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I guess I'm just tired by this whole situation, that I would spend 25 years in this situation. She said she must make some "hard decisions." This is my family."īut facing life's uncertainties, Wilson agonizes over whether to take the settlement. "Why should I leave?" said Nadine Fosky, Carrie Fosky's daughter. With so much taken from them, people ask why they stay. "This is what the city took from us, a sense of community." "This used to be a community," Williams said. Since then, more units have been stolen.Īnother night, someone set a stolen car on fire.Īnd when night gives way to day, neighbors must sweep up drug vials and condom wrappers before their children run out to play. One night, by the headlights of a van, someone cut the electrical wires to one of the central air/heating units, took it, and drove off. In the barrenness, drug dealers have set up shop. "People think nobody lives here," Renfro said wearily. They feel like they're living in a ghetto. Residents say the number of ghostly houses has made their area vulnerable. On Osage Avenue, someone has spray-painted a wall with "W-Boyz" in big, black letters, like a crude welcome sign. a devastated neighborhood gets reclaimed and is built back up, that the spirit of the people and their feelings, their humanity, continues to be recognized with dignity." "But we want to have a better situation up there. Now, to address plans for Osage, he cautions that everyone must be "clear and realistic about what's possible." In May 1985 as a staffer for Councilman Angel Ortiz, Nutter tried to get MOVE members to negotiate with the city. "Obviously, there's not a whole lot that I can do about the past," Nutter said. Some like Renfro are angered that their property values have "gone to null." Others like Williams fear redevelopment will cause their property taxes to "skyrocket."įosky wants the city to tear the block down and start all over again. Rice said: "They're waiting for us to die." Others see conspiracy in the ugly, boarded-up houses, an opportunity for gentrifiers to seize the block for redevelopment.
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"I refuse to fix it," said Milton Williams, vice president of the block association, of the leaks and cracks in his home. Renfro fumed, "This is a city-created blighted area." "Since they dropped that bomb, it's been chaos," said Clifford Bond, block captain when police dropped the chemical C-4 on MOVE's bunker.īond cannot seem to get over the sheer gall of the city's actions. In 2008, a federal appeals panel dismissed the $100,000 allotted for emotional distress, leaving residents even more outraged. The city appealed, and that December a federal judge slashed the award to $250,000, ruling that the city and its officials were immune from punitive damages. In the spring of 2005, a federal jury awarded the remaining homeowners $534,000 each. They demanded compensatory and punitive damages, insisting that the city should repair rather than condemn their houses. Those remaining sued the city in federal court, charging that Street had conspired to "terrorize" them into leaving. Thirty-seven families took a $150,000 buyout, an amount Street said then was "far, far, far in excess of the value of the properties." Street declared the houses unsafe and halted repair efforts. Goode's successor, Ed Rendell, pledged to fix the mess. Many of the homeowners say they cannot afford to remedy the problems. One developer landed in prison for skimming millions off the project. Neighbors stomp on uneven floors and knock on hollow walls to show just how shoddy their houses are. Stained and buckled ceilings still leak when it rains. (In 2000, Ernest and Ester Hubbard's house burned to the ground because of faulty wiring.) Yet resident after resident testified to roofs collapsing, floors separating from walls, nails dropping from the ceiling, sewage backing up in kitchen sinks, and electrical problems.
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The city spent more than $16 million to rebuild and repair the properties, which had a 10-year warranty. "They gave us these little dollhouses made with balsa wood and Krazy Glue," said Fosky in disgust. They looked nice at first, until they started falling apart. Residents returned a year and a half later to new houses. Wilson Goode promised to rebuild the homes by Christmas. As time goes on, it's even more unbelievable." "I saw my house burning on television," Wilson said.
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The next day, the bomb and the six-hour, six-alarm fire destroyed everything else. But what they carried would be all that remained. Police told residents to pack a bag for overnight. On Mother's Day 1985, MOVE was finally being evicted.