By Caleb O. Brown
Snitch Staff Writer
“The sign out front says these are supposed to be our twilight years,” says Vickie Taylor of her home, the J.O. Blanton House at Eighth Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard. “The board and management of this place are making them our nightmare years.”
Taylor sits in her apartment talking with friends, now colleagues, in an effort to fix dozens of problems they claim plague their home. Some residents say safety has sharply declined, leading some to carry knives, icepicks and handguns when they venture downstairs to do laundry.
The residents gathered with Taylor serve on what they call the “Committee for Concerned Residents,” a group formed by the Resident Council at Blanton House. The group says the home’s board of directors has been unresponsive to claims of poor security and other problems on the premises.
Taylor says, “We told them this building was full of dope addicts, sex offenders and prostitutes.”
Lucille Hall, another resident, says she routinely sees drug addicts in the halls and “the security people can’t do anything.”
Ann Pruitt moved into Blanton House three years ago and said she felt it was a safe place for her to live. She says her son now routinely offers to bring her a pistol so she can protect herself.
“All our sons are saying they’ll bring us guns,” says Taylor.
Three floors up, Vivian Gibson says she moved into Blanton house Dec. 2, 1972, and she’s noticed a decline in her own feeling of safety only in the last three years.
“You’re afraid to go to the garbage room to drop off your garbage. Used to be no problem taking it down there at two or three in the morning. Not anymore.”
The risks are not lost on Carlos Lynes, who is the chairman of the Blanton House board of directors.
“They complain that people are coming in with drugs,” he says. “I’m sure it’s happening. It wouldn’t surprise me at all, but none of that has been substantiated. Without proof, we can’t do anything.”
Lynes says he doesn’t understand why residents are carrying firearms in the building.
“The place is secure,” he says.
“That’s his opinion, but he’s only there once a month,” says another Blanton House board member who refused to be named for this story. “The police got rid of some drug dealers and prostitutes, but when the police left, those people came back. I want to see the place safe for our residents. It’s their home.”
At least part of the fight between residents and the board of directors is over who provides security to the building. Just four months ago, Lynes says, the board moved to allow off-duty Louisville police officers serve as security guards on weekends. Lynes says the police presence was a response to residents who claimed they’d witnessed drug activity in the building. Since switching from off-duty cops to a private security firm - Commonwealth Security - Lynes says residents have gotten angry.
“All of this has happened since we got rid of the Louisville Police Department,” Lynes says. “Three years ago, we didn’t have security in the building. I don’t think the situation has changed that much in that time. The complaints about security usually come around the first of the month, when people get paid.”
One of those complaints came a year ago, when Lula Ross says she was attacked on Aug. 31.
She says the attacker kept his hands on her throat, repeating “Where’s the money?!” Ross says she fought off the attacker successfully.
Taylor says that attack and other threats serve as reason enough for a police presence in the building. Taylor says Louisville police serving as security in the building are just better at policing the building.
“They knew the players and the hustlers and the dealers and they knew how to stop them,” she says.
Taylor adds that Louisville police are armed and have the ability to arrest people, whereas a security officer for a private firm would have to call the police.
Last month, residents achieved mixed results when they approached the board of directors to deal with issues of security and sanitation in the building.
“We had about 25 people who came up. They voiced their concerns and I have a listing of the complaints. It just so happened that the man who manages the property was there, also. I received from him a letter as to what he has done as far as correcting many of the issues,” Taylor says.
Concerned Residents committee member Ann Pruit says it was more like 30 people, and that they followed up with letters to the board and to the recently hired property management firm, TESCO Properties. TESCO Managing Agent Larry Sisson could not be reached for comment at his office in Germantown, Tenn.
Lynes says he is waiting on proof from residents of drug activity, even though he admits that he’s sure there is some in the building.
“They complained that there was drug activity there,” says Lynes. “They complained about prostitution in the building. We asked them to sign an affidavit, and no one would sign an affidavit. If they know of someone who is pushing drugs or bringing drugs in, those residents can indicate that to management, but they have not done this.”
Pruitt and Taylor say no one has asked them to sign any affidavit about what they have witnessed.
