Wednesday, February 15, 2006

The thread was too good to interrupt ... but where do we go from here?

The owner/occupant of this three-apartment (!) house at 1018 E. Spring was told by the OEO that his yard could not be used to park his vehicle, so he dumped a load of gravel on the lawn. The black flap hanging from the roof is tar paper; shingles are nowhere to be seen. After frequent complaints by the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association, the owner was given a month to address various code violations. The deadline is February 17.

What do you think will happen?

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For the umpteenth time in the short history of the NA Confidential blog, yesterday’s posting about New Albany’s often decrepit and dilapidated housing stock -- and our inability or unwillingness as a community to come to grips with what it means and how we might fix it -- has hit a rather formidable nerve on the part of our collective readership.

To these frequent expressions of conviction in the still sparsely populated blogosphere must be added the constantly repeated expressions of anger and frustration heard on a consistent basis at neighborhood association gatherings, and in public at numerous Board of Works and City Council meetings, along with past letters to the editor to all known local newspapers, as well as the combined totals of hundreds, if not thousands of hours of effort on the part of ordinary citizens to address the lingering problems of non-enforcement of ordinances that are supposed to govern unkempt, hazardous and unacceptable properties and the patently non-responsive entities that own them … and it becomes increasingly obvious that here, finally, is the single defining issue that unites people of all ages, races, classes, political affiliations and musical preferences.

But will they unite?

We have laws on the books, and although it would be helpful to see an official and explicit policy that embraces goals and standards of quantifying them, a full-time city attorney and a city court on hand to help do the job, the tools to begin certainly do exist.

Why, then, do we continue to accept conditions as they are?

Is this purely a monetary issue?

Were successive generations of political “leadership” powerless to prevent New Albany from sinking into the grip of the slumlord lobby, or is it more insidious than that?

Does it strike directly into the heart of this city’s persistent dysfunction – a low common denominator accepted for so long in housing, in discourse, in electoral choices – in culture itself -- that we’re now unable to cope with the therapies necessary to commence a cure?

What on earth are we afraid of?

NA Confidential does not endorse the view that the cancer of which we speak is the fault of this or any previous mayoral administration – not because we are beholden to this, that or another local politician, but because such a simplistic position is simply nonsensical.

It has taken a long time to reach this point.

For reasons that may remain unknown to us – desperation, payola, expedience, lack of imagination or just plain laziness – successive generations of political “leaders” have failed to address New Albany’s culture of unaccountability, failed to articulate a vision of residency that does not rely on the slumlord’s corrosive calculation, and failed what should be a government official’s fundamental measurement of efficiency, namely, fair and equal enforcement of laws that exist to maintain a level playing field for all citizens.

In recent weeks, numerous ideas have been discussed in this space. What is needed now is a strategy for coordinating the time and talents of the people who are willing to unite and make this our moment to try and make this a better place to live.

Much surely can be accomplished by volunteers if they’re properly directed.

It would be helpful to have a display of principled resolve, as well as a smidgen of backbone, from the city’s elected and appointed officials, all of whom at one time or another have paid lip service to the notion of accountability. It is understood that money’s tight, but perhaps there are other ways to approach this problem. We cannot go on using lack of money as an excuse not to make an effort.

There is a newspaper in New Albany, and that newspaper might decide to devote space to exposing the most egregious offenders by publishing photos and public records – or not. The depth of interest in topics like ordinance and building code enforcement and rental property inspections certainly is evident among the Tribune’s readers. Is the newspaper listening?

None of this stands to be easy, but guess what? Almost nothing in life is – never has been, never will be.

Where to start?

11 comments:

Ann said...

Greg, I can commiserate with you on this. Our neighborhood went thru the same problem in 1994 with a horrible piece of property on East Main, and the city fought us tooth and nail every step of the way to avoid doing anything. The health dept did also. I was actually given, by mistake, a health department report showing that the children living there were suffering from lead poisoning from the flaking paint inside and outside the building.

Finally, after months and months and months of us going to everyone we could find who would listen, the building commissioner figured out a way to shut us up and not really do anything. He made an inspection and cited only a few simple things like broken doors, and just pretended that he didn't see the major violations that we knew for a fact existed.

The good news is that times are different now. We were lone voices in the wilderness back then because there were no neighborhood assns. then. No groups to unite and demand action. And that's what we are going to have to do (like we all don't have enough to do now, right?)

And to all you people who have the ability to correct these terrible situations, and whose job(s) it is to do so, you should be ashamed!

Ann said...

Oh, and by the way, Ceece, you'll love this response I got when I complained that the slumlord was taking advantage of poor, uneducated people and children who did not know what their rights were, and that it was my opinion that the city was aiding and abetting by allowing the situation to continue. I was told that I had ulterior motives--and was trying to get the property improved so that it would no longer be affordable for these people to live there, and that I was prejudiced and did not want poor/black/retarded people in my neighborhood.

So who would be the prejudiced one? The citizen who tries to get unsafe conditions resolved, or the city administration who thinks it's okay to let disadvantaged people live in unsafe conditions?

Anonymous said...

If children are involved in any of these instances, a phone call to Child Protective Services can be made. It can be anonymous and just state the concerns for the children. They are required to at least examine the situation and possibly put pressure on other departments.

Ann said...

Healthblogger, I called Child Protective Services about a neglected child in the same building I have been writing about. They refused to come unless I could provide the name of the child and the apt. number. I even offered to meet them personally in front of the bldg and point out the apt and they still refused to come.

Anonymous said...

I can't say I am surprised, but it is always disappointing.

Has any official ever been legally challenged for not doing their jobs? Is there a mechanism to legally file suit against city officials for dereliction of duty or legally impeach them from the office?

Just wondering!

Ann said...

I have often thought that a class action suit against the city for failure to enforce its ordinances might be the only way to force the issue. But isn't it sad that any of us would have to consider such an action? Can't people just do their jobs?

Greg, I bet they give him an extension. Anything to keep the Building Commissioner from doing the hard work.

Jeff Gillenwater said...

Annie, I was about to suggest a class action suit. I think other strategies should be employed first but, barring immediate positive change from those, I think we have strong grounds for a suit.

We've all made investments in this community with the understanding that laws would be reasonably enforced. A ridiculous level of non-enforcement is obviously having a negative effect on those investments. If nothing else, it would force the mayor and each member of the city council to publicly answer for their negligence under oath.

If they grant that guy an extension, we should stage a sit-in at the City-County building with full media coverage.

East Ender said...

Well, I just have to add my two cents worth here.
We have had very similar problems in this area of the city with no responses from the Building Commissioners office, and no help from the Health Dept.
We have a 5 apt. home that is rat infested and children are living there. When I call the Building Comm. office they can even recite the address back to me I've called so many times. Yet, no show.
I actually went and spoke with an attorney about a class action suit for dereliction of duty by City Authorities as well as them risking the health, safety and welfare of those they were elected to represent.

The New Albanian said...

We seem to have agreement that a class action lawsuit is an option. Perhaps Brandon can add background to this idea.

I sense that the tone of the response to the request for an extension by the 1018 E. Spring owner.

Ann said...

I talked to my brother about this a few years ago; he's an attorney. He told me that a class action suit was possible, but that it couldn't be filed or joined by just anyone. You'd have to show that you were injured in some way by the city's lack of enforcement--that it jeopardized your health, safety or property value. You couldn't just say, "I live in New Albany and they don't enforce ordinances so therefore I'm injured and can sue."

But if you were an adjacent property owner to a slum property, for example, and you could show a pattern of dereliction of duty (not hard to do in New Albany), then yes, a group could file a class action suit.

I am not advocating this, but I am saying that it could happen, and if things don't straighten up, I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

Ann said...

There are a lot of issues that would be involved in such an action, and again, I do not advocate it unless it is a last resort.

It's the worst possible solution to the problem, but sometimes the worst solution is the one that has to be chosen.

As for voting the bums out? The problem with that is that you generally don't find out they're a bum until after they take office. Then you're stuck with them for at least 4 years. Campaign promises? They're made to be broken.