BLIGHT FLIGHT: Former Blight Board members flee blighted area for new digs
- Details
- Written by Mike Martin
School Board member and CID director move from blighted to non-blighted neighborhood COLUMBIA, 7/10/12 (Beat Byte) -- Talk about voting with your feet!
Former EEZ/Blight Board members Jonathan Sessions and Carrie Gartner have left their home in Columbia's legally-blighted North Central neighborhood for Aldeah Street, outside the City of Columbia's notorious blight zone.
Shortly after City Hall passed a February Resolution blighting North Central Columbia to qualify for a developer tax incentive called the Enhanced Enterprise Zone (EEZ), Sessions and Gartner -- who lived on Rogers Street at the time -- announced to the neighborhood listserv that they were eager to join. At the time, listerv members were boisterously debating and condemning the Blight Decree.
Shortly thereafter, Gartner -- the City of Columbia CID-Downtown director -- and Sessions, a Columbia Public Schools board member -- were appointed to the board overseeing the EEZ/Blight Decree. Sessions later stepped down over conflict of interest allegations and Council members seated a new board that does not include Gartner last month.
The couple then relocated to the Aldeah St. home, which they purchased this spring.
The couple then relocated to the Aldeah St. home, which they purchased this spring.
