Fighting the Blight... for 5 years...

Mitch Landrieu say in his Christmas Day Editorial that
"In just three hours, 18 abandoned cars were towed, 55 abandoned cars were tagged, five catch basins were repaired, 11 structures were demolished, 57 gallons of paint were used to beautify parks and fences, trees were planted, overgrown lots were mowed and cleared, abandoned tires were collected, NORD facilities saw improvements, 183 code/health citations were issued and 890 property assessments by citizen volunteers were performed."

You may or may not know that for the past 5 years NorthWest Carrollton members have been doing exactly the same thing.

We've worked with NOPD to have abandoned cars towed from the neighborhood and to stop a tow truck driver from dumping cars in the neighborhood (this took 2 years!)

During 2 seperate summers volunteers (World Changers & Lutherans) cleaned catch basins and painted houses in the neighborhood. We organized a neighborhood cleanup after the February 2007 tornado. Rebuilding Together has also worked in our neighborhood.

We've collected truck loads of tires.

In our little 5 x 7 block area Hike for KaTREEna has helped us plant more than 100 trees.

We've taken pictures of blighted properties and identified these to City Hall AND followed up by attending the the Blight Hearings.

And we'll keep doing it. With the hope that the city will support our individual efforts as much as they support "Fight the Blight" work weekends. We've shown we can do the grunt work what we need are solid and cost effective processes and procedures at City Hall.