{"id":1149,"date":"2012-06-08T13:17:24","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T17:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=1149"},"modified":"2012-06-08T13:18:40","modified_gmt":"2012-06-08T17:18:40","slug":"a-neighborhood-newly-in-need-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=1149","title":{"rendered":"A neighborhood newly in need of hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Burned row homes put neighborhood at risk but officials fight with each other, rather than for the city and its people<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, CoatesvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

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.<\/p><\/div>\n

COATESVILLE \u2014 It might not be the wealthiest neighborhood in the city, but it\u2019s a tightly-knit neighborhood \u2014 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 \u201cnewcomers.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s this East Side neighborhood that was torn asunder by flames Wednesday \u2014 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 \u2014 seeming to date from the early part of the 20th Century \u2014 were completely gutted, while the other six suffered varying amounts of damage.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>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 \u2014 those not already off at work \u2014 peer at the now boarded-up homes of their long-time neighbors and friends and wonder, \u201cwhat\u2019s next?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve lived here all my life,\u201d said Carmella Young as she looked on at the workers across the street. \u201cThis is the kind of neighborhood where you know everybody and everybody knows you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking while she continued to look across the street, the worry about what would happen next was evident in her voice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

At least two of the homes were severely damaged, with parts of their roofs collapsing during the fire, Wednesday.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt hurts,\u201d she said. \u201cYou just hate to see this, three generations of folks grew up in those houses. Now, who knows if it gets fixed?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another neighbor, who didn\u2019t want to give his name was more succinct: \u201cThis 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.\u201d He shook his head and resumed walking down Coates Street without another word.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Workers clean up and secure the fire-damaged row homes on Coates Street, Thursday.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2019s not a lot of confidence here that city government can keep it from happening.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 in a rare move of unanimity, for an elected body that has, depending on who you listen to, been prone to dissension for years.<\/p>\n

No one on council said why Rawlings was put on leave \u2014 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.\u00a0That council members didn’t have anything to say about the leave or a possible termination \u2014 that they don\u2019t feel the need to explain themselves \u2014 says a great deal about government in Coatesville.<\/p>\n

But the folks on Coates Street don\u2019t seem to worry much about vision or accountability, that, truth be told, would be an unexpected luxury. No, instead, they\u2019d settle for a little hope \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t a lot of confidence they\u2019ll get help from City Hall.<\/p>\n

The best, they say privately, they can hope for is that the elected officials in the city don\u2019t make things worse.<\/p>\n

This neighborhood deserves better. This city deserves better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 COATESVILLE \u2014 It might not be the wealthiest neighborhood in the city, but it\u2019s a tightly-knit neighborhood \u2014 the kind of place where folks have lived with pride for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,3],"tags":[126,357,24,355,358],"class_list":["post-1149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-featured","tag-city-council","tag-coates-street","tag-coatesville","tag-fire","tag-neighborhood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}