Todd Paris, Staff Writer and Salisbury Attorney
The Mysterious Brenner Crossing Gang Map Question Mark
Chief Jerry Stokes delivered a map of gang territories to city council last week. This could be a very important tool to make sure folks do not wear the wrong colors in the wrong neighborhoods. Yet, the legend on the map does not tell us what the ominous octagon with a question mark over the City of Salisbury’s Housing Authority’s public/private project “Brenner Crossing” means. Is Brenner Crossing like the “Death Star” or the “Joker’s Hide-out” from Batman or something? Inquiring minds and the folks that live there might want to know.
Perhaps “the dispossessed” from the Civics Housing project still bear some anger from being led to believe that they would get new apartments at Brenner Crossing when their homes were torn down? Are questions of gentrification being raised among the community?
I wonder if there is a map somewhere at City Hall with the skull and cross-bones where “The Paris Tower” is located. I would be disappointed if there isn’t.
The Faux Windows of Salisbury
Of course Salisbury City Council member David Post revealed earlier this year that around 2,000 residences in Salisbury are vacant from a housing stock of around ten thousand. That’s twenty percent! Newer information revealed that based upon Salisbury-Rowan Utilities info on places no longer getting water and sewer, that that number may approach 2900, which is closing on one-third.
Recent travels about the town show an interesting artistic feature in that plywood over the windows of abandoned houses now appear to have been crudely painted with white lines and squares in a half hearted attempt to appear from a distance to be the rails and muntins of actual windows! I kid you not! Of course I have attached the pictures!
This appears to be far too widespread to be just the work of individual artistic license. Are city code officials demanding this urban camouflage from the owners of abandoned and burnt out dwellings? While the quality of “the work” varies from place to place, could the effect, at least from a distance, fool a passing visitor? Sounds like a crackpot idea.
Touring the “The City of Make Believe”:The Faux Plywood Windows of Salisbury
