kajohnson@post-journal.com
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Part two in an ongoing
series on neighborhood
revitalization efforts
Walk through the six-block area bordered by Grant, Liberty, Falconer and Sixth streets, and it's clear the neighborhood is in transition. But whether it's going to fall victim to blight or whether it's going to be able to reestablish itself as one of Jamestown's stateliest neighborhoods remains to be seen.
The area is known as Northside PRIDE. Its namesake is a relatively young grassroots organization that's tackling the problem of blight and neighborhood decay head-on.
''Neighborhood revitalization and home rehabilitation both snowball,'' said Bob Doverspike, the Northside PRIDE leader, as he walked the streets of his neighborhood. ''If the residents cooperate and participate, revitalization snowballs and a neighborhood can, after a few years, find itself in a much different position than it was initially. But participation is key.''
BUILDING A SENSE OF COMMUNITY
There are 116 houses in the Northside PRIDE neighborhood and just 39 percent of them are owner-occupied. The remaining 61 percent are so-called ''investment properties'' - properties purchased by someone who wants only to rent the property and typically cares nothing about the home's maintenance or property upkeep.
For example, one abandoned home in the Northside PRIDE target area is painted two shades of yellow - one an almost pastel yellow on three exterior walls, the other a nearly neon shade on the wall facing Eighth Street. On other homes, roof shingles peel like old paint, porches are crooked, windows are old or broken and trash litters front yards.
''That house is very exposed now that the home on the corner of Eighth and Grant streets has been demolished,'' Doverspike said. ''It's a vacant property and has been for two years. I'm getting concerned about it. It's amazing how quickly a house deteriorates when nobody is caring for it, living in it or keeping it heated.''
The home stands next to a vacant lot upon which a house once stood. But that house was torn down last June after standing empty for a long time, Doverspike said. Eventually, he said, Northside PRIDE wants to acquire the adjoining property and put a park there.
''It's a nice size for a little pocket park or a playground,'' he said. ''Those are important - that's where you go to meet your neighbors. Places like those are where you form a sense of community.''
That's the kind of initiative and foresight that has made Northside PRIDE one of the city's success stories for neighborhood revitalization efforts.
After being approached by Chuck Cornell, a Chautauqua County legislator, residents in the Northside PRIDE area quickly banded together. They had a ''neighbor helping neighbor'' program where neighborhood residents helped an elderly woman by doing some work on her home that included scraping, painting and caulking. The group has organized neighborhood cleanup efforts, rummage sales and fundraisers.
SUCCESS STORIES
While there's still a lot of work to be done - dilapidated or totally abandoned homes exist on every single street in the Northside PRIDE target area - success stories abound in Northside PRIDE's neighborhood. The group has formed close partnerships with the city of Jamestown, Chautauqua Opportunities Inc. and the Chautauqua Home Rehabilitation and Improvement Corp., or CHRIC.
Over the years since Northside PRIDE was formed, the city of Jamestown has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in Community Development Block Grant money in the neighborhood. With that money, new curbs and sidewalks have been constructed. About 100 new, young trees have been planted and more are planned. An empty lot that had become a trash dump was purchased, cleaned and landscaped.
A home on Lincoln Street, formerly owned by Ken and Teresa Sohmer, was donated by the Sohmers to Chautauqua Opportunities Inc. It will be renovated on both the interior and exterior, then placed on the market and sold to an eligible first-time homebuyer. That organization recently received $250,000 to enhance its neighborhood revitalization efforts.
CHRIC received $490,000 toward neighborhood revitalization efforts in the northside area. It currently owns four homes in the northside area, which includes the Northside PRIDE neighborhood.
One - an old Dutch-colonial at 52 Grant St. - is perhaps the neighborhood's most shining example of what partnerships can accomplish. The home is a single-family, two-bedroom house that, thanks to CHRIC, sports a new roof, new windows, new sheetrock, a new kitchen, new siding and is well-insulated. If that sounds like an unattainable dream, think again - mortgage payments on the house, including taxes and insurance, will be $550 or less.
It's all part of a larger plan for the neighborhood, according to John Murphy, CHRIC executive director.
''By taking vacant properties, which drag down the values of surrounding homes, over-investing in them to improve their quality and pricing them at the high end of values in the neighborhood, the effect is an increase in the values of the houses around them,'' Murphy said. ''By selling to owner-occupants only, we help create a more stable neighborhood where owners are invested in the general well-being of the neighborhood because they live there, send their children to neighborhood schools, make personal connections with other neighbors, and work together to preserve their common interests. If we can do that with a number of vacant houses, the private market will begin to take over.''
CHRIC has purchased three other homes in the northside area, Murphy said.
''Chautauqua County, through the county executive's office and the administrative services committee, have been partners in allowing CHRIC to purchase tax-foreclosed houses in the north side neighborhoods we're working in,'' Murphy said. ''Three houses CHRIC purchased from the county for $5,000 each through that partnership have preliminary development work being done on them and have had scopes of work developed for them that are out to bid. Once rehabilitated, they will be sold to income-eligible families for owner-occupancy only, meaning they are not available for purchase and rental by real estate investors.''
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