by Tonya Brown
Since 2009, the City of Florence has demolished 71 homes and cleaned-up 179 overgrown lots.
Mayor Stephen Wukela says he made it one of his top priorities when he took office.
“I went door to door on streets like Marion Street, Ingram Street and Dixie Street throughout Florence and people told me consistently that one of the problems they were very much concerned about were abandoned houses that were not habitable, that had trees growing through them, that were dangerous to their community.”
Mayor Wukela says he started enforcing existing ordinances against property owners who didn’t clean up their abandoned lots or homes. He sent out notices to the landowners advising them that he would demolish their houses if they didn’t take care of the problem.
Some of them obliged. Others didn’t.
“Making the communities safe and getting these lots cleared and these houses down, that’s integral to the quality of life to everybody in the city,” said Wukela.
There is still a ways to go, the mayor says, because there are more than 2500 abandoned homes in Florence.
“We’ve just started to scratch the surface,” said Wukela.
Residents in Northwest Florence have been taking walks in a field off of Clements Street since June of 2010. That’s when city leaders demolished an abandoned church that rested here for three decades. They say crews started building the church in 1978, but never finished it.
Many residents say its an eye-soar and danger to the community.
“Trees growing up around. You know, some of them, the doors are hanging off of them. Windows all broke. So it was bad for the neighborhood,” said Benjamin Burton.
Burton says the demolition of all the vacant homes in his neighborhood alone has created a better atmosphere, one where people feel free to sit out on the porch, take long walks and call this community home.
Mayor Wukela plans to introduce a stronger ordinance this summer targeting property owners with abandoned homes.