Tuesday, November 4, 2014
This is the story of a single blighted and crime-ridden apartment complex in Atlanta’s English Avenue neighborhood. It helps to reveal how difficult it is to clean up dangerous properties. The Jett Street Apartments served as a hub of the area’s drug trade and other illegal activity for years, despite pressure from residents, city officials, code enforcement officers, and repeated warnings from Atlanta police. Its Woodstock owner, Joseph Cardoni, only started to change his ways after a community group convinced the US Attorney’s Office to start proceedings to seize the property. Still, the feds are finding that combating even the most egregious threats to neighborhood safety is more difficult than expected. Volunteers and residents, on the first Tuesday in November, spent the day cleaning up and painting over boarded up windows and doorways at the apartment building and some of the surrounding properties. Hypodermic needles were still found littering some of the areas surrounding Jett Street Apartments as well as broken glass and all manner of trash. The neighborhood is a hard place. Even with a police presence during the cleanup, some residents didn’t take too kindly to efforts by the 100 or so volunteers. The effort to get the building shut down was spearheaded by Demarcus Peters of the English Avenue Neighborhood Association and Rev. Darrion Fletcher of Walking Through the Vine ministries. Both of these men and others have spent tireless hours making sure that the English Avenue neighborhood is a safer place.
Leah Carter (center) grabs supplies to help clean up the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Volunteers paint over boarded up windows and doors at the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Reggie Childs sweeps debris off of the second floor walkway at the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Celeste Provost (left), Debbie Knowlan and John Russo pour paint into buckets at the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Angelica Banda carries buckets of paint up to the second floor at the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Amy Rodriguez (left) and her daughter Arianna paint over boarded up windows and doors at the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Larry Turvy (left), Brenda Shimmons and Fatai Bamidele paint over boarded up windows and doors at the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
A hypodermic needle is swept away as volunteers help clean up the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Shan Jenkins (top), Donna Mullis (bottom left) and Michelle Green paint boarded up windows and doors at the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Volunteers scoop trash into bags as the help clean up the Jett Street Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Aramys Rodriguez (left), his sister Arianna and mother Amy paint over boarded up windows and doors at the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Jan Anderson (right) paints over a boarded up window at the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Celeste Provost (top right), Sarita Jordan and Jarelle Goforth paint boarded up windows and doors at the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Anthony Johnson (right) sweeps out a property next to the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Broken glass hangs in a window in the property next to the Jett Street Apartments in Atlanta as volunteers help clean up the neighborhood on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Tavaris Waller (right) hugs Juanita Wallace as she takes a break from cleaning up the Jett St. Apartments in Atlanta on Tuesday, November 4, 2014.