It’s the law of the jungle in there…Augusta resident Frank Dolan on the Bon Air
When Bob Duke came to Augusta to speak to the Augusta Commission on the part of Redwood Properties, owners of the Bon Air and Richmond Summit, he didn’t need cue cards, he had, likely long ago, memorized the script.
You see, Mr. Duke is a slumlord whose actual residence is the state of Washington.
Duke is used to flying into communities affected by his “hands-off” approach of rental property maintenance and delivering a speech long on promises and platitudes, but short of any semblance of substance.
That is because, you see, Duke’s clients are not his tenants. No, he gets his money from the federal government, so the health, welfare and safety of the tenants score low on his agenda.
Duke knows that HUD, historically has closed down exactly one publicly funded indigent warehouse since its formation, and according to Bob Young, who once worked for HUD, that was because the building had been completely obliterated by a hurricane.
So, you see, Duke doesn’t consider a child being gunned down in one of his lobbies to be his problem.
Duke began his presentation full of condescension and detailed how his company had replaced the camera system with a new state-of-the-art camera system (the system they installed two years ago was also touted as state-of-the-art) and hired 24-hour security.
Only, his security is not armed, after all, he doesn’t want to introduce guns in the mix.
Instead of the usual compliant attitude from politicians who know they can do very little about the menace, Mayor Garnett Johnson played him recordings of gunshots coming from his own property.
He wasn’t expecting a bold mayor, a p****d off public and a mama that don’t take no mess.
Johnson opened the salvo by countering Duke’s claims that the air conditioning had been fixed and reminded Duke that “it is summertime in Augusta.” What was Duke’s response?
“Mr. Mayor, that’s not true…”
I’m not sure what the current season is in Washington state, but it is indeed summer here.
At that point, the microwave beeped and I took a quick break and ran to get my fresh popcorn. It was perfect timing, Mama, Catherine Smith-Rice, was patiently waiting her turn, her eyes ablaze.
Once Rice got her turn, the maintenance crew had to place “wet floor” signs around Duke because the flop sweat was beginning to puddle around his ankles.
“You send someone down here and they make all these promises, but the minute we turn our backs, all hell breaks loose,” Rice said.
Duke was left rattled because, clearly, Rice had did her homework and he was probably ruing his decision to leave the cue-cards home.
First he said the elevator work hasn’t started yet, then stammered and claimed the elevators work just fine. Then, Johnson asked Duke where he stayed when he came to Augusta.
Uh,oh.
Duke was forced to admit that his choice of accommodation was Augusta’s premiere hotel property, The Partridge Inn.
That was the moment that resident Frank Dolan had been waiting for. When it was his turn to speak, Dolan looked at Duke and said, “I think that you should have to stay in that hot a** building with no air-conditioning.”
The mayor kept the decorum, but every face in the room, sans Duke, was stifling a belly laugh.
I have to give kudos to both our government officials and community folks for giving that man a good spanking before ducked and took the red-eye flight back to Washington.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter, Editorial Page Editor and weekly columnist for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
