We need to talk about the old Virginia College building on Ridgewood Road.
Not too long ago, I used to go there to vote. If you haven’t driven past recently… it’s a mess. Broken windows, busted doors, a parking lot that’s more pothole than pavement. The whole thing looks like it took on both Sullivan and Kilrain simultaneously.
It’s not just an eyesore, it’s a danger. Folks are living inside. I see them coming and going between sheets of plywood and shattered glass. And it sits right next to apartments, restaurants, businesses, and a Sonic I frequent more often than I’d like to admit.
During the last municipal election, it became a talking point. A campaign promise. A setting for concerned-looking politicians to stand outside and point while cameras rolled.
Haven’t heard an update since.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not here to throw stones. (There aren’t any glass panes left to break anyway.) Our new mayoral administration under John Horhn has been doing genuinely good work, tackling a long list of challenges left to fester for years. I honestly feel hopeful for the city in a way I haven’t felt for some time.
They deserve credit for that and then some.
But if we’re going to continue to make progress, then we need to give some strength back to Jackson code enforcement. We need an Eliot Ness of blight citations. A legal team that will make abandoning buildings an expense too high to ignore.
We may not have a lot of options (yet) for state-owned blight in the capital city, but LLCs using our neighborhoods for their loss assets? Those should be fair game.
We’ve already got the codes on the books to deal with this and other eyesores. The Virginia College building checks just about every box on the list for dilapidation, disrepair, and structural defects.
This is about making home a better, safer place, one we can all be proud of. It’s about giving those outside Jackson less ammunition to tear us down. It’s about showing investors that Jackson is ready to play ball.
And it’s about holding those elected to their campaign promises.
Brett Kenyon is a Northsider.
