Fighting Blight: Augusta leaders discussing ways to clean up rough parts of city

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

News 12 at 11 o'clock

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The city of Augusta has talked about ways to clean up abandoned houses and overgrown lots for years.

In the past two weeks, the mayor's office has put ideas to fight blighted areas on the Commission agenda.

The target area is in between 15th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. It's also bordered by Poplar Street.

Abandoned and condemned houses are on most streets.

"All these old houses they don't do nothing but house rodents," said Francine Bryson, who lives in the area, "and it gives homeless people somewhere to go hide and live."

Bryson can see three abandoned homes from her front porch. She's lived in the area on and off for 40 years.

"It's where I was brought up," she said. "It's my home. It's my neighborhood. Everybody likes to live in their neighborhood."

Her neighbors want to see change. They'd like to see the city take action.

"They only upkeep certain areas," Bryson said. "I guess they feel that's important to them, but the whole Augusta area is important to me."

Fighting blight has been on the agenda for years. There's even an interactive website that the city designed.

Over the years, a focus on the Laney-Walker community brought changes and more private development.

"I have cousins and other relatives that used to live in that area," said Bryson. "It's nice to see the area looking beautiful again."

Tuesday afternoon, commissioners decided to pump the brakes on the mayor's idea. They are doubtful on the location and there's concerns on how to pay for the clean up.

Bulldozing one lot, on average, costs around $7,000.

"If you want all of the Augusta area to look beautiful, then you should put forth all the effort to make all of it look beautiful," Bryson said.

Commissioners say they will likely discuss this idea further. They say Tuesday was not the right time to take a vote on moving forward with anything.