23 Responses to “Richmond housing chief owns vacant, blighted property”

1. posted by John at June 7, 2006 3:50 pm :
   

   This post was via a tip from a regular reader. Thanks 100%. (You can out yourself if you’d like // or not)

   If I were a real reporter I would’ve contactd Etienne for a quote or explination. I couldn’t find contact info for Etienne, though, so I’ve contacted the Press Secretary to the Mayor via normanlp@ci.richmond.va.us.

2. posted by Anonymous at June 7, 2006 5:21 pm :
   

   If anyone’s swinging by the courts building in the near future, it is pretty easy to run a quick name search for Etienne in the property records on a computer in the clerk’s records room.

3. posted by Anonymous at June 7, 2006 5:26 pm :
   

   This is his only property in Richmond. I checked.

4. posted by Anonymous at June 7, 2006 8:26 pm :
   

   Give this guy the benefit of the doubt………maybe he forgot he had this piece of property. I’m glad the same people that did his background check don’t do the ones for the police department.

5. posted by v at June 8, 2006 9:12 am :
   

   how typically Richmond and hypocritical…. the housing deputy whose job is to develop a vital and healthy community has been the owner of a blighted property for years. I’m not sure if we should be laughing or crying…. I live down the street from this house and it has been perpetually ill maintained- overgrown weeds, tons of cats living in the house and frequent squatters. Where has this guy been for 10 years??

6. posted by Anonymous at June 8, 2006 11:17 am :
   

   …getting a PhD at VCU in, err.. urban policy…So, he would be Dr. “Demo by Neglect” to you and me…Anyway, he wrote his dissertation on the thriving metropolis of Roanoke. So, perhaps he forgot about old Richmond. Anyway, who ever said city leaders cannot be complete hypocrites and still be effective. Most effective leaders I have ever met all seem to possess the quality of hypocritical irony. But, then again, the inneffective ones do too…

7. posted by Bill at June 8, 2006 1:43 pm :
   

   Ouch. This was great investigative reporting. I am a little shocked there has been no response from City Hall? Maybe he didnt disclose this little skeleton on the application.

8. posted by Anonymous at June 9, 2006 6:08 pm :
   

   I recommend someone check to see where Freed was working when he bought the slum property. I believe he was working for the City at the time.

9. posted by john at June 11, 2006 1:49 pm :
   

   and real media notices, though they didn’t get any real explanation either…

10. posted by amy at June 11, 2006 3:23 pm :
    

    how dare they call CHPN “scrappy”?!?!!!

11. posted by john at June 11, 2006 3:30 pm :
    

    I thought that was a good thing, like kind of cute but prone to occasionally biting someone…

12. posted by J at June 11, 2006 11:47 pm :
    

    Scrappy is a compliment. In the news biz, scrappy is often used to describe small newspapers who aren’t afraid of taking on big subjects — or bigger newspapers.

13. posted by amy at June 12, 2006 8:54 am :
    

    well, if you’re not offended, I won’t presume to be offended for you. In any case, I would guess more people read CHPN than the richmond magazine blog….

14. posted by Bill at June 13, 2006 5:07 pm :
    

    Dr. Etienne is new to this job. It couldnt have been an easy first week for him. That being said, I say we work with him to make Church Hill,Union Hill and the surrounding neighborhoods proud models of urban revitalization! I would welcome his comments from time to time on this site.

15. posted by Anonymous at June 14, 2006 11:42 am :
    

    This would have to be a contestant for the WORST(first) WEEK ever :)

16. posted by Me is the Ridor at June 22, 2006 4:38 am :
    

    Congratulations!!! Good job in doing this research!

    Way to go!

    Cheers,

    R-

17. posted by Concerned citizen at August 15, 2006 1:09 am :
    

    Yeah, I met Etienne once. He may have a doctorate, but after talking with him , he struck me as a pretty dim bulb.

18. posted by John m at September 28, 2006 6:20 am :
    

    City Housing Czar Fired
    

    Richmond city’s housing czar is out of a job. Mike Etienne has reportedly been fired, less than four months after he was handpicked by Mayor Doug Wilder to oversee the improvement of Richmond neighborhood’s.

    also in the RTD

19. posted by ann at September 28, 2006 10:50 am :
    

    Wow! Full circle. Good reporting from start to finish, pun intended.

20. posted by bob at September 28, 2006 3:41 pm :
    

    Looks like he can’t rehab a house or a career.

21. posted by Bob Stokes at September 29, 2006 11:54 am :
    

    Perhaps the title “Czar” was a bit regal in retrospect: heavy is the head that wears the crown and all. Although I should say that the last real Czar suffered a far worse fate. Why anyone would see coordinating anything in this city as a good career choice is beyond me. Could there be a more thankless job? Cat hearder might be a more proper title. So, the moral of the story is: Czarin’ aint easy! Especially when your own political irony quotient is off the charts.

22. posted by James at January 2, 2007 10:45 pm :
    

    Found out Etienne was bought out by the other owner, and work has begun to repair the house again

23. posted by jesse at February 17, 2007 10:15 pm :
    

    I heard at a funtion that Etienne was actually fired because he questioned the mayors unsafe tactics with the whole train underground saga, the house was a scape goat tactic of big politics, opportunity and all. If a job was in jeapordy, wouldn’t it make sense to hire a large company to renovate in weeks time. Granted, 10 years is a long time.

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