THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602020161
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letters
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Public housing makes the news again.
Now they want to evict everyone who has been there too many years. Whatever Norfolk does Portsmouth is sure to follow in its footsteps. How many of the public housing officials live off of $6,000 a year? Hats off to Councilman Paul Riddick of Norfolk. At least he has concern and feelings for public housing tenants. They are treated as if we are people who need to be hidden and not seen. Try to talk to somebody about buying a house with a $6,000 annual income. Try to talk to someone about Section 8. Don't you think we would like to get out into a house? We who have high school diplomas, a year or two of college can't get any place. So don't criticize us until you've walked in our shoes.
We are treated like second-class citizens by public housing officials.
Some managers talk to you like you are stupid, don't think for yourself and don't understand. Come to Portsmouth and look at Lincoln Park.
It looks like a jail. That's to keep out the drug dealers, but the tenants have to live there with it looking like that. Who wants someone to come visit you in a place looking like that? Outside, people don't know all the different fees we pay on fixed incomes. Our light and gas bills for a one-bedroom house are between $25 and $40 extra every month. There is only one person in my house. The more you complain about it, the more extra bills you get ($6 if you don't pick up your paper off the lawn). Some senior citizens can't stoop down to pick up a paper. We have more rules and regulations that outsiders don't know about.
So to people who think public housing is easy living, move in. I'm trying hard to move out but every real estate dealer I've talked to says my monthly income is not enough.
But I'm not going to stop trying.
The 27th Psalm says ``. . . Wait, I say, on the Lord!''
Don't forget, once you've climbed the ladder, reach back and help someone else to climb.
Barbara P. Cooke
Dale Drive
Jan. 26, 1996 An inspiring young man
The Virginian-Pilot cared enough to feature a fine story written by Rebecca Myers in the Sunday edition of the Currents on someone who inspires us all - Daniel Fears.
A Portsmouth citizen to be proud of, he's going the extra mile to ``make it happen.''
For all of us who have ``made it happen,'' what can each of us do to help this young man's success be a little easier down the rest of the road?
Sue Landerman
Swimming Point Walk
Jan. 29, 1996 Shaken up by buses
I am once again pleading an old case for the residents of the 200 block of Peninsula Ave. and adjoining streets (A, Ann and Bain). For more than five years, our houses have literally been shaking on their foundations as TRT buses traverse Peninsula Avenue. Crystal, china and heavy wall mirrors rattle even on A, Ann and Bain streets as the earth trembles under the weight of the buses. Plaster and foundations crack, are repaired and crack again. It's a losing battle.
Over the years we have made our plight known to City Council members, a city attorney, the mayor and TRT. TRT did contact the city Public Works Dept. They repaired some breaks in the street surface and built up a collar of asphalt around the manhole covers, which of course, created another dip in the street.
We salute the people of Waterview who at least got a response to their request for traffic control on their streets. We only wish we knew how they did it.
C.M. Turner
Peninsula Avenue
Jan. 30, 1996 by CNB