WHEN YOU LOOK around Emporia, there are some wonderful neighborhoods. Picture-perfect houses and well-manicured lawns on nice tree-lined streets.
Other neighborhoods aren’t as picture perfect and need a little help. Next Wednesday, more talk will take place on renewing the neighborhood revitalization plan.
As people study a new plan, we need to ask the question: Is it possible to improve some of the dilapidated neighborhoods?
The answer is yes and we encourage city leaders to do what they can to encourage people to improve their neighborhoods.
I have been impressed with the improvements that have been happening in the neighborhood around Riverside school.
Before the school was built, the neighborhood was rundown and blighted. No new construction, just houses in disrepair.
When the school was being built, the city focused its efforts on improving the area. They bulldozed houses; the neighborhood was put in the neighborhood revitalization plan, and ECHO built three new homes and rehabilitated seven.
Today when you drive around, things have been improved. There are new houses and other houses have been improved with new paint, new siding and new roofs. The neighborhood is looking better-kept.
There are still homes in the area that need improving, but it is not uncommon to see building permits in the windows with renovations underway.
It would serve our community well to encourage more neighborhoods to come together to clean up and improve their part of our wonderful town.
Christopher White Walker
Editor & Publisher