Month: October 2012

Westview Community Events!

One of the qualities I love about the Westview Community is their ability to ALWAYS have a social event; either a dinner party, yard sale,community clean up or gardening club- Westview is NOT lacking in “things to do”.  The  only thing… you must be in the loop to know  “What’s up?” …

Here are a few of our up coming events. It’s a good time to come out, meet your neighbors (or future neighbors) and see how genuinely in love these people are with their community.

Saturday–November 10, 2012  the Westview community wide “Yard Sale”  If you need more details please email  Annie Evans at  annie2evans@yahoo.com

Sunday—November  11, 2012  the Westview Fall Hike–at SweetWater Creek State Park  If you need more details please email Kendal Carey at kenscarey@yahoo.com

Saturday–December  15, 2012  the Holiday Celebration Dinner at the fire station in the Westview community.  If you need more details please email Kendal Carey at kenscarey@yahoo.com

checkout the website for all Westview information: www.WestviewAtlanta.com

Saturday Press Conference in the West End..

I hope that you can join me on this Saturday, October 27th for a Press Conference at 9:00 a.m. at the Shell Gas Station in the West End. This gas station is located at 1355 Ralph D. Abernathy Boulevard, SW (at the corner of Ralph D. Abernathy Boulevard and Langhorn Street, SW). Of the over 200 businesses that are located in District 4, this gas station is one of the trashiest and dirtiest businesses in the area. The City of Atlanta Code Compliance office has cited this individual on many occasions over the last 5 years. We had him in Municipal Court earlier this year for fire safety violations inside his convenience store.

I believe that many times we tolerate the acceptance of bad service, as well as businesses that are not kept to a higher standard. Over the last five years, I have diligently tried to work with the business owner, Mr. Anwar Ali. Unfortunately his business continues to be un-kept. If you have ever just walked throughout his property, both in the front and in the back of the store, on a daily basis you will see trash in the hedges and paper littered on the grounds of the property. He has not properly repaved the grounds around the gas pumps in 15 years, and has not repaved the rest of the property since he purchased it 15 years ago.

About eight or nine years ago, Mr. Ali purchased the building next door to the gas station at 1335 Ralph D. Abernathy Boulevard, SW (formerly a Kentucky Fried Chicken). At that time Mr. Ali stated to me that the reason he purchased this additional property was to expand and make improvements to the current gas station. No improvements have happened, in fact the old Kentucky Fried Chicken building is still boarded up and now has graffiti on the property. I have asked our Code Compliance officer to cite him for the graffiti.  Mr. Ali lives in Peachtree City and I wonder if any of those gas stations in his neighborhood looks like this run down one in our area.

Again, I hope that you can take time out of your busy schedule to join me for this Press Conference on this Saturday, October 27th at 9:00 a.m.  RALLY! RALLY! RALLY!

Cleta Winslow

Councilmember, District 4

404-330-6047 (office)

404-216-1701 (cell)

404-331-8929 (fax)

cwinslow@atlantaga.gov

Atlanta No. 2 most affordable housing market

Metro Atlanta hasn’t been the greatest place in the country to own a home, as everyone with a devalued house in these parts knows.

There is some good news, relatively speaking, though.

It doesn’t cost that much to buy here.

Atlanta ranks second in the U.S. among the top 25 metro areas in terms of home affordability, new research from Interest.com, a Bankrate company, shows.

The median household income in the Atlanta area exceeds the income required to purchase a median-priced home here by 40 percent. That’s better than every other  big market except for Detroit, where it’s 45.32 percent.

The rest of the top five most affordable metro areas are Minneapolis, Phoenix and St. Louis.

Of course, Detroit is hardly the symbol of economic success, and Phoenix has had major housing issues.

The least affordable markets: San Francisco, New York, San Diego, Miami and Los Angeles.

Housing affordability is key concern nationally, and nationwide a  median-income household can afford a median-priced home in only 14 of the 25 largest markets, the study found.

Mike Sante, managing editor of Interest.com, said, “Despite all the talk about how homes are more affordable than they have been in decades, buying a home is still a big challenge for many American households.”

Sante continued, “Dealing with rising expenses and stagnant wages is a struggle. Even after years of declining home prices and record-low mortgage rates, median-income households are unable to afford a median-priced home in nearly half of the metropolitan areas that we looked at.”

AJC 10:39 am October 17, 2012, by David Markiewicz

Promoting homeownership through an innovative program

As communities across America work to recover from the housing crisis, Wells Fargo announced the NeighborhoodLIFTSM and CityLIFTSM programs. The Wells Fargo LIFT programs are designed to provide down payment assistance, homebuyer education and homebuyer support in the cities most deeply affected by the crisis. So far the program has been implemented in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Houston, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Upcoming cities for the program include Memphis, Chicago, Sacramento and Oakland.

The Wells Fargo LIFT programs invest in the future by supporting sustainable homeownership and neighborhood stability. A collaborative effort sponsored by Wells Fargo and local nonprofit organizations, the programs provide:

Down payment assistance for qualified buyers

Financial education to help buyers prepare for homeownership

Events to showcase area homes for sale

A video about the NeighborhoodLIFT program is posted at www.youtube.com/wellsfargo.