Buttigieg trumpeted the success of the 1000 Houses project when it was completed in 2015, and the city immediately pointed to preliminary data that it said showed a decrease in crime.
As his profile has risen, Buttigieg points to the 1000 Houses initiative when pressed on his record on economic and racial justice.
In an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd earlier this month, Buttigieg noted that for many, it felt as though the economic recovery from the 2008 financial crisis never happened. But, he said, “we’ve got it moving in the right direction.”
“We made sure that our neighborhoods were improved, because the issue of blight and vacant and abandoned properties was harming neighbors especially in minority neighborhoods,” Buttigieg said. “People didn’t think it could be done, but we dealt with 1,000 houses in 1,000 days by marshaling resources, concentrating them and working to fix the problem.”
People who live in the affected neighborhoods tell a more complicated story. They are still wrestling with the program’s impact, and are less sold on its successes.
One of the first problems to emerge was the clouds of dust, feared to contain lead and asbestos, that spread uncontained from the demolition sites. Soon, wild animals, like raccoons and groundhogs, appeared in people’s homes. Vacant lots, where crumbling houses once stood, became dumping sites as tall grass grew.
“I think that there just wasn’t a clear understanding of the domino effect — the true impact of what the actions were going to be throughout the neighborhood,” said Regina Williams-Preston, who represents the city’s northwest in its Common Council, a governing body. “We basically traded one problem for another.”
Years later, much of the grass is cut, but problems remain. The empty lots sit undeveloped, economic opportunity remains minimal and crime rates are up from 2012. Shootings, on the mind of many, have not decreased.
James Kelly, a professor at nearby Notre Dame who co-chaired Buttigieg’s 1000 Houses task force, said that the group was careful not to promise economic growth beyond what was possible and appropriate.
“I think we knew that the idea of dealing with the vacant property issues was to set the stage for new growth, but growth that was appropriate,” Kelly said. “It wasn’t to promise people that if we did the demolition their communities would look just like they did before Studebaker closed. Rather, this was a necessary step.”
Despite the warning, some say they wish that the development came quicker. Tim Scott, a member of the task force who is now president of the city’s Common Council, said he was “pretty antsy that we get in and work in neighborhoods right away.”
“But there was a systematic approach from the Buttigieg administration to right size the homes, look at the data and see where we are,” he said. “To me, we are really in phase two. After all these years, we are in phase two.”
Pamela Meyer, South Bend’s director of neighborhood development, said that “most of us would safely say that we all would like things to move quicker,” but gaining ownership of vacant lots takes time, and developing them takes resources.
“We don’t get $20 million a year in federal resources, we get about $2 million, so we are talking about a handful of properties that we could work on in an annual basis,” she said.
from Viral News Reports http://bit.ly/2vfWM1o
0 Comments