In a neighborhood where people can be afraid to go outside, 20 residents and property owners marched through the streets Saturday morning in a demonstration against deadbeat landlords and drug-peddling tenants, who they say are dragging the Harrisburg community into the proverbial gutter.
"It's just wrong," longtime resident Donna Dumas shouted. "Wrong to rent to prostitutes and pimps and drug dealers."
With Richmond County sheriff's deputies keeping a watchful eye from patrol cars, the marchers carried signs reading, "Dope Kills Kids," "Lazy Land Lords = Drugs, Crime," and "Eve St., Corridor of Shame."
They shouted, "Stop the neglect," "Hugs, not drugs," and "Save our children," and at one point broke into a chant of, "We want 'em out!" They filled garbage bags with trash they picked up along the way.
Their accomplishments: They found a marijuana plant growing in one yard, got loud music turned down outside another property and convinced at least one landlord to change his ways.
"I think the best part is that the neighborhood knows that the neighborhood cares," Harrisburg-West End Neighborhood Association President DeniceTraina said. "We're all here, and it's all that important to us."
No particular group was behind the march, according to organizer Lori Davis, but it was made up of several members of the neighborhood association, for which Ms. Davis serves as vice president. Another leader was Butch Palmer, a board of directors member and the founder of HONGKONG -- Harrisburg Organization Networking for Gentrification to Keep Our Neighborhood from becoming a Ghetto.
Mr. Palmer had scrapped an idea to carry arms loaded with blanks during the march after the sheriff's office dissuaded him. Instead, he wielded a bullhorn.
"Stop being afraid," he blasted at houses whose doors and windows were closed. "Come out and join us."
The protesters targeted three properties Ms. Davis said have been generating the most complaints -- 223 Eve St., 609 Eve St. and 1841 Watkins St. In front of each, she hammered a handmade sign reading "Nuisance Property" into the dirt between the curb and the sidewalk.
When they reached 609 Eve St., about a half dozen men and women were sitting on the front porch with bass-heavy music blaring from a car in the driveway.
"Violation of sound ordinance!" Mr. Palmer yelled.
"Mind your business," a man in a chair snapped.
"We are minding our business," Mr. Palmer retorted through the bullhorn. "We've got our eye on you, and we're so disgusted."
Deputies told the group on the porch to turn down the music. They shut it off.
Another verbal skirmish broke out at Crawford Avenue and Hicks Street, where a group gathered outside an apartment building accused the marchers of racism, even though several of them were black.
"We're not in the slave days," someone shouted from the building.
"We are slaves now," Mr. Palmer blasted back. "We're slaves to crime. We're afraid to come out of our homes and we're tired of it."
At 223 Eve St., a woman on the front porch, Willie Bell, said her sister lives there and is raising five grandchildren, ages 13 to 19. She denied there's any drug activity, but she agrees with the protesters that the house needs to be cleaned up. Her brother, Walter Tankersley, took part in the march.
"It's not so much that it's a nuisance," Ms. Bell said, "it's that we need the funds to clean it up."
Efforts to reach the owner of the house, John B. Weigle Jr., resulted in missed phone calls.
The owner of 609 Eve St., Roy Searles, admitted in a telephone interview that he hasn't managed the property well and said he's determined to do better. He bought the house in October for $14,000.
"It's a big, big headache," he said. "I didn't know it was going to be like this getting into real estate. This is my first investment property, and it's a bad one."
He's been running it as a boardinghouse, renting rooms to two men and two women who pay $80 per week apiece.
He's gotten a call from the sheriff's office about "activity in and out," he said, and Saturday's protest was the last straw.
All four renters will be out by Friday, he said, and he's going to close the house, make some repairs and try to rent it to a family.
He'll do background checks of his next tenants; with the current ones, he asked only for their driver's licenses and Social Security cards to confirm their identities.
"I totally, totally agree," he said of the protesters. "But it's kind of hard. Show me a neighborhood that doesn't have drug activity."
No one was home when the marchers reached 1841 Watkins St., though they found a marijuana plant growing beside the front porch of another house on the street. A deputy pulled it out, tossed it into his car and radioed for a narcotics investigator.
The owners of 1841 Watkins St., Emory and Rachel Rabitsch, said as far as they're concerned, the people there are good tenants.
It's a duplex, with a woman and her husband in one part and the woman's son in the other. They've lived there about four or five years, they pay their rent totaling $1,000 per month on time, and they don't tear anything up, the Rabitsches said. Both the husband and the son have jobs.
Mr. Rabitsch said he's gotten on to them before about beer cans left in the yard, and the tenants cleaned them up.
He said he knows they get rowdy sometimes, and neighbors have complained to him about drinking and partying. He said he's talked to them about that, too.
"These people are not bad people. I have seen worse," Mr. Rabitsch said. "We're still in the business to make money. It's hard to get rid of a good tenant that pays on time."
Mrs. Rabitsch said she's not going to evict them just because "they're not upper-class people."
"They can demonstrate all they want," she said. "But I'm not going to discriminate against these people."
Ms. Davis said the protest wasn't about poverty or sociology.
"That's not what we're fighting today," she said. "We're fighting the landlords that are allowing the bad people to live in these properties.
"They don't screen," she said. "They just want the money."
Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
A lot of courage here, I sincerely hope this works and there are is no backlash to the brave protestors. Kudos and good luck! Richmond County's involvement in it was great, hopefully they'll stay in the area more right after this to help finish the job as much as possible.
A diverse group of concerned neighbors hold a peaceful march through their neighborhood to try to rid it of drugs and thugs, and someone from one of the drug/thug properties calls the marchers RACIST? This individual does NOT know the meaning of racism. God bless the marchers who want to rid their neighborhood of drugs and crime. They're very brave souls and heroes of Augusta! Augusta and the rest of the CSRA needs more brave souls like them.
It takes guts to do what those protesters did yesterday. All it takes for evil to prosper is for good people to do nothing.And it seems the good people of Harrisburg have had enough. And for anyone wanting to make this a black/white issue, you couldn't be farther off the mark. This is about holding ALL people in the neighborhood accountable.
$1000 per month rent!!! Only drug dealers can pay this exorbitant amount of money. This is what entices these land lords. These houses are DUMPS. I would challenge anyone reading this article to get out and look at these properties.
With this kind of money, these renters could be living together in Enterprise Mill. Thank you Mr. Searles for doing the right thing with your property. Let's hope other land lords will follow suit.
Protest drugs and crummy property...and your racist disagree with barry the babykiller and your racist.....you see the mentality we've got going on here?
How is it that the radio was a noise ordinance violation, but a jerk with a bullhorn is not? Maybe he should have gotten off his porch as a counter-protest and then his radio could have been "free speech" too.
Spoken like someone who's never been awakened at 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning by a "boom car" that rattles the windows in your house.
A bullhorn is not a noise problem during a legal march bit the constant rap crap is not so nice to hear all the time. Good show for the marchers. Also, Mr weigle passed away with cancer several months ago.
Johnny Edwards said in the article that he and Mr. Weigle played phone tag, so WW1949 may be referring to the wrong Mr Weigle. Just a thought.
tell that to the group "move" they had a bullhorn and the mayor dropped a bomb on their house and burned down two city blocks."long live john africa".
The economy will always determine who lives in a neighborhood. Want to change Harrisburg? Call the cops every time you suspect anything. Have land owners charge more rent or sell their properties for higher amounts. Then all properties will be vacant.
Copral, You may be right. There is a Dan Weigle who ownes property and is the brother of John B. Weigle who worked at Merrill Lynch and has passed away. There is another Weigle who lives on Conifer Square and 3 others in the phone book. They all have JOhn B. as the first name.
This particular Weigle is a jr.
To Mr. Searles, you stated that this investment has been a bad one of $14,000. Well, after 1 year of earning $16,640.00 it is very hard for me to feel sorry for you. To earn $320.00 per week for this dump is disgusting.
And to the Rabitschs, you should be ashamed of yourselfs for renting this dump for $1,000.00 per month. And it appears you paid zero for this property.
To the slum landlords of Augusta, may you reap what you sow!!
Good for the PEACEFUL protesters of Harrisburg. I dont blame them one bit. Also, there is a 4 plex at the 4 way stop sign on Crawford, near the JC Calhoun Expressway. Someone needs to do something about the tenants in this building too. Just the other morning I saw one thug relieving himself in full view on Crawford side of the building in full view for everyone to see. And yes, he is there everyday with the other 8 to 10 not trying to find a job young thugs. I bet they went and voted back in November though.
Call the sheriff every time the rap is too loud, every time you believe there is drug activity, and take your protest to the County Cmission meetings about the land lords. There are ordnances against such crap in N. Augusta, thank God.
Comparing the situation with Move (who were a bunch of militant bank robbers who also refused to surrender when surrounded by police) to the good people of Harrisburg, who are trying to better their neighborhood, is asinine to say the least.
?
To tots...read phillygirl"s post.
Where are you at Williston? You had plenty to say about this march at 12:53 on the other article(Is this a protest or rebellion).
Ok corporal.My fault I did'nt read that post right.But your right the two should not be compared.
There are ordinances about loud music here, too. But I've been listening to it coming through our subdivisions 24/7, since the late 90's. I'm really tired of hearing the bass to Thriller added to the mix, too. Reporting it caused more problems: Retaliation and Fabrication. They were very creative about it, too. (That's putting it nicely).
Still, you HAVE to complain about it. If you don't voice your displeasure, they win. And we should ALL refuse to let that happen.
LolaJean, the 4plex you are talking about is the same one that called us racist and shouted "We're not in the slave days!" In the spirit of neighborliness and unity, we invited them to come help us fight crime in our neighborhood, but of course they refused. Perhaps because they ARE part of the problem! MANY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE MADE POSITIVE COMMENTS. THEY ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED!
thankfully i dont have to deal with neighbors blasting music. just the people in transit from eve & crawford avenue to sand hills for their daily "hookup". i'm all about the freedom of expression and free speech and all, but this music infringes on my rights for a peaceful nights rest. Go on kick all the gangbusters out. Put more pressure on 'em. If these rallies are more frequent.. I may end up out there holding signs too.
Complaining about loud music can be risky sometimes. Officers show up, the noise somehow manages to get shut off before they arrive, (how did they know?) and then the culprits just might lie like you know what and convince the officers that the complainant is the problem. If the complainant doesn't have a credible adult to back him up, the liars are called "witnesses" and the complainant ends up being the one in trouble. Don't expect your recording of the incident to do you much good either, if no one ever will listen to it.