Locals clean up the “Forgotten South Side”

For several months now, there has been an effort to revitalize Ville Platte. Much concentration has been put into making Ville Platte more attractive for its citizens and visitors. The majority of effort has gone into cleaning up Main Street. The goal is to eventually get the whole town, but with the initiative’s focus on Main Street and surrounding areas first, other citizens in the city feel forgotten.
Monday, Jacqueline Guillory, a concerned citizen from Ville Platte’s south side called the Gazette to say she and a group of neighbors were cleaning up their neighborhood known as The Wood. They were working on the block at Young and Edward Knotoe Thomas, Jr. streets. More than a dozen neighbors had been cleaning all morning. Bags of litter and piles of branches lined the streets. Lots and overgrown ditches looked more akin to a jungle than a residential neighborhood.
Neighbors worked together in the humid August day, picking up trash and debris, using knives to cut wild brush because they had no weed eater. Another community member dropped off water for them, and they used their own trash bags.
One resident, Alonso Leday, said, “The problem is the inequality in the black community. The city workers are told not to come here by the mayor. Why? I do not know. We just want equality. We want programs for the children. They took every program away for the children and the swimming pool. They would open up the center for the children to go play games, they took that away from us. Everything that was valuable to us and the children has been taken away. We feel forgotten by the community and the city officials. It’s designed for the crime rate to go up.”
The city councilman representing their district is Coach Lionel Anderson, who lives across the street and at the end of the block from where they were cleaning. Some of the cleanup crew said Coach Anderson’s side of the street is clean and free of overgrowth, while the other side looks trashy.
Anderson said he keeps the ditch by his house clean. He said of the streets in his area, “It’s become a standing place to accumulate trash all day. It’s been a problem for a while. There’s a trash can on the corner. That street was cleaned four times in the last 35 days. The first time I did it, personally. Second time it was the prisoners with an escort. And then we had a community group that came through.”
When asked about the blighted properties on these streets, Anderson said, “We sent out letters to the individuals who own these properties. If they’re not taking care of it then we will. They are on the list of blighted properties. The individual should have at least 10 days to respond to the letter, if I’m correct.”
Anderson was asked about having something for the youth of the community. “There was a basketball court but it was destroyed. I don’t know why,” he said. “I went back a couple of times to try to put it up, but there’s so much trash around the area it looked like a trash pile. I’m going to try to put the basketball court back. I have a lot of projects I want to do.”
When asked if the city workers can get there to clean up the neighborhood, Anderson said, “The city is backed up with the recent flood. Nobody wants to be last. Everybody wants to be first.” He was referring to the waiting list for city projects and cleanup. He said of the cleanup going on in his community, “What they are doing is my plan all along, my whole campaign was for this. Together we can do this ourselves.”
The cleanup crew said they want to have a peaceful protest at City Hall. Leday said, “You know it’s sad. I post pictures on the mayor’s Facebook page. We voted her in, and she didn’t do anything she said she was going to do. No jobs, no nothing. I work every day, and I want to see where my tax dollars are going. They don’t want to fix the roads, they don’t want to fix the houses, they don’t want recreation, they don’t want nothing here. They don’t want to bring jobs, so what is left for us to do? Some people here don’t have the basic necessities of life; water, food ... some people are homeless.” A red city truck drove past the cleanup. “That’s all they do is ride around,” said Leday about the city workers. Another neighbor chimed in, “They hide way back there and hide under a shed. They ride around on the outskirts and hide.”
Another resident said of the mayor, “All the trees down, we can do that. Pay us. We don’t mind. It’s our ‘hood. Give us a little sympathy. We ain’t did her nothing except vote her in.” At one point, a woman brought water to the cleanup crew. “A single mother just came and brought us a whole case of water and a bag of ice. She just came out of the kindness of her heart. Jennifer can’t do that?” They said they asked the city if they could bring them water, but the city told them they could not do that.
The Gazette reached out to Mayor Vidrine for comments, but had not heard back by press time.
“We got young kids around, you know. We’re trying to show them the right way. The street is not the way for them. We’re trying to show them a better way,” said Gregory Guillory, organizer of the cleanup. “We want recreation, new roads, and livable homes,” said another resident.
Carol Deville, a minister with God’s Glory Reveal Ministry, came to the neighborhood in early August. The particular theme she shared with The Wood is called “A Mother’s Cry.” “The theme is about mothers crying for their kids due to drug violence, gun violence ... so we came to minister to them. And the next phase was the cleanup. They started the cleanup. They told me, ‘We just wanted you to see that we care for the community and you would be proud of us.’ I am very proud of them.” Deville is a native of Ville Platte, now living in Houston, but has obtained another residence in Ville Platte to continue to help the community.
Deville said when she came to minister, she brought in a casket and a hearse to the neighborhood to give residents a powerful image that would hopefully help them to realize how serious the situation is. “God told me to bring in a casket,” said Deville. “To show them, ‘You’re not lying in here today, but that could be you.’ I did that, and the crowd just grew. Everybody was acting like they were really scared, so we went into the crowd and told them we’re just there to love on them. I asked them if they were going to have my back, and they said yes. They prayed. It was a blessing.”
Deville added, “This is positive. They live here and they’re tired. No one’s trying to point fingers at anyone. It’s just that you need to care and you need to care for these people. They’re sweet people. They have beautiful hearts.”
The cleanup crew started on Young Street, then went to Calcasieu the next day, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Street the day after that. They are determined to help cleaning up their neighborhood. Anyone wishing to donate supplies, they can be dropped off at the home of Jacqueline Guillory at 616 Calcasieu Street in Ville Platte. They need trash bags, water, ice, ice chest, gloves, mosquito repellent, rakes, shovels, and even the use of weed eaters and lawn mowers. They need helping hands, too.
Gregory Guillory thanked Lionel Ardoin who cooked a sauce piquant and marinated pork along with all the others who made donations. He went on to say, “We highly appreciate any donations anyone can help us with. We appreciate anyone who has donated. We could use a helping hand. Anything that we can use, it would be helpful.” When asked why they’re cleaning up their neighborhood, Guillory said, “For our children. We’re trying to find hope for our children. We’re tired of our community looking like this. We’re just trying to find hope here. We’re hoping we can have a little more support. It’s for our future. It’s like they forgot about our future.”