This spring, nobody along the west side of Roanoke Road will pull the weeds or trim the bushes.
Nobody cares if the black paint peels off the shutters.
That side of the suburban street 11 homes in a row, with Wolf Run Creek flowing behind them is coming down. Unable to stop the creek from rising and flooding the houses, as it regularly does, the city will surrender this corner of the Gardenside neighborhood to nature. After the next heavy rain, only the grass and trees should get wet. In the next few days, demolition workers will raze the homes on Roanoke Road, followed by a half-dozen houses on other streets in the area. Last week, they reduced nine homes on nearby Furlong Drive to rubble.