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'Love Your Neighborhood' Revitalizes West Mesa Neighborhoods

Two west Mesa neighborhoods have less blight and people living there are more likely to work together after the completion of a rehabilitation pilot program.

The  "Love Your Neighborhood" program targeted homes near Main Street and Country Club Drive based on data about vacancies, blight and crime. 

Examples include visible junk, graffiti, illegal construction, dilapidated homes and overgrown yards. 

“A lot of these structures were from individuals with a very limited income and they weren’t aware of some of the programs the city has to them to actually make improvements to their home,” said City Housing and Revitalization Administrator Raymond Thimesch. 

The city spent $350,000 of a $417,000 federal Housing and Urban Development grant to fund the program and also worked with Habitat for Humanity. 

“Helping those of low income in getting their places to look really nice kind of spurred those people that could afford it, but just didn’t have the motivation to do so,” Thimesch said. 

The program took place between 2017 and 2018. 

The city has existing programs that let residents  borrow tools and  giant dumpsters, build  Little Libraries and  rehabilitate their homes

The city surveyed people before and after the roughly two-year program and found people more likely to work together and maintain their homes and yards.

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Mariana Dale was an assistant digital editor and senior field corrsepondent at KJZZ from 2016 to 2019.