See Tricia’s full article, with photos, on her website, A little Sugar a little Spice.
Where do you want your children to grow up? Somewhere safe? Somewhere that they can ride their bikes to their friends house? Somewhere you can send them out to play and come home when the street lights come on? Where you don’t have to worry about your general safety 24/7?Not here…. Maybe you haven’t heard of Denby Park or Wards Corner. This is our neighborhood. Where we live, work and play. In fear. The city for the last few years has promised to remove the run down section 8 apartments that even the cops hate going into. Vast mazes of blight and trash create a hiding place for crime.They tore down 7. They are tearing down 7 more. However due to budget cut’s we are loosing the war on crime in our wonderful little spot in Norfolk. Or what was once wonderful and could be again.When I took these photos I did not venture far in. It was EARLY in the morning and I was armed with a tazer. You heard right. You don’t go wandering around this area. It was a risk I took with my camera equipment because it needs to be seen. People need to see what the confines of this area are like. I plan to do more as I go. I plan to take shots of the beauty in our little neighborhood also.This photo series will be special too me. I hope it shows that even in the less then wanted areas of the city, beauty can reside. I also wish to show WHY the city should finish their promise to the residents of Ward’s Corner and the surrounding neighborhoods.
Read the rest of Tricia’s article, with photos, on her website, A little Sugar a little Spice.
Wards Corner Now - Wards Corner, Norfolk, Virginia 
I feel so badly for these residents who want a safe environment. This needs to be forwarded to our Council and Mayor , the VA Pilot and to the TV outlets. Wards Corner Taskforce meets June 13 at the Norf Fitness and Wellness Center 830AM Please come with pictures.
Joan, could you email me directy at sugarandspiceva at gmail.com. I would love to get more info on the meetings.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Keep going until they tear those crime infested buildings down. Norfolk deserves better.
Great work Tricia! I hope this gets the momentum going!
We live in Sussex, we are a hard working middle income family with Children, I live here because my husband has owned the house for about ten years. I could write a book on all of the crap that has gone on where we live. We have some of the best neighbors in the neighborhood where we live however the section 8 apartments preiously mentioned surround our neighborhood. The majority of the people living there have no couth about them. Daily, my husbnad walks around the block on the street facing the apartments and fills a trash bag up with crap that people throw out of their cars in yards, in streets and have witnessed people throwing bottles out of their car breaking them on the streets, at street signs, in our yar, throwing out bags of trash. I have not mentioned that since I have lived there 4 years now my car has been broken in to 2 times, the police dont do ANYTHING about it, My car has been hit (the week after I bought it, new..and did 4,250 damage to it). 3 Bikes have been stolen out of our yard which has a 6 foot privacy fence around it. I will NOT ALLOW my Children to play outside because people fly through the neighborhood doing about 45 miles per hour on the regular. ( A neighbor even told me that a child was killed in front of our house before we lived there and the jack&%$ that hit them kept going). I have tried to make complaints to the Norfolk Line, no one has even addressed any of my concerns. A few weeks ago people were coming to our neighborhoood in packs parking all around out houses, peeing on fences and in bushes, you could tell they were up to no good. We counted at least 42 cars that had parked, people got out and walked to the apartments. I could tell that there was going to be big problems later on. I called the non emergency number to let them know what I Saw, no one came by and about 3:00 AM I hear a series of guns shots going in 2 seperate directions, police came and blocked in a few cars, aresting people. Another thing there is a very dark corner on one side of our house people are parked there ALL THE TIME, either prostitutes or drug deals going on, right beside where my children’s Swing set is. This is crap that should not go on in a family orientated neighborhood. I suggest, more street lights, greater police presence, speed bumps or dips in the street and to get rid of those retarted apartments. I will gladly take pictures and upload as well!