a ride in any direction, look at some of the development taking place in former agricultural areas and ask if this is what you want crammed all over Suffolk. Will some of this be the city's future slums?
There is time to create barriers before the growth is out of control, but that takes determination not visible so far.
Just as it takes commitment to see that the boarded-up buildings of Main Street and other areas of Suffolk - and the areas that well could wind up boarded up without some infusion of interest - don't get lost in the zeal to create a ``new'' Suffolk.
This new resident asks questions that more of us should be working to get answered. by CNB