On Thursday, July 8, 2021, crews knocked down three more blighted houses in the Historic Pleasant Hill neighborhood.
The houses at 365, 373, and 381 Monroe Street were deemed uninhabitable and unsafe, making them the 45th – 47th blighted houses to be removed from a neighborhood in Mayor Lester Miller’s blight fight.
“This isn’t about tearing down, it’s about building up,” said Mayor Miller. “What I see are not blighted houses, what I see is hope and opportunity. Hope and opportunity for our children, this neighborhood, and our entire community.”
Tearing down the houses on Monroe Street has been in the works for several years as the revitalization of Pleasant Hill continues. After about 5 years of being closed, the Booker T. Washington Community Center underwent a major renovation and reopened its doors in April 2021, becoming a center of education and activity for Pleasant Hill once again.
“This gives us the opportunity to expand the footprint of the Booker T. Washington Community Center,” said District 8 Commissioner Virgil Watkins.
“Blight is more than an aesthetic issue. It causes issues with people’s mentality as they have to walk past these overturned and burnt up houses,” said Executive Director of the Macon-Bibb County Community Enhancement Authority, Tedra Huston. “It affects crime, property value, ongoing issues with redlining. By tearing down blighted houses, we are fixing these problems, little by little.”
You can watch the press conference and demolition here.