She hoped the empowerment zone would attract a supermarket to the neighborhood between Mack and Warren. Abandoned homes, doors and windows gaping open, sit side by side with tidy bungalows. Household rubbish is heaped at the curb.
Alleys are a tangle of weeds that shroud discarded appliances.
Even Mrs. Person, as she is known in the neighborhood, doesn't want to venture too far down the alley that runs behind her block on Bewick Street. When it comes to that empowerment zone, we never got a penny. In five years, nothing has changed. Sitting on the front porch of her home, Lorine Branyon says she, too, is waiting for change. I know for a fact that President Clinton and Vice President Gore gave the money.