Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Neighborhoods Wishing Well apartments in southeast Atlanta razed
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 10:08 AM
After years of trying to contact absentee property owners and cut legal red tape, city officials finally gave the green light for crews to demolish the notorious Wishing Well Apartments in southeast Atlanta.
Residents say the long-vacant, dilapidated 1970s complex in Glenrose Heights a few blocks from I-75 has been littered with trash, tires and overgrown bushes for years. The 48-unit complex, more than half of which has deteriorated, had become a magnet for social ills such as squatters, drug dealers, and pimps. One nearby resident told CL of the days when cars would slow in front of the complex, honk their horn, and await for someone to bring drugs from one of vacant units.
The demolition of Wishing Well, which began yesterday morning with the TV-friendly images of a bulldozer gutting the apartments, is a "downpayment on our commitment to the community," the mayor said — a sign, he says, that City Hall is serious in dealing with blighted properties.
And dealing with blight is a pain in the ass. Wishing Well was subdivided and sold off over the years, complicating matters when it came to contacting the property's owners. City officials say it's taken nearly three years to jump through the legal hoops and proceed with demolition, which, in this case, will cost taxpayers more than $180,000 should the city not recoup the cost. Shelby says the city will place a lien on the property, which would have to be paid before the complex's various owners could sell the land.
Neighborhood residents — some of whom cheered "nah-nah-nah, hey-hey-hey, goodbye" while workers crushed walls — said they were relieved that the apartment complex would no longer be an eyesore. But they wanted city officials and the police to show Glenrose Heights more attention than they've done in the past.
- Joeff Davis
- Glenrose Heights resident Mae Goodwin, right, tells Mayor Kasim Reed that the southeast Atlanta neighborhood deserves more attention
"After this is cleaned up, how many times are we going to see y'all?" the grandmother asked.
The mayor seemed surprised at the question. "I'm not going to disappear," he told Goodwin. Since taking office, Reed said, code enforcement officers have reduced a backlog of cases from more than 5,000 to approximately 2,000.
After the tense moment passed, Goodwin moved closer to Reed and asked him to lean close. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she explained how the neighborhood has been overlooked and the personal hardships of living in an area with crime. The mayor listened and offered to give his personal phone number to help with problems.
C.J. Davis, the interim director of code enforcement, says her division is currently compiling a citywide list of properties that could be torn down. As of today, her team has counted more than 200 parcels.
Considering the tricky legal issues that come with tearing down structures on private property, there's no timeline for how long that process might take. Atlanta City Councilwoman Joyce Sheperd, who represents Glenrose Heights and other neighborhoods wrestling with blight, is proposing legislation that would require owners of vacant properties to register the parcels or face a fine.
Comments (5)
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according to the goings on in my NPU— code inforcement has shifted from public works to the police, which is a good first step. But ya, the city needs a means of expediting the search for absentee landlords. I live two blocks from a burned out building nobody is claiming, and another two blocks from a recently razed building that stood for (apparently) nearly a decade after burning. Unacceptable all around.
When is the Mayor going to tear down Alison Court apartments? They have sat vacant for fourteen years. Does he not care about the Campbellton Road/Stanton Road/Delowe Drive area?
Great to see! They've got to find a way to speed up the process!! Perhaps a law allowing for demolition when the property is publicly marked as such after a period of time of course...would put onus on owner to monitor status of property if they want to keep it intact....rather than the City chasing all over the country/world searching for owners to notify.
If you haven't looked at or visited your property in a year...& it's a destroyer of community health....then you deserve to lose it.
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