Burned row homes put neighborhood at risk but officials fight with each other, rather than for the city and its people
By Mike McGann, Editor, CoatesvilleTimes.com
At least eight row homes were damaged in a fire Wednesday and now neighbors wonder whether their close-knit community will ever be the same.
COATESVILLE — It might not be the wealthiest neighborhood in the city, but it’s a tightly-knit neighborhood — the kind of place where folks have lived with pride for generations and people who have lived there for five or so years are jokingly referred to as “newcomers.”
It’s this East Side neighborhood that was torn asunder by flames Wednesday — eight row homes burned. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but now neighbors worry whether the damage to their neighborhood is permanent. At least two of the homes in a unit of eight — seeming to date from the early part of the 20th Century — were completely gutted, while the other six suffered varying amounts of damage.
The fire, officials say, was an accident, a cooking mishap gone terribly wrong. And while there is none of the anger that percolated in this city during the run of arson a couple years back, the sadness in the neighborhood is palpable.
Walking down Coates Street Thursday morning, the smell of smoke is still in the air, as workers scurry about cleaning up and securing the fire-ravaged buildings. Neighbors — those not already off at work — peer at the now boarded-up homes of their long-time neighbors and friends and wonder, “what’s next?”
“I’ve lived here all my life,” said Carmella Young as she looked on at the workers across the street. “This is the kind of neighborhood where you know everybody and everybody knows you.”
Talking while she continued to look across the street, the worry about what would happen next was evident in her voice.
At least two of the homes were severely damaged, with parts of their roofs collapsing during the fire, Wednesday.
“It hurts,” she said. “You just hate to see this, three generations of folks grew up in those houses. Now, who knows if it gets fixed?”
Another neighbor, who didn’t want to give his name was more succinct: “This could be it. This could be the end of our street. Those people in City Hall are more interested (in) fighting with each other than working to solve things like this.” He shook his head and resumed walking down Coates Street without another word.
The street is full of well-kept homes, colorful flower baskets hanging from porches of tidy row houses and the odd single home. Maybe there aren’t a lot of rich folks here, but they clearly take pride in their neighborhood, working people trying to keep their corner of the world above water in a city that always seems to be swimming upstream.
Workers clean up and secure the fire-damaged row homes on Coates Street, Thursday.
But now, will those row homes be rebuilt, or will they sit vacant and start the neighborhood slide seen in so many other places? No one seems to know, but there’s not a lot of confidence here that city government can keep it from happening.
Not quite a dozen blocks away, in a building near the improbably named Harmony Street, sits an empty desk: that of City Manager Gary Rawlings. Rawlings was put on paid administrative leave Monday night by the City Council — in a rare move of unanimity, for an elected body that has, depending on who you listen to, been prone to dissension for years.
No one on council said why Rawlings was put on leave — and speculation was his ill-advised racially tinged comments about City Council were the final straw, after a series of moves where he appeared out of synch with their vision for the city. That council members didn’t have anything to say about the leave or a possible termination — that they don’t feel the need to explain themselves — says a great deal about government in Coatesville.
But the folks on Coates Street don’t seem to worry much about vision or accountability, that, truth be told, would be an unexpected luxury. No, instead, they’d settle for a little hope — that their neighborhood, where so many have lived their whole lives, would have a shot to survive this trauma and come back better than ever.
These folks seem primed to fight for their neighborhood by doing everything in their power to keep it the same tight-knit community it is today. But there isn’t a lot of confidence they’ll get help from City Hall.
The best, they say privately, they can hope for is that the elected officials in the city don’t make things worse.
This neighborhood deserves better. This city deserves better.
