Comments on: Richmond housing chief owns vacant, blighted property

By: jesse

jesse — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 06:15:30 +0000

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.

By: James

James — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 06:45:28 +0000

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

By: Bob Stokes

Bob Stokes — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:54:23 +0000

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.

By: bob

bob — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 22:41:34 +0000

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

By: ann

ann — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:50:13 +0000

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

By: John m

John m — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 13:20:43 +0000

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

By: Concerned citizen

Concerned citizen — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 08:09:14 +0000

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

By: Me is the Ridor

Me is the Ridor — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 11:38:20 +0000

Congratulations!!! Good job in doing this research!

Way to go!

Cheers,

R-

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 18:42:07 +0000

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

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 00:07:48 +0000

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.

By: amy

amy — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:54:08 +0000

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….

By: J

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 06:47:08 +0000

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.

By: john

john — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 22:30:20 +0000

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

By: amy

amy — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 22:23:29 +0000

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

By: john

john — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:49:29 +0000

and real media notices, though they didn't get any real explanation either...

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 01:08:55 +0000

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.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:43:18 +0000

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.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 18:17:21 +0000

…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…

By: v

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 16:12:33 +0000

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??

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 03:26:44 +0000

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.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 00:26:06 +0000

This is his only property in Richmond. I checked.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 00:21:36 +0000

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.

By: John

John — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 22:50:58 +0000

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.