Fall 2020 - 1736 Magazine

COVER STORY
reality
Blight, unchecked vandalism
make downtown appear unsafe
PERCEPTION IS
Story by DAMON CLINE | Photos by MICHAEL HOLAHAN
The view from Margaret Woodard’s Ellis Street office is uninspiring on
any day – it faces the back alley trash bin of the JB White's condominium
complex – but the scenery was made even less picturesque over
the summer.
That’s when graffiti began appearing on the complex’s trash container. The
director of the Augusta Downtown Development Authority noticed fresh “tags”
appear on the brown roll-off bin every few days.
She placed a call to her friend and former authority board member Paul King,
whose Rex Property & Land owns and manages the building’s ground floor.
“I said, ‘Paul, you’ve got to do something because your bricks are going to get
tagged next,’ ” Woodard said. “He took care of it immediately and it hasn’t been
a problem since.”
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