Neighborhood cleaning house with house demolition | News

Hillsborough County, Florida - The clanks and clunks of demolition are music to the ears of some folks in the Orient Park neighborhood. They're glad to see a troublesome, vacant house crumble.

"Thugs go back in there, drugs, prostitutes... you name it, they were back there," says neighborhood resident Diane Barnes.

The demolition of the house on East 26^th Avenue is just part of an ongoing effort by Hillsborough Code Enforcement to clean up the Orient Park neighborhood. Since April 2^nd, work crews have also been picking up all sorts of debris.

"I think it's long overdue, it's very much needed," says resident Christine Smith. "And I'm just thrilled, because as a widow, I have no one to help me."

Just to give you an idea of how much trash and junk can accumulate in a neighborhood, in just the past two weeks, code enforcement has picked up more than 700 tires. The pile looks like a mini-mountain.

Officials call the program Fight the Blight and they expect the county's work to encourage residents to also join the fray.

"We're hoping the community will come together and take a little more pride and say let's get out and do our part as well," says code enforcement supervisor Bill Langford.

And this whole spruce-up campaign does appear to be a hit with longtime residents, because they say no one likes to live in a dump. Barnes says, "It's not the Ritz or anything, but it's our neighborhood."