What happens when you tear down a "blighted house"? Well according to city officials they are "improving our neighborhood and property value". If this is an example of what the city had in mind for improvement, then please do your improvements elsewhere.
I received these photos from Mark Elstun, one of our Board members. Mark routinely Patrols the neighborhood looking for problems. And not unexpected he found it. These photos were taken at the corner of Blain and Fairmount. If that sounds familiar to you, its where the city demoed the Barber designed house mentioned in the Enquirer article on Monday.
Some lowlife, probably one of those "we haul" guys or maybe some slumlord clearing out a vacated apartment decided this would be a good place to unload. This is not the first time that this has happened since the house was demoed. It is a common almost weekly occurrence on the vacant lots in our neighborhood. Recently HAZMAT and the fire department were called because a drum of Touline was found and was leaking!
What is particularly disturbing is the needles. The children in my neighborhood walk right by here on their way to Christian Park to play. Now I know the police can't be everywhere all the time. We have a neighborhood crimewatch but unless you happen to be looking out the five minutes it probaly took to dump this, it is too late to do anything about it other than call the Police and of course our tax dollars wind up paying for this to be cleaned up.
One has to wonder, if this house were still standing, if we had found someone to buy it an restore it, if this junk would have been dumped here. The de-urbanization of our neighborhood has left parts of it in an almost rural state. That affords protection to the illegal dumpers, the drug dealers and others who want to conduct their "business' unnoticed. People tend to think twice about dumping in front of an occupied house where they might get caught. One might wonder over the next couple of decades this lot sits here how many times and how many thousands of dollars will be spent on cleanup? This is the real "unintended consequence' of city blight policy and we the taxpayers wind up spending far more than the 15, 000 it took to demo this house that stood there. This vacant lot wont be paying any property taxes either.
But its our neighborhood and we have to deal with the fallout. I'd like the city inspectors, Sean Minihan, Ed Cunningham, and Larry Harris to consider had not one of our board members found this first how they would justify the death of some small child who picked up one of those needles and got stuck?
You are not "improving" our neighborhood, nor our property values with your "Blight Policy".
City Demolition Policy, Neighborhood Consequences, Illegal Dumping!
Reviewed by citra
Published :
Rating : 4.5
Published :
Rating : 4.5
