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Cantonment ‘Blighted’ Neighborhoods Could Get Redevelopment Help
September 17, 2010
A large portion of Cantonment will be declared as “blighted” and designated as the Cantonment Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) under a plan being considered by the Escambia County Commission.
The Escambia County Community Development Agency determined that the area was “blighted” because it is experiencing economic distress, endangerment to life or property due to the presence of a large number of deteriorated structures. Problems included the lack of paved roads, lack of sanitary sewer service, 96 percent of the single family homes in the area are in need of some form of repair or rehabilitation, and over half of the homes in the area are worth less than $50,000.
A Cantonment Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District would be created under the plan, funneling tax money collected in the district back into the area.
The average median household income in the area is $28,921, which is over $16,000 less than the county median household income of $45,484, according to the county.
The Escambia County Commission will set a public hearing for 5:32 p.m. on Thursday, October 21 to consider adopting the blighted designation.
West of Highway 29, the blighted area is generally bordered by Heaton Road to the south, Nowak Road and Hicks Street to the west and Well Line Road to the north. East of Highway 29, the blighted area is generally bordered by Becks Lake Road, Virecent Road, and Eden Lane. The blighted area border does not include all properties on the listed roads. For a map provided by Escambia County, click here.
Pictured top: Areas like Lakeview Avenue are under consideration as the Cantonment Community Redevelopment Area by the Escambia County Commission. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
28 Responses to “Cantonment ‘Blighted’ Neighborhoods Could Get Redevelopment Help”
it doesn’t say they would change the way taxes are levied, just that those which would be collected would only be spent in that area.
If I read that correctly, that means general county functions would be paid from the taxes of other areas. I can imagine them having to raise taxes on everybody to make up the difference.
I’m not saying they WOULD, just that they might and I don’t see how they could avoid it, assuming taxes were needed in the first place.
David for fairness
Can anyone tell if the ‘TIF’ would tax all property owners in Cantonment?
Even though they are taking the tax dollars and putting it in the same district does not make it right to rob the rich or middle class to feed the poor. The MIDDLE class will become the POOR class, and the RICH will become the MIDDLE class. And since their are not enough rich class as their are middle class, We as a society will depend on the BIG BROTHER GOVERNMENT to provide for us. THEN = YOU WILL OWN NOTHING AND THEY WILL OWN ALL. THIS IS SLAVERY.
What’s the answer?!
Let PEOPLE choose where their money goes to whom they want it to go to. Churches need to reach out and they would if the people could get their money back from the government that is rightfully theirs anyway.
It all boils down to GOVERNMENT CONTROL
anydaynow, just exactly what, pray tell, is ‘that type of thinking?’
Does anyone really think the commissioners will take just the tax money generated in Cantonment and put it back into Cantonment? They’ll do this without raising taxes, too? Is there that much money generated in Cantonment? Is it going to be from sales taxes? Property taxes? I know, they’ll raise taxes on the mill-the troubled economic status of the mill and it’s employees can surely handle that.
I go back to my original thought. Taxpayer money, wherever generated, is for the benefit of the public not the private and should be handled with the appropriate respect. Tossing it around carelessly by county, state, and federal politicians should be made to stop.
I would think that most people are tired of paying for the lifestyles of others. If there are those who think they are not being taxed enough, please write a check to the county, state, or federal government with an amount you deem adequate to cover your perceived tax liability.
quote
A Cantonment Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District would be created under the plan, funneling tax money collected in the district back into the area.
end quote
I don’t understand why anyone would disapprove of these folks’ own tax money going to rehabilitate their own district. Well, I DO actually understand what is behind that sort of thinking…and so does everyone else.
Socialism! The government should NOT tax the people and redistribute the wealth!
deBugger, so the county turns it into some kind of ‘project’? Yeah. How’s that worked out in other places?
Sandra, no ma’am. Many, but not all.
Taxes from the district plowed back into the district to forestall the slow slide of an area into slumville? Using tax dollars to keep tradespeople working? Rehabbing an area so the squalor & malaise doesn’t continue to creep to surrounding areas & further impact property values [tax rolls]?
Well, it beats having folks squatting in ramshackle accomodations.
Look up “favelas” in Brazil.
This is the change that all of you voted for.
Bama Boy, you are right. I would, and do, disagree with that type of spending as well.
It’s simply got to stop. It has to stop somewhere. It may as well begin here.
Simply taking the attitude that ‘if we don’t spend the money, someone else will’ is no longer acceptable. The public can’t stand any more of this.
If there are those who feel so strongly about this, then great. Let them pitch in their money and time to help do the upgrading to these neighborhoods, i.e., through charitable organizations.
Don’t take money from the taxpayer to benefit private persons on private property. It just ain’t right.
TO SW, again you are trying to make this into a class warfare thing.
Some may have classified this area one way or another; notice that I did not. Don’t paint me with your liberal broad brush, please.
Slow down and re-read the article. It does mention sewers and roads; but it also mentions homes needing ‘repair or rehabilitation’ and quotes some values.
I revert to my main point, which you keep avoiding; it is not the business of government to use taxpayer dollars to renovate private property just because it doesn’t meet some aesthetic standard; it is the business of the homeowner. It is the business of the government to protect us by way of certain services; not the business to take care of us.
Maybe I should clarify further-I don’t care what part of the county is targeted; I feel that good stewardship of the tax money is mandated. I feel this is not good stewardship.
SW your tax money is paying for all kinds of other crap that does not make a diffirence so why not use it for something that will…….I am with on the tax issue
Can you give more information or contacts for this program.
A lot of those houses in that area , known to most as “The village”, are rental houses. The landlords should be responsible for their own upgrades and it should not fall to the taxpayer.
It is a very large area that is covered by the map provided at the left of the article. It isn’t ONE neighborhood. It is an area of NEIGHBORHOODS in ESCAMBIA County.
Some of your broad brush artist friends are here now, SW. They have generalized the people in that area as drug dealers. They are lazy and living outside their means! See why I advise against making such generalizations? It isn’t attractive.
Reread the article. It says NOTHING about fixing up private homes but roads and sewers. Escambia taxpayers pay for those ALL OVER THE COUNTY.
I also live in this area, but not in one of the “blighted” homes, or even around the ones they are talknig about. I’ve lived in the same home since I was 8. I have been calling the health dept and code enforcement about a abandoned house that sits behind mine. NO HELP! The homes on the roads around mine are very nice and kept up. But it has to be said that these homes have the same owners in them that they did when I was a kid. Respectable hardworking people. The only blighted home besides the abandonded one is its neighbor. A said story of a hard working couple that died and the house went to the grandkids that have a “handout” mentality. No-one in the home works, the teenagers throw parties and roam the neighborhood. Often I drive by and they are sitting in one of their 400$ vehicles obviously smoking joints, right out front of everyone!! I handout to fix these homes is not what they need. A offer to help if they agree to help themselves is what most of them need!
I know of a sweet old lady in this area who cooks on a wood burning stove in her kitchen. A stack of firewood is kept is kept in the kitchen. I can’t recall if there was electricity in the house.
This statement someone above made is true
“…dropped you off in those neighborhoods you would think you are in a 3rd world country…”
This does not make them bad people…people are people no matter where they live.
I hope we don’t have to pay for improvements to this neighborhood! I am so sick of those that want hand outs. If you don’t have the money to do it on your own then how dare you take from someone??
If certain people in the “blighted” area would pay taxes on the drug money they take in………..well, you get what I’m saying.
Really ticks me off!
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the county used public funds to upgrade the homes, then upped the tax assessment on those homes because of the improvements?
But that would never happen…nah.
Remember the movie “Robinhood”??!
Keep you hands out of my pocket! I have lived off that much income before in the past and learned how to survive and make do until I could better myself financially. No one needs a hand-out. That creates laziness. One needs to learn how to live within their means and not expect others to take the slack. These times are hard, but we must not LET government take from others to boost a stimulas for the economy that is only a delusion and leads to debt for two generations down.
YOU WILL NO LONGER OWN YOUR HOME WHEN GOV. PAYS THE BILLS AND UPGRADES.
Wake up!
TO SW, then obviously my comments don’t apply to you.
It has nothing to do with ‘class warfare.’ It has everything to do with wise use of taxes. Tax money is public money and should benefit the public, not the individual.
I am obviously not against improving Escambia County, but only if the taxpayers of the county can afford it. In an area that has high unemployment and few opportunities, how can it rationally be considered?
If being a concerned citizen for good stewardship of public funds makes me ‘narrow minded’, then so be it.
People who live in Escambia County are taxpayers… not just people who live in better neighborhoods. Perhaps your complaints are against ANY improvement to Escambia County? I own a home in the ‘blighted’ area… I pay taxes, I make more than the median income for Escambia County and I receive NO AID from the County or the State. My home is nice and is maintained.
You narrow your canvas when you paint withh a broad brush, SW. Perhaps the people leaving Escambia County won’t be leaving because of improvements to the County but because of narrow minded ‘neighbors’
Bama Boy, they may need compassion and help; but not by forcibly taking our tax dollars to their benefit.
My religious beliefs notwithstanding, I don’t live in an ivory tower, either. I am well aware of economic issues of people. I am also well aware of cultural differences.
If they are, indeed, the working class, and making the income listed in the article-then they are most likely getting their taxes refunded, with some extra, at the Federal tax level. I’m sure they pay property taxes, but most likely at a lower rate; I’m sure they pay sales taxes.
If what you’re telling me that these are ‘working poor’ then I’m buying somewhat into your argument. If you are telling me they deserve tax-based help from others, I disagree. There are charitable organizations that could help, there are neighbors that can help.
My premise is that it is not government’s job to ‘take care of us.’ If the government uses tax dollars to do this kind of thing, then it is money unwisely spent.
If I sound harsh, then so be it. If a person is working, but is not earning a ‘living wage’, then they have options-increase marketability to get a better job, or live with it. It is not the burden of the taxpayer to foot this bill. It is, however, the community’s charitable organizations opportunity to shine and help.
SW you need to drive through some of those neighborhoods……If i blindfolded you and flew you around in an airplane for about 8 hours and dropped you off in those neighborhoods you would think you are in a 3rd world country. People that live in those neighborhods are the working class of this town and pay their share of taxes. Also, I bet you are a good Christian who belives in giving to foreign missions…well those neighborhoods need Jesus and Christians who care to show them the love of Christ.
So we, taxpayers, pay to fix up someone else’s home and neighborhood? Sure. Why not? Then in 10-15 years we can do it again. Let’s buy them all new cars and update their TV and don’t forget that internet and cell phone.
I guess it is too much trouble for the county to try to encourage business opportunities and jobs.
At some point, taxpayers are going to be totally fed up with this kind of spending. Many will move away and others will intentionally decrease their tax liability to avoid seeing the fruits of their labors go to someone else.
I’m all for helping neighbors, but not by force.
Yes! We can’t wait to add sewer service to this area. With the new rate hikes, we’ll make even more money off of the people who can’t afford our monopoly!