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Highlands Today

Reviving A Neighborhood

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: July 21, 2008

Updated:

SEBRING - There are eight elements to a good neighborhood, said Debbie Love. Washington Heights used to have them all, but they've disappeared as this community has disintegrated over the years.

Love is a planner with the Fort Lauderdale firm of Keith and Schnars, so she doesn't know the point at which the predominately black community on the city's northeastern border began to crumble. But she had a conversation with historian Elizabeth Walker, who said that when E.O. Douglas High School was closed in the desegregation years, Washington Heights seemed to lose its cohesion.

Keith and Schnars was in Washington Heights to Friday and Saturday - hired by Sebring Community Redevelopment Agency - to help the community get back to where it was decades ago.

Keith and Schnars let a charrette - a planning session - to re-vision the neighborhood.

Rosa Peterson and Armetta Robertson were there on both days. On Friday night at Bountiful Blessings Church of God, 50 people showed up to talk about improvements needed.

"And we need a lot of them," said Robertson.

"Crime and safety, road conditions, drainage," Peterson started a list.

"We also need a sewer," said Robertson. Parts of Washington Heights are served by city water and sewer, the rest is in Highlands County and has septic tanks.

"And we need jobs in this area also," Peterson said.

"And businesses," Robertson.

And that's it in a nutshell. They realize Publix isn't likely to build a new mega-market there, but they'd love a small grocery with a pharmacy. An ice cream stand. A Popeye's Chicken. A laundry.

They're candid about why even a Dollar General won't come to Washington Heights. The corner of Lemon and Martin Luther King - the epicenter of Washington Heights - is dominated by crime and drug dealers.

"That's why we want a police substation there," said Peterson, her finger stabbing the air to make the crucial point.

Peterson and Robertson, like the Friday night crowd at Bountiful Blessings, mentioned most of the items needed in what Love calls a smart neighborhood. That's a healthy mix of residences and businesses, where pedestrians can walk, motorists can drive, cyclists can ride. It may include two kinds of parks, where children can run and scream, and quiet spaces where people can read or play checkers.

Currently, Love said, there are 409 substandard houses. Fifteen lack complete plumbing, 24 have incomplete kitchens, 284 have no phones.

"This community centers around its churches now," Love said. "But other than that, nothing ties this community together anymore."

Even so, she said, "We were so impressed. These people have a great desire for improvement... They had passion. They had ideas. They really want to save their community."

Eight Elements Of A Good Community

Business: Every good neighborhood needs shops that satisfy everyday needs, Love said. In previous years, there were drug stores and hat shops and restaurants in downtown Washington Heights.

Safe Streets: Every community revolves around its schools. When E.O. Douglas closed, the school board moved in. "I'm told the gymnasium is still there, but it's just used for storage," Love said. Now, the community has lost its sense of group accountability.

Paths: Neighbors should find it easy to get around on foot, on bikes, in automobiles, and by mass transit. Years ago, there was a bus stop, which has disappeared. The Amtrak railroad station runs through the neighborhood, but that's a hindrance, Love said. Citizens would like noise barriers.

Housing choices: a mix of houses, town homes and apartments, peppered with businesses. In the old days, women had beauty shops and men had mechanic garages and carpentry shops in their homes. Grocers and restaurateurs lived above their businesses. Washington Heights citizens would like to have that back, so rezoning is being considered.

Gathering Places: places for people to meet and talk, such as businesses, parks, plazas and sidewalks. Washington Heights contains few of those today.

Government services: parks, schools, police and fire stations, libraries, public water and sewer.

Special character: the combined attributes of streets, churches, history, culture, and genealogy. "People took great pride in E.O. Douglas high school," Love said. "Doctors, lawyers, all kinds of people graduated from there." Woodlawn Elementary and Sebring High School are nearby, but they are not the centers of the Washington Heights community in the way Douglass was.

Connectivity: great neighborhoods stand on their own, but they're connected to the whole city. Washington Heights is a few blocks from downtown Sebring, yet Juneteenth doesn't draw the crowds that come to the arts and crafts festivals at Circle Park.

Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863 386-5828.

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