‘Field of Dreams’ will replace blighted housing

Of all the recreation projects in Macon-Bibb County, the one being created off Riverside Drive near Rose Hill Cemetery on Wise Avenue may be the most difficult but also the most important.

Wise Avenue and its surrounding area are the very definition of blight. There are about two dozen properties that will need to be torn down to create a multipurpose recreation field. Hardly a loss because most of the structures are uninhabited and those that are shouldn’t be. Many are overgrown with their roofs caved in.

Any government entity should use its powers of eminent domain as a last resort. Those powers allow governments to take private property for public use after compensating the owners. Those powers have rarely been used by this government, but in this stretch of properties it became necessary because some of the owners could not be found. The owners who were found were willing to sell, but there were other cases where the titles were bad.

It’s hoped that the new field with a concession stand and restrooms and parking, built at a cost of $2 million with funds from the blight bonds, will bring children out to play a variety of sports such as football, baseball, softball and soccer.

One of the constant questions that still go unanswered is, what do you do with blighted property? If you simply tear down the structures, what’s left behind is an empty lot that demands upkeep. While the scope of Macon-Bibb’s blight problems is vast — and you can’t put a multipurpose field everywhere when blighted properties are removed — in this particular case, building a multipurpose field is the perfect solution.

The field idea was originally conceived to help the fledgling Macon Charter Academy with its recreation needs because the charter school is just a short block away, but the county’s plans have been full on whether there is a school at the MCA site or not. The Pleasant Hill neighborhood, which has been around since the 1870s, isn’t going anywhere.

This park may spur others to think better of their properties, and at the very least it will give children living in a part of the city a place to safely hone their athletic skills.

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "‘Field of Dreams’ will replace blighted housing."