Local News

Ridgeview Apartments Are Condemned, and Residents Need a Place to Go | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

August 28, 2023

[ad_1]

click to enlarge MIKE FITZGERALD Resident Tammy Kuhn shares her eviction notice after Riverview Village condemned the Ridgeview Apartments.

There is no other way to say it: Ridgeview Apartments is a disaster zone.

With trash pick-up canceled months ago, piles of fetid, stinking garbage cover one parking lot, right next to several abandoned cars.

Meanwhile, the back courtyard is a wilderness of knee-high grass, discarded drug paraphernalia and shattered glass.

And without anyone actively managing the site, tenants say most of the units are occupied by squatters, who have turned the site at 9640 Diamond Drive into a marketplace for drugs. Gunshots and fentanyl overdoses are now a daily part of life, according to tenants interviewed.

“It’s a mess,” tenant Tammy Kuhn says. “There’s only seven people who legitimately live here.”

Kuhn says she can’t wait to leave Ridgeview, which is located in the small hamlet of Riverview Village, just west of the nearby Mississippi River and north of the St. Louis city line.

But that won’t happen until the Housing Authority of St. Louis County, which oversees her Section 8 checks, helps her find a new place to live — a quest that’s taken on a special urgency since August 16.

That was when village police began taping notices on each of Ridgeview’s 84 unit doors informing occupants the apartment complex had been declared “unsafe for human occupancy” and that tenants had 30 days to relocate, or else “be removed immediately” at the end of that period.

For Latice Valient, the news she might soon have to leave Ridgeview comes as a shock. Less than two years ago she and her young son were evicted by nearby Spanish Cove Townhomes when it began a large-scale renovation.

Valiant says she has no idea where to go.

“I ain’t got hotel money,” she says.

Ridgeview’s slide into oblivion happened in the same way Hemingway once described a character’s descent into bankruptcy — gradually, then all at once.

The quality of life began deteriorating three years ago. A series of owners and management companies came and went, each promising to make life better, but never following through.

click to enlarge MIKE FITZGERALD Resident Michael McKinney blames the building’s owners and managers for the condition of the site.

Things hit rock bottom in January, when Evernest St. Louis — whose parent company’s corporate offices are in Atlanta — ended its active management of the site, according to tenant Michael McKinney and others interviewed.

McKinney heaps blame on Evernest St. Louis, as well as two previous property managers; each promised to make needed repairs but never followed through.

“They never do anything to the place for the last three or four years,” he says. “And they just push us, push us, push us.”

Evernest St. Louis did not return calls seeking comment Friday.

St. Louis County real estate records show that the current owner of Ridgeview is a firm called Le Chateau Citadel LLC. No phone number is publicly listed.

But that ownership information is not accurate, according to attorney Elad Gross, outreach coordinator for the St. Louis Mediation Project, which works with landlords to help tenants avoid eviction.

The current owner of Ridgeview is a firm called Hughes Capital Management, of Reno, Nevada, says Gross, who was on hand for a village council meeting Thursday night to help tenants deal with the village-led condemnations.

Hughes Capital’s phone number is disconnected.

After speaking to village leaders about evictions, Gross says, “They agree they’re not legal. They won’t be going through with that. So I’m just here to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Gross says only a couple families at Ridgeview receive housing vouchers through the housing authority, and — with the help of their case managers — could probably use those subsidies at apartment houses that accept them.

“There are a good number of landlords who are accepting it,” Gross says. “I would think it’s sooner rather than later, but it’s really kind of hard to gauge. That’s why it’s important for anyone who’s looking to get on that as soon as possible.”

McKinney blames village leaders for willfully ignoring the apartment complex’s obvious decline.

“They could’ve shut it down years ago,” McKinney says. “How come we’re living in a condemned building?”

During the council meeting, Mayor Mike Cornell told tenants jammed into the tiny council chambers that he and other city officials weren’t aware of Ridgeview’s deteriorating conditions until recently.

“We didn’t do this,” Cornell told tenant Esha White during the public comment section. “We didn’t put it in this condition. Hell, we didn’t know what was going on.”

Later in the meeting, Action St. Louis representative Kayla Reed told tenants in the packed room that her group will be making resources available to Ridgeview tenants seeking a new home.

Reed, the group’s executive director, also asked Cornell to confirm if evictions will occur next month, as originally advertised.

“So September 16 is not a date people need to be concerned about?” Reed asked.

“Correct,” Cornell replied. “However, we will be boarding vacant apartments. We will be going through everything.”

In the meantime, the village will seek to locate Ridgeview’s current owners.

“We’re at the bottom right now,” Cornell said. “I want to hold somebody accountable for leaving it like this.” click to enlarge

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

[ad_2]

Source link