In recent City Talk columns, I’ve taken a detailed look at the city of Savannah’s plan to raze historic homes and build a new Central Precinct on 1.6 acres along 33rd and 34th streets between Montgomery Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.
The cottages slated for demolition are part of Meldrim Row, which was developed beginning in the 1880s as housing for black workers.
I think it’s obvious the chosen site is larger than necessary, that the project will further degrade the residential integrity of the immediate neighborhood, that the demolition of historic properties sets a terrible precedent and that there are better sites in close proximity and elsewhere in the precinct.
The city is using a variety of counter arguments.
One argument is that the 36 wood frame cottages aren’t worth saving. Fortunately, owners and landlords of modest, single-story homes throughout the neighborhood disagree.
Maybe such modest old buildings aren’t a good fit for the modern conception of government-owned “affordable housing,” but vibrant mixed-income urban neighborhoods need a diversity of housing stock. No matter what happens, homes such as those in Meldrim Row will remain inexpensive relative to others in the neighborhood.
The city is also promoting the idea the new precinct will reduce crime in the neighborhood.
I will concede it’s probably safer standing next to a police station than not, but it’s hard to make much argument beyond that.
I’ve lived across the lane from the current Central Precinct for 18 years, and we’ve had the usual variety of downtown Savannah crimes on my block, including drug sales.
The Wesley Community Center, at Drayton and 33rd streets just around the corner from the station, was burglarized six times during the holiday season of 2005, leaving “many staff feeling unsafe,” according to an article in this newspaper.
It might sound convincing to argue that a police station will dramatically reduce crime in a neighborhood, but the simple fact is sub-stations such as the Central Precinct are locked much of the time. The officers based there are out in their cruisers and on calls.
The city also argues the new precinct will be a “catalyst for redevelopment of other parcels.”
But what does the current Central Precinct at Bull and 31st streets teach us about that?
For many years, the lot at the northeast corner of Bull and 32nd streets — immediately south of the precinct — was home to a business that sold used appliances and delivered new ones. Behind the crumbling fence in the back yard, there were dozens of old appliances that made an excellent mosquito farm.
There is now a lovely mixed-use building on that site. Having a police station next door might have helped spur activity there, but the main catalyst was the Mid-City rezoning of 2005, which dramatically reduced setbacks and eliminated off-street parking requirements for the development of four small businesses and three condos.
An office use took over a rented building at the northwest corner of Bull and 32nd after a government organization moved out. There have been no significant exterior improvements to the structure for at least 18 years, and the parking lot in the rear is still protected by barbed wire.
The southwest corner of Bull and 32nd saw a number of temporary and failed uses over the years before being purchased by the city. A new fire station occupies most of the small block, and the city has moved to sell the remaining historic structure, which is still boarded up at ground level. Some of the second-floor windows of the city-owned property have been broken for many years.
The southeast corner of Bull and 32nd streets, about 150 feet from the precinct, is essentially blighted, although it has been home in recent years to a neighborhood car wash.
I am the nearest resident to the current Central Precinct. My house had been on the market for many months when I bought it in 1996 for $78,500. According to Chatham County, the value has not quite kept pace with inflation.
The current precinct obviously hasn’t been a catalyst for neighborhood redevelopment, so why should we expect a new precinct just six blocks away to play that role?
I’ll even propose that the design of the new precinct will, by its very nature, work against the city’s vision for a revitalized MLK.
The new Central Precinct will require the closing of at least one city street, which will hurt connectivity.
The large amount of land devoted to a single government use is antithetical to the boulevard’s mixed-use past and future.
By its nature, the architecture of the new precinct building will not have welcoming entrances and expansive windows.
The large amount of off-street parking required for a police station also runs counter to redevelopment standards. A non-residential building of 17,000 square feet would be allowed a maximum of 34 spaces in the historic Mid-City rezoning, but the new Central Precinct will need more than twice that many spaces.
Seemingly endless meetings over the years have been held about revitalizing the MLK/Montgomery corridor, and the new Central Precinct will require a development style that is completely antithetical to the communal vision that has emerged.
For all the logical reasons to oppose the chosen location for the new precinct, perhaps the most compelling argument stems from the symbolism of the site.
In order to improve a struggling neighborhood, the black leaders of the city of Savannah are planning to destroy homes that have been rented for 130 years by working class black families and replace those homes with a police station.
On a street named for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Of course, MLK was formerly West Broad Street, which was for many decades the center of African-American life and culture.
And this is the arrow the city pulls from its quiver to improve the neighborhood — razing homes and replacing them with a sprawling police precinct?
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 East 32nd St., Savannah, Ga. 31401.