RM 01-02-76 - Laserfiche WebLink

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6. NEW BUSINESS (Coat'd) Mr. Dan Caesar, WSBT -TV Reporter, asked: "Nave any of the Commission members ever gone out to the Paris Street area? Have any of the Commission members ever looked at this house at 409? You approve these things rather quickly here." The Chair advised that he believes we have to rely on our staff to do this. Commissioner Wiggins added that we have not only a staff, but that we have a neighborhood Advisory Committee and people who live in the neighborhood, who are familiar with the place and who must agree that the thing is as represented and is a fair deal. We have to depend on the people in the neighbor- hood. Ms. Jeanne Derbeck, South Bend Tribune Reporter, stated it is hard to believe that any house on that part of'Paris Street really is worth $8,000. Mr. Gene Evans, Executive Secretary, Civic Planning Association, asked Ms. Derbeck, "What is the alternative ?" Ms. Derbeck said she didn't know what the alter- native is, but "what are you going to have when you spend all this money ?" Commissioner Wiggins replied that we are going to have a place for somebody to live, and as to the $8,000 stressed, he added that it would be difficult to provide housing anywhere in town, and in this day and age that amount of money is not high for decent housing. On further comments from Mr. Caesar on the high amounts for the rehabilitations and how apprised the Commission is as to what is being done, the Chair replied we have had some dis- cussions on this in the past, and the theory as to whether we tear everything down in that area and just have vacant land, or do we try to keep as many of the houses going as we possibly can. As they stressed, the theory here is that if we can keep people living in that area, that is the best thina to do, rather than just to have wide open spaces of vacant land there which would not be used for living purposes. Further lengthy discussions ensued on the controversial subject. Commissioner Wiggins stressed to the flews Media that they should recall the fact that the Redevelopment Commission made attempts to get several different types of projects into the Southeast area over a period of years, and many of them met with failure on our part to get the Federal Government to finance the projects that we had proposed or that had been proposed for us by con- sultants, or experts, who went into the area. One of the things that happened several times, with more than one consultant, was that they felt we ought to tear down everything in that area and redevelop it into a new neighborhood. Over a period of time, the insignia of the Redevelopment Department has become a bulldozer in the eyes of many people, and from the standpoint of just shear economics of real estate development, it would be a lot easier to 'i[M