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From YouTube: Blitz on Blight: SW 5th St and Leach Ave

Description

On April 5, 2019, neighbors in the Watrous Heights neighborhood were happy to see a blighted building torn down to make room for new development.

The City of Des Moines' former neighborhood blight removal program has only been able to address 10 to 15 condemned homes per year, meaning this property has been an eyesore for the neighborhood for many years.

As Council Member Joe Gatto explains, the City will be accelerating its new Blitz on Blight program to address 100 to 200 condemned homes per year thanks to the Local Option Sales & Services Tax recently approved by voters. The Local Option will go into effect on July 1, 2019.

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https://amara.org/v/C0suI/

A

Long time coming this project taking down this blight at home and cleaning up this neighborhood Southwest 5th and leach, we worked really really hard to secure the funding to be able to do this. This house has been abandoned for close to 10 years and it's been our list for over two years.

A

So a lot of applauds from the neighbors today and really happy that we were able to secure the funding with Community Development and a lot of help from staff being able to get this done so I'm proud that this is the first of many with our local option: sales tax money that we'll be able to do so. Thank you to the residents that supported that effort and we clean up our neighborhoods. So that makes me really happy.