By Jerry Moore Charles Richardson's column in Sunday's Macon Telegraph demonstrates a personal paranoia that, seemingly, the Telegraph would like to propagate throughout the entire community. He needs to take a closer look at his own demographics before trying to create a black vs. white issue out of what is proven by those same demographics a quality of life issue. Blacks as well as whites are leaving Macon to escape the crime and decay of the city. Fix what you have and people will come back. There are buildings on the main street of Macon that could not pass building codes in Ethiopia, let alone a modern city.
Shards of glass fall from the broken windows of the upper story onto the sidewalk.
Pigeon dung is inches thick on the upper story and the basement is worse than one of the dungeons of a Dante novel. Parts of the second floor have fallen onto people on the first floor at least twice that I know of. The mid-Tennessee town of Cookeville started enforcing public safety and building code requirements throughout their town. If the property owner did not repair or demolish the structures, the city demolished the buildings and presented the owners with the bill. Cookeville is now a thriving, beautiful community.