Susan Martinez
The Port Arthur News
PORT ARTHUR —
As Mike Mason, neighborhood and community development manager, rolled out three maps of the downtown and West Side of Port Arthur, the red dots were everywhere.
There were quite a number of blue dots too.
The estimated 2,700 red dots represent that many homes delinquent on property taxes five years or more. The blue dots are homes delinquent at least three years. Some of those dots encroach to the north beyond Gulfway Drive, another main street on the way to Pleasure Island.
To Annette Mitchell, who has lived in the city since 1963, each dot represents a life.
“Grant. Habitat for Humanity. They died. They moved in with their children. That’s squatters. This one burned. Ah, someone must be fixing this one.”
The retired teacher from Lincoln High School gave life’s rollcall of each dwelling as she drove by tapping her finger on her car window toward each home.
This is still her beloved West Side.
There is hope in her once saddened eyes as she looks toward a brand new sidewalk sprawling down the main street — now named Rev. Ransom Howard Street — after a pioneer of the 1960s civil rights movement and Baptist pastor, who died several years ago.
The 1940s sidewalks being excavated by the local One Block At A Time initiative – a massive effort to remove blight throughout the downtown and West Side — are a picture of what’s happening right now in the port city of an estimated 55,000.
When Hurricane Rita began destroying many of the already frail, low-income homes and battering many of the downtown buildings the city was crippled.
When Hurricane Ike rushed in with its storm surges, everything that was familiar was thrown into a pile of rubble. Piles of rubble are still being formed and a trickling of blue rooftops can still be found.
Many residents did not return after the storms. Many of those homes are marked by the red dots.
The storms forced everyone to come together. Lines of race, income and social standing became blended in order to save the people’s home — Port Arthur.
The year 2008 was a critical kick point on the city’s heart monitor. Those who were going to be in 100 percent for the revitalization process stepped over the line to begin the grassroots effort. Massive efforts began when the federal government released millions of dollars in storm funds into the city. The government also started a program as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which allowed Port Arthur to address the red and blue dots — the 2,700 plus delinquent, abandoned homes.
This act, and the release of $2 million to the city, led to the creation of what’s known as the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which has a contract end of Aug. 31, 2019.
“Some of the properties we purchase into land banking and we hope to develop the land within 10 years,” Mason said.
The city of Port Arthur has gone to auction and purchased about 250 pieces of the delinquent properties through the NSP program. The acquired land then becomes “banked” whereby all tax liabilities are cleared, making some of the dwellings, already in good condition, appealing to first-time homebuyers.
The delinquent lands are also available to non-profits for development of affordable homes. Still other have been “red tagged” or marked for demolition.
The city has already demolished more than 400 structures and has another 400 on the cutting block.
Though barren of services like a grocery store, pharmacy or service station, locals say West Side’s main throughway — Seventh Street — is in better shape than it’s been in 30 years.
“The heirs never came back and they didn’t invest,” Mitchell said.
The people here are now seeing a blank canvas — an opportunity not only to rebuild the West Side neighborhood, but also to co-labor with city officials, businesses and industry in revitalizing downtown Port Arthur.
New homes are plentiful in the West Side, red tagged homes are too. Though many of the new homes are matchbox size, they are repainting the landscape of resident’s hearts and the infrastructure, providing hope once again.
They are also seeing the word “hope” is a verb.
