City demolishes local high rises

The Associated Press Now they are gone. Neighborhood residents cheered as the two 14-story buildings came crashing down Sunday in a cloud of dust and smoke. ''It's time for a change, a change for our community, a change for our young children,'' said Lawrence Gillard Sr., 31, a security guard who missed work to watch the implosion. Gillard and dozens of other area residents watched the 9 a.m. event on televisions at the Thomas Mifflin School, one of the places evacuated residents were taken. Engineers from Engineered Demolition, of Minneapolis, methodically placed about 300 pounds of explosives in holes drilled into support columns in the buildings. A long siren sounded just before the charges were fired. First the east building fell, then the west. A huge dust cloud covered buildings, spectators and cars for blocks. Officials said it would take 10 months to clear the implosion site. Many of the evacuated residents saw the towers as a magnet for crime and drug dealing and worried that their children played in the buildings. The public housing project opened in 1954, but persistent problems with maintenance, security and the elevators at the 14-story towers sent some tenants packing just four years later.