Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on November 2, 2011 at 10:17am

hi John-

thanks for sharing this along with the link to the Henrietta article. I do think it's important to point out that some of the 'problem' behavior we encounter in this neighborhood also applies to NON-student renters as well. There are a number of rental homes where several 'unrelated adults' live in a single family home - we have a couple of those homes on our street and they have created significant problems similar to what is described in the D&C article. Most recently, one of the houses on our street had a week long 'event' that from most observations appeared to be a party - i.e. lots of cars, lots of people, lots of noise until late at night, lots of people walking up/down the middle of the street. The noise was so significant that people on Inglewood heard it!! As it turns out, one of the people living in that house told people that the event was her brother's funeral..... this created a significant dilemma for neighbors in terms of trying to be respectful/compassionate while also trying to keep the 'peace' on the street. Apparently, the police (who were called more than once) decided to not intervene re: the noise complaints that some neighbors made.  

I am really glad that the housing committee is taking some of this on and hope that they can expand the focus just a bit so we don't lose site of the fact that 'students' are not the only issue of concern for housing issues in our neighborhood. 

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Permalink Reply by DeWain Feller on November 3, 2011 at 10:23pm

Margy,

I agree entirely.  We have to be careful not to brand the problems in the southern 19th Ward as a "student" problem, and we have to be careful to avoid an anti-student environment.  As I pointed out during the last Housing Committee meeting, the problem is really with two issues:  1) predatory landlords that are making illegal changes to property (e.g. paving over back yards, attic apartments) and are hacking up the homes without making needed improvements to the homes, and 2) noise violation problems.  The first problem is clearly within the realm of the Housing Committee and the Zoning Committee, and the 2nd is within the realm of the Public Safety Committee.

Both problems have been going on for years in the nothern 19th Ward, but rarely with student renters.  This points out that the problem is not with students, but rather with predatory landlords and with people who do not respect the rights of their neighbors.  We should not try to brand students as a whole as a "problem" any more that we should blame any ethnic group or any other group as a "problem."  We should deal directly with the root problems, and we should not try to label an entire group as a problem.

Rest assured that the Housing Committee will be dealing with housing condition/code violation issues throughout the 19th Ward and with all types of housing.  Not only is the problem more than just student rentals, the problem is more than rentals.  Even some owner-occupied single family homes have serious issues.

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Permalink Reply by Diane Watkins on November 11, 2011 at 12:50pm

I cringed when one of my very good neighbors moved out and added a fourth rental property across the street from me. Renters always seem to be hit or miss. How can we increase home ownership in properties that are currently rentals?

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on November 11, 2011 at 4:41pm

Aggressive and consistent code enforcement would help. Landlords (and some homeowners) might take better care of their properties if they new the city was serious about zoning, codes and following through with violations. Likewise, people are likely to BUY and STAY in homes where the houses are decent, the neighbors friendly/respectful, etc. It takes only a few 'run down' or problem houses to start a downward trend on a street.

On our street we learned of a very dangerous situation that existed in a house we've been complaining about for YEARS. Because we're having gas line work done, the contractors discovered it and took care of one of the problems, but per their report the dangerous situation could have caused an explosion!

In addition to code/zoning violations, the police could help by consistent enforcement of parking regulations. On any day that I drive in the 19th ward I see at least one (usually more) illegally parked cars. On Thurston, there are is always at least one car parked on the sidewalk. On some residential streets it's fairly common to see cars parked on lawns and/or across sidewalks.

Those of us who are 'good neighbors' are doing our part - we need the city to step up and do their part!!

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Permalink Reply by DeWain Feller on November 13, 2011 at 3:06pm

I agree completely that we need to get the city do do their part to enforce code. That is the major reason why with 19th WCA placed a priority on starting the new Housing Committee.

In order to convince the city that code enforcement in the SW is lacking, we need documentation of cases where violation reports were insufficiently acted on. 

I am convinced that there a lot of cases where code violation reports are "closed out" without proper investigation in order to get through the back log of complaints.  However, it is important to keep in mind that there are many cases where the city does what they are supposed to (and fines are levied), but the property owners still do not make the repairs.  The city can fine a property owner, but there is no way that they can really force them to make a repair.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there are some landlords that are very vocal in insisting that code enforcement is too stringent.  There is one landlord who shows up repeatedly at the speak outs before City Council meetings to claim that code enforcement is overbearing and is discouraging investment in the City.  We need to have neighbors show up at City Council to speak out about how it is the lack of code inforcement that is discouraging true investment (i.e. property improvements) in the city.

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Permalink Reply by Judi Baker on November 15, 2011 at 12:05pm

This is a house that is rented by a City employee on the Eastside from a landlord.  Code Enforcement too stringent???? O BTW this was only one of 4 ceilings in the house impacted by our last big rain.  AND she was told 'it's not my problem' by the landlord.  Waiting to see how he widdles his way out of this along with the other 13 violations and continue to rent the property.  Lately I have been awakened over here in PLEX to the sound of saws, hammering, etc.  Rolloffs are lined up like crazy over here.  Rooming houses (aka apartment/house rehabs) are cropping up like crazy!! Lots of 3rd floor work also being done and I have yet to see the green Permit signs in the front windows.....................So who's watching or even listening?

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Permalink Reply by Judi Baker on November 16, 2011 at 9:12pm

OMG!!  I wonder how many more of these situations are here in the 19th Ward and PLEX areas??  The East side property has also been shut down, but for how long and who will 'turn their head' and sign off on the violations??  AND don't say it doesn't happen!! The Occupy Rochester tents are better conditions than some of our neighbors!! So sad!!  These residences did NOT get in these conditions overnight!!  Again I ask, 'who's watching'??

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Permalink Reply by Judi Baker on November 16, 2011 at 9:15pm

AND have you been awakened by the putrid smell of diesel while they 'warm up'???  I know I have!  Parking Enforcement-they make a pass over here on my street between 8:50a-9:00a every morning.  First time in 40 years I have ever seen them over here................

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Permalink Reply by Judi Baker on November 16, 2011 at 9:22pm

Good Ol' Boys Club in effect??

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on November 17, 2011 at 9:11am

no offense to the men here, but you're probably correct Judi!  The diesel fumes from one of our local tow truck owners was going into the next door neighbors home. She was 80 at the time and tried to talk with the owner about it - his response was to yell and spit at her and accuse her of being racist. He's apparently shared the story with others as some city employee's have decided that complaints about this issue (now 4 years running) are 'personally motivated' vs. a sincere attempt to hang onto the residential nature of our neighborhood. Although neighbors see tow trucks in the yard on an almost daily basis, the city states that they never observe the problem! So, the only way the city says they'll move forward is if a neighbor writes a deposition - of course, this creates a neighbor vs. neighbor scenario and in this particular case that will only lead to MORE problems and reinforce that this is a 'neighbor' problem vs. a code violation problem.

Code enforcement here is a disaster. Continuity and follow through seems to be a huge barrier. We have revolving code enforcement officers and 'paper trails' seem to be lacking.

It would be interesting to see if the 19WCA committee could get a record of the City's response to various complaints and compare it to the efforts of neighbors to make reports and get a response. my guess is that we'd discover a lot of missing pieces! 

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Permalink Reply by Judi Baker on November 17, 2011 at 10:03am

From ALL they are asking neighbors to do, we need to be on the City payroll.  It seems I hear 'well what have you done' when approaching City offices.  We need to police our streets, call in the violations, sign depositions, take pictures because nobody seems to know what we are talking about,....and, and, and.  Oh yeah and then be accused of whining and making trouble..............The whining really comes when I open my tax bill on July 1of every year as there is NO reduction for working for my community. Need I say I am currently unemployed from Community Service.

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Permalink Reply by John Boutet on November 18, 2011 at 5:10pm

I hope we will see everyone who has issues with code enforcement attending Mayor Richards' first City Hall On The Road event at the Staybridge Suites on Wednesday, November 30th.  Considering all the problems we have heard about in the Housing Committee and in numerous posts on this forum, we should be able to fill the room.  There are also many other issues that have fired peoples passions on Location19 that can get addressed with the Mayor at this event.

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