Latest Weather Blog
Calls to city go unanswered, resident points out lack of accountability
Related Story
BATON ROUGE - A neighborhood in the middle of the city is getting some attention from 2 On Your Side.
Bettie Martin went on a walk through her neighborhood with Brittany Weiss to point out concerns she's been having. Her calls to the city for help haven't produced the results she's been hoping for.
"I'm just aggravated," said Martin.
Growing up in Mississippi, Martin's family lived and worked on a farm.
"My mother always taught us the only way you going to have something is you got to work for it and I taught my kids that," she said.
She moved to Baton Rouge in the 1970s and has lived on North 25th Street ever since.
"It was a beautiful neighborhood when I moved here," said Martin.
Time has taken its toll, but Martin says accountability is lacking too. Not only with property owners but public officials.
"The city is responsible for a lot of this," she said.
On the streets in her neighborhood are piles of junk, old furniture, tires, and branches. She says most of it isn't from the latest storm but has been there for months. Martin has been calling the city about the blight that's formed at the curbs around her home. She says the large trash trucks don't come to her neighborhood.
"I stay here every day I don't see trash people," she said.
Blight has become a permanent fixture in her neighborhood. Some lots are overgrown. Martin says she used to pay someone to help take care of a vacant lot near her but it got to be too much.
"I'm angry, kind of mad, and I feel like I need to move, I need to move out of here," she said.
As a tax-paying citizen who still works, she can't seem to get the city's attention to help.
"You can't get nobody to take care of the neighborhood, I tried the city, I tried the mayor, who do you try?" said Martin.
Thursday, there was a city DPW truck driving through the neighborhood with a camera in hand. It appears there are several 311 requests outstanding.
News
