THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 19, 1994 TAG: 9408170144
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 29 lines
The ramshackle, vermin-infested hovels that the city rents out to poor people in Campostella Square should have been bulldozed long ago.
The notion that dangerous, blighted housing is better than no housing at all has kept people trapped in the project's squalid row houses for decades.
If the city decides to wait until there is acceptable replacement housing before tearing down the rotting buildings, there will be no end to waiting. As long as they are considered acceptable for habitation, the hovels will be inhabited.
The city has promised for years to rejuvenate the area but has never found the money. If it can't afford to do more good in Campostella Square, it should at least resolve to do less harm there.
It is folly to think that a healthy public housing program can grow in the midst of such inhumane conditions. Let's clean up the mess first and then set to work to build something better. by CNB