Residents Call Unionville Neighborhood “Forgotten”

Neighbors in the Unionville area in Macon are fed up with their streets piling up with trash. They call the area, a “Forgotten Neighborhood,” and they want City and Country leaders to step in to help.

According to neighbors there are mattresses, couches, and bottles littering the streets. Peyton Carwsell, who grew up in Macon, described the area like this, “Miles and miles of rubbish… it seems everywhere you look there’s rubbish.”

Neighbor Willie Manson also said the neighborhood looks like a city dump. Carswell said he has been calling the City and Public works repeatedly, but no one responds about the issue.

“A lot of other people have been calling, but nothing seems to be done. No one seems like they are interested in this place,” said Carswell.

Carswell also said,”For 26 years it has constantly deteriorated.” Other Neighbors said it’s an obvious problem. “That’s my opinion don’t know one care about it, because if they did they would do something about it,” said Manson.

Both he and Carswell want to fix up the Unionville Neighborhood to help give it a clean slate. “This neighborhood shouldn’t just be known for crime there are some decent human beings in this area,” said Carswell.

Andrew Balscovich, spokesperson for Macon Mayor Robert Reichert, said “It’s been a priority of the Mayor to go after blighted and abandoned housing,” but Carswell wants more done, and said “I know the Mayor we have now is doing the best he can, but we need more help.”

Blascovich said,”Unfortunately we can’t just have employees looking for these problems.” Manson said that’s not the issue, because he believes the City is well aware of the trash littering the area.”I have seen City trucks come out here… take pictures, but what do they do about it nothing.”

These neighbors are tired of waiting and want to see leaders come together and clean up the area.

The City is working on an easy system that will help people report problems to address these issues quickly. Macon is expected to have a project in place by spring.