TV2: Willow Street walls come tumbling down

Lauren Miller

KentWired Video

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Two homes on S. Willow St. in Kent came down Tuesday morning to make way for the Esplanade.

220 and 214 S. Willow St. are the second set of homes to be demolished. Last week, two homes on Erie St. took a tumble.

A few neighbors watched as the walls came tumbling down.

Michael Bauman lives across the street from 214. He has lived there for a year.

“From what I’ve read in the newspapers, [the university] pretty much owns all the houses now,” says Bauman.

Bauman’s home is currently not owned by the university. He says that if they had to move, the owners would provide him housing.

“The owners have other houses in the area that we can move to,” says Bauman. “It’s just a matter of time.”

But he says these homes could have been used for other purposes.

“It’s kind of a shame to see all these houses being torn down,” says Bauman. “There’s a lot of homeless and a lot of people that could use good housing.”

During the demolition of 220, the chimney fell outside the fence and landed on neighbor Liz Moore’s driveway.

“We looked at the chimney and it was falling down towards my roommate’s window,” says Moore. “It was like two-inches away from her room.”

Moore says her landlord has turned down Kent State’s offer to remove their house. The noise has been a big issue for Moore.

“It’s kind of annoying that we have to study in the morning and there’s a demolition,” says Moore. “This isn’t the only day that this has happened; this has been going on since summer.”

The university plans to expand the esplanade so that visitors staying at the Kent Hotel can get to campus safely.

Contact Lauren Miller at [email protected].