
DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230504

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  101 lines

EAST OCEAN VIEW CHEERS AS TARGETED HOUSE FALLS

A group of civic leaders clapped and cheered Wednesday when a bulldozer took its first huge bite out of a boarded-up building in East Ocean View. Crumbling with the vacant apartment building was a message vandals had spray-painted on the plywood: ``Enter This Zone Death Waits to Get Every Police.''

But on this day, it was the police, the city and the community that held the upper hand on property that authorities said had become a magnet for drug dealers and prostitutes.

``This is something we've waited a long time for, and we hope more of it happens,'' Tom Hall, president of the Ocean View Civic League, said as he watched the dozer reduce the deteriorated building to rubble.

City officials said the razing marks the start of an aggressive new campaign to root out crime and blight in the community that is designed to reassure residents, attract more middle-class homebuyers and protect the city's own investment. The city expects to spend upward of $60 million to redevelop a 90-acre Bayfront tract with homes valued at up to a half-million dollars.

On Friday, the city launched a sweep in East Ocean View that officials said for the first time teamed police and firefighters with city building inspectors, code enforcement officials and health inspectors.

A triple homicide last month that occurred near a parking lot a block from where the bulldozer worked Wednesday prompted the door-to-door sweep.

City officials said Wednesday that more than a dozen buildings in the neighborhood could be bulldozed as a result of the sweep.

At least a half-dozen civic league presidents in Ocean View and surrounding neighborhoods turned out Wednesday to watch the city demolish the building at 9611 14th Bay St., a narrow side road between Ocean View Avenue and Pretty Lake that is bordered by live oaks and assorted apartment buildings and one-story homes. Many residents are renters.

The civic leaguers said they were encouraged by the city's actions and that it could spark neighborhoods to take a more activist role in helping the city clean up blighted neighborhoods.

``We're behind this 100 percent,'' said Aaron Marshall, president of the East Ocean View Civic League. ``Image is everything, and when you have an image of a neighborhood that doesn't care, that invites prostitutes and drug dealers in.''

While acknowledging that the crackdown on blighted housing may put some low-income renters out of a home, Marshall said: ``This isn't about getting rid of poor people. It's about people taking care of their property.''

Russ Loyd, president of the Greater Pinewell Civic League, said, ``It sends a message that if you're going to do business in Ocean View, you're going to be accountable to the citizens of the community.''

Said Valerie Gregory, president of Cottage Line Civic League: ``This is a catalyst for all of us. This is going to send a message to the rest of the people that we're not going to tolerate it.''

Already, the effort is paying off, residents said. Across the street on 14th Bay, workers were hammering new roof shingles on an apartment building that had been cited in the sweep, and other residents had cleaned up their yards. One homeowner on 14th Bay Street said he even got cited for having an out-of-date rabies tag on his dog.

City officials said that the building being demolished was one of about a dozen cited for violations on earlier inspections that had not been repaired. According to city records, the owner of 9611 14th Bay St. also owns two other adjacent cottages slated for demolition this week.

Officials said three other nearby structures owned by another property owner also were coming down this week.

The owners, officials said, had been alerted to code problems but had failed to act. Fed up with the inaction, the city condemned them as a hazard to public health and safety.

``This is really a significant day in the renaissance of Ocean View,'' said City Councilman W. Randy Wright, whose Ward 5 encompasses the neighborhood. ``Really and truly, for the first time the city has proven that we mean business.''

Wright said the city had never acted on such a large scale to condemn and demolish blighted property. The intent, he said, is to continue the effort in Ocean View and other neighborhoods, using money generated by a 5-cent tax increase on each pack of cigarettes that was recently imposed by City Council.

Wilfredo S. Espiritu of Virginia Beach, owner of 9611 and two adjacent buildings, acknowledged in a telephone interview Wednesday that two of the structures, including 9611, were ``unfit to be living in'' and ``need to go.''

Espiritu, a postal worker who said he bought the property as an investment, said he had not repaired the buildings because he lacked the money and the time. All of the buildings were vacant.

Espiritu said his father once lived in one of the cottages but moved out about two years ago after being robbed in the driveway. Vandals have since damaged the properties on several occasions, he said.

According to city tax records, Espiritu bought the three buildings in 1985 for $40,000. They were assessed currently at $37,190. He said city officials told him Wednesday that he would be billed $5,300 to pay the cost of bulldozing.

``I hope by the city doing this it will raise the value of the property,'' Espiritu said of the lot. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot

This home in the 9600 block of 14th Bay St. was bulldozed Wednesday

afternoon, the first in a Norfolk move to improve East Ocean View.

BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot

Clayton Myers of Nealey Inc., a Chesapeake demolition company,

finishes knocking down the second house razed Wednesday afternoon in

the 9600 block of 14th Bay St., in East Ocean View.