Frustrations mounting in Duquesne as neighbors, city fight blight

Several neighbors in the City of Duquesne are growing frustrated at the very sight of many abandoned, scorched, and deteriorated homes in the neighborhood.

“It’s an eyesore,” said one neighbor who didn’t want to be identified. “We’ve been dealing with it for a long time, and something needs to be done.”

That neighbor said a blighted duplex on Catherine Street is a hazard.

“The smell that comes off of it, the rats, the raccoons. You name it, we have it in our yard and all the neighbors have them as well,” he said.

Several others have had enough.

“Nobody cares about this; they look at me and smile,” said David Marks.

Marks lives next to another blighted home around the corner on Kennedy Avenue.

“That brick came off of that house,” Marks said. “This is a problem.”

It’s a problem he said he’s been dealing with for several years and added that the property is a big safety concern.

“The debris I’ve collected on that windowsill include boards, nails, a brick. Just garbage that’s coming off of the building,” he said “These things are falling on taxpayer’s property.”

On Grant Avenue, just a couple of streets over, another home has cracked exterior walls, boarded-up and broken windows. The home appears to be falling down. The property is just one of several the city is hoping to demolish.

“It’s a big issue here,” the neighbor said. “We need to definitely get it taken care of.”

Four properties — 1036 Lincoln Ave., 314 W. Grant Ave., 620 W. Grant Ave., and 28 Overland St. — are on the city’s radar. On June 2, the city council submitted an application for the county’s blighted program to tear them down.

The duplex on Catherine Street, however, is not on that list, which means neighbors will have to look at the run-down home a bit longer.

Channel 11 is waiting to hear back from city leaders.

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