Map it, Mr. Gregory: New Albany's problematic properties.

This story certainly doesn’t begin in July, but it was late in the month when Jim Sprigler, a fellow member of the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association, followed up on a previous conversation by sending me this link to photos of a deteriorating house on his block.

Not coincidentally, Jim and his wife Tabitha are the originators of the Clean Up New Albany forum … and for the rest of the story, I’ll turn it over to Jim.

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You may or may not have noticed that www.cleanupnewalbany.com has a newly redesigned homepage. If you haven't, I highly suggest you check it out.

If you know me, you know I'm a fan of not re-inventing the wheel. If somebody has done something that works, why not get their permission to use it or build off of it?

This is how this map came about.

From my time at the Neighborhood Forums, the appearance of a number of properties around town comes up frequently. Something that always gets mentioned along with them is how the Tribune used to run an “Eyesore of
the Week.”

Also, I just got back from a meeting of a number of neighborhood associations in the Kentuckiana area hosted by New Directions. This same issue was brought up there, so it's an issue all neighborhoods in the area seem to share.

What the Louisville neighborhood associations have done, in cooperation with New Directions, is put together a 2006 Neighborhoods Assessment Report. This report was put together with the help of representatives of each neighborhood association. It includes close to 50 properties, with a list of concerns as well as recommendations. It also includes photos of each property and if it was included in the report for the years prior.

So, this map is a combination of all of those ideas. Just as with the New Directions report, I want this to be a resident driven project. If you know of a property that should be on here, post it on the site or e-mail me and I'll get it on the map. Make sure to note your concern with the property and recommendations on how to correct the concerns. If you notice a property on the map that you think has been cleaned up or listed in error, let me know.

Now, the next question you probably have is where did I get the list of the 22 properties currently on the map?

There's a property on my street that has been abandoned for quite some time. A couple of weeks ago, a packet was stapled to the front door, where it remains to this day. That packet is a list of 22 properties, including the one to which the packet was stapled, that were purchased to fix up and turn into rental property, but the fixing never occurred.

You can download the packet from this link by clicking here:

http://www.cleanupnewalbany.com/forum/uploads/James/2006-08-14_233852_packet.pdf

The map is already looking pretty full, and all this from properties owned by one individual! I'd almost be afraid as to what it would look like if we indeed had an accurate listing. So, email or post a reply to the following thread and let me know what properties to add (don't forget to list the concerns and recommendations):

http://www.cleanupnewalbany.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=127&PN=1&FID=5&PR=3

Let me know what you think of the map, be it good or bad. I'm looking for feedback.

Regards,

Jim Sprigler … www.cleanupnewalbany.com