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Mr. Watts:
<br />
<br />Mr. Fleming:
<br />
<br />Mr. Watts:
<br />Mr. Wentz:
<br />
<br />Mr. Fleming:
<br />Mr. Wentz:
<br />
<br />Mrs. Raymer:
<br />
<br /> !
<br />"A lot of shadows are being thrown on landlords. It has been mentioned here tonight!
<br />that when a t~ndlord comes in and takes over ~roperty, that the property immediatel~
<br />becomes deteriorated; and it is rented to lower types of people. This is not true. i
<br />This is very, very unfair to a landlord, because I am a landlord, and I have many
<br />friends who are landlords, and they strive very hard to put the best they can find
<br />into their property. As we all know, every now and then, someone will get in that
<br />we do not want. And this we try very ha~d to eliminate. Eventually, those people
<br />are out. We screen our tenants very, very carefully. They fill applications out.
<br />We check their former landlords before they are allowed to move into our apartments.
<br />So I would ask everyone who is concerned to lean just a little bit lighter on the
<br />landlords. Because we are not the worst persons in Park View."
<br />
<br />"Being a representative of one of the largest landlords in the City, I sympathize
<br />with you."
<br />
<br />"Thank you. We need sympathy. Thank you very kindl~¥"
<br />
<br />"I would point out that Mr. Fleming, in his representation of all the landlords, I'm
<br />sure he's referring to the public ho~sing parks that are administered by the Public
<br />Housing Authority. How many?"
<br />
<br />"Nineteen hundred and seven."
<br />
<br />"Nineteen hundred and seven units. Thank you Mr. Watts. The next request to speak
<br />is Mrs. Mabel Raymer, Chairman of the New Town Community Development Committee.
<br />Mrs. Raymer."
<br />
<br />"Members of the City Council and members of the audience that are here also, I want
<br />to add to what Mr. Eason has said. I am the Chairman of the same committee. We
<br />do need housing. I think perhaps he over-emphasized the fact that we need multi-
<br />housing. We want housing of any sort, and I do wish to take this opportunity to
<br />thank the City Manager and the Mayor and all others who have really taken an in-
<br />terest in improving the New Town area. The members of the Task Force hase worked
<br />very hard and very diligently to get a plan before the Council, so that we would
<br />be able to take full advantage of the Federal money available through the Federal
<br />funds. I want to thank each one of them too. Various heads of the government have
<br />been there in the commumity working with us, and the Health Department, and the
<br />Recreation Department, and all our meetings have been Sol Cokes, and two of three
<br />of the ones have been faithfully there at every one of our meetings that we've had
<br />in this planning. Now one thing that I do want to bring out - we're very glad for
<br />the housing. We do need it very badly. I, for one, will be very happy when we can
<br />use some of the funds that are available to actually build houses rather than losin~
<br />these funds to tear down the housing. The only thing that i can see, the only ob-
<br />jection that I have to using of Federal money zs to be taking private property from
<br />individuals, now some of the...some are very glad to sell their property in this
<br />area, however, again, I want to speak for the landlords., because the truth is that
<br />the landlords are the only ones in this houszng that don't get a good deal. All
<br />the rest do when the property is taken, but the landlords don't get the right amoun-
<br />but the idea is, that I will be glad if a Federal law ~s ever passed that will not
<br />allow private property to be taken from one property owner who has rental property,
<br />to sell it to another millionaire, a multi-millionaire, because he can condemn to
<br />build a project in certain blocks. I think that we need to strive for is some sort
<br />of loan~system, as they had before through the Federal government where individuals
<br />could be encouraged to build private houses and multi-family houses both. That's
<br />what we really need in this area. I think it ~s a shame tear things down like
<br />Wilkins' Hardware and the Mount Vernon Church and have to pay for all these out of
<br />taxpayers' money. No private individual will do this. If a developer came in there
<br />and he was going to have to pay a half a million for a building, or a hundred thou-
<br />sm~d, he would let that building stand and he would build in another block; so we'r,
<br />very glad.gfor all those that have worked so hard for the plan. We just wi~h that
<br />any of the good houses that are left could be used, instead of taking the money,
<br />for instance in the block...in this one right here, we have two brand new ones al-
<br />ready built. Now, I'm very much against movzng those new houses. In this block
<br />right down here...we have two ©homes especially, that are new homes, it's a very
<br />highly populated block, which will cost a lot of money to be tearing down. What
<br />I'm saying is, if we comld take one million dollars of this money,~of the 2.6
<br />million that is going to be available, you could build 50 twenty thousand dollar
<br />homes. You could build possibly a hundred multi-family units out of that. One
<br />million dollars, in other words, it would cost twenty thousand dollars apiece for
<br />individual homes approximately; but if you were to have more than perhaps two or
<br />three in there you might get seventy-five or more, seventy-five to a hundred out
<br />of it, and the money would be so much better spent than bulldozing our natural
<br />resources down. Every time we bulldoze a ... building that ~s usable, that is re-
<br />pairable, we are grinding our natural resources into the ground and I feel that
<br />five to ten years from now we'll wake up a realize that we don't have any prime
<br />lumber left and that it's too late for our younger generation. So I do think that
<br />we need to slow the bulldozers down, but do some building. You can go right throug]
<br />New Town now and there are blocks, many of them, not just a few, there are ten or
<br />fifteen blocks at least that there's not more than one or two buildings mn them.
<br />And you can come this side of Jefferson School and you could go right from the
<br />Effingham Street area, from Washington Street right straight through to Third Stree~
<br />and you wouldn't tear down more than six or eight houses in those four blocks. In
<br />the proposed area, is tearing some down because some multi-millionaire wants the
<br />property, they think they're going to be able to sell the property, next to the
<br />Effingham Street project. In other words, they feel that some developer is gozng
<br />to ~ant to be r~ght next to the Effingham Street project, so he's going to build
<br />
<br />
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