Preview:
In the middle of Chatham Estates Mobile Home Park, a little girl in a pink Bluey shirt spins herself around atop a concrete slab. She twirls with her blue backpack in her outstretched hand — bunny ears on the top and a mermaid stitched on the side.
The two red brick stairs just a few feet from the girl used to lead to the floor of a pavilion with tin roofing, where Chatham Estates residents gathered for monthly meetings.
To the right of the pavilion, there used to be a playground with swings and slides. The school bus stopped right at the intersection, so the kids came to play while the mothers watched. Both the pavilion and playground...
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Since Westbrook put the property up for sale over two years ago, some residents have since moved, but most of the roughly 700 residents couldn’t afford to. Emidia Roblero, a WakeMed housekeeper, said they likely couldn’t afford to live in Wake County — much less Cary, where the average rent is $2,100 a month, according to Zillow. Residents pay $400 a month for a plot on Chatham Estates.
Since the very first issue of this weekly news review and discussion I have used the simple formula that sums up all of these types of articles: LOW LOT RENTS = REDEVELOPMENT. Why would anyone think that when apartments rent for $2,100 per month you would keep a mobile home park going for $400 a month and NOT SIMPLY REDEVELOP INTO APARTMENTS FOR $2,100 PER MONTH? Imagine a farmer that can either grow a crop that nets $1,000 per acre or one that nets $10,000 per acre – which would he choose to plant?
And, as always, another park bites the dust.