Leon Steele: Did you know? Part 5
Original photo credit: Lindsay Corrigan
Did you know there are particular buildings downtown that remain empty year after year? Why is this? Pride of Kinston and its economic vitality committee have identified that issue as a primary concern and project. The first phase of this project is to address lower South Queen Street between Lincoln and King Streets because it is a key gateway into our downtown that has been an especially depressed and ignored area for years apparently and it needs some love, particularly since we have invested $2.5MM in redesigning and improving Queen Street.
In these few blocks we have the African American Music Park associated with Kinston being the trailhead of the African American Music Trail, a music history in which Kinston played a key role that brought about international music industry evolution. The music trail distinction is another asset our community owns that remains to be properly capitalized on. Here we also find the historic Maplewood Cemetery in which family members of many local families now reside.
A beautification project was begun by Pride of Kinston a few years ago at Maplewood Cemetery but certain circumstances halted its completion, so this is included on our projects list. The district also has a great mural, some empty, neglected, and threatened buildings as well as businesses doing business that include a couple of barbershops, a popular hot dog shop, an auto detailing company, a very tidy convenience store/gas station, a night club, a smaller historic cemetery, a couple of churches, a U-Haul and auto service, an attorney, and two spaces under rehabilitation. So despite its outward appearance, there is life and commerce in that district, as well as the potential for growth.
So what is the plan? First of all, this is a team effort that began last summer primarily with Pride of Kinston, City Planning, and former Mayor Buddy Ritch. The first step was to create a building inventory with photos of each and data for each identifying property owners and where they currently reside, where they stand with property taxes, when services were last on if the building is unoccupied, whether the property is on the demolition list, and so on.
Then we contact the property owner with a letter and photo drawing attention to various things like the condition of the property, our revitalization and investment efforts, and ask what their intentions are for the property; fix it, sell it, or donate it. Sometimes a property is in the hands of heirs who sometimes are unaware they own a building. In other cases, the owner does not live here. Since, as mentioned before, we are a National Register Historic Commercial District, demolition should be a last resort.
Simultaneously, we are exploring options. Obviously the first thing is how to make it more attractive. The other is finding funding for what needs to be done, whether it is for painting or something else.
Then there is what to do with vacant lots that create an overgrown gap-tooth on the streetscape.
As we move up Queen Street and through the district compiling this public information, we will begin making it more easily assessable to the public for those individuals who ask the question “Who owns that building is why aren’t they doing something with it?” This way, that individual can contact the property owner and ask directly.
So, fix it, sell it, or donate it for a property tax write off. It makes no sense to let a building remain empty, deteriorate and collapse, generate no revenues for you or anyone else, and yet it costs the owner money to sit on it like that.
People sometimes use property rights as an excuse to hate a place by holding their own neglected property hostage. When someone’s property value is intentionally, neglectfully, and spitefully bringing down the property values of its neighbors and community, where is the value of that property rights argument?
