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Newtown project aims to resurrect neighborhood values
Beautification effort will target deteriorating homes in venerable Gainesville hamlet
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Newtown residents Jerome Whelchel and Delinda Luster walk Friday morning along Desota Street, where well-maintained homes line the street in the historically African-American neighborhood. The Newtown Florist Club has launched the Newtown Beautification and Restoration Project to resurrect community spirit, clean up the neighborhood and mend dilapidated housing.
When trash rides the wind like tumbleweeds down the residential streets of Gainesville’s Newtown neighborhood, Delinda Luster wonders what outsiders must think. “We want people to see something else,” she said. When the house next door in this historically African-American neighborhood is in such disrepair it is more shotgun shack than family home, Jerome Whelchel is left shaking his head.