From councilman John Gonder, in his own words:
The next meeting of the committee on rental registration and code enforcement is being held Wednesday, September 10, at 6:00 p.m. It will be in the third floor assembly room in the City County Building.
And, in the senior editor's own words:
Slumlords in attendance who plan on self-immolation are kindly asked to flick their Bics outside on Hauss Square, as smoking indoors is not permitted. Defenestration is the recommended alternative to second-hand smoke -- just don't get hung up on the big metal exterior art outside the assembly room's windows; the city simply can't afford overtime pay to firefighters for rescuing hanging cads.
Meanwhile, guest columnist Pat Harrison pinch-hits for the transgendered Prof. Erika over at Freedom to Screech:
"You stupid lying jack-ass..."
Whoa ... why not say what you really think, girl(s).
NAC's roving reporter, Gordy Gant, found councilman Steve Price playing video poker at the VFW and asked him his opinion about regulating rental properties like the businesses they most certainly are:
This is all a bunch of fucking bullshit.
That's a profound coincidence. It's the same way I feel about council president Jeff Gahan appointing Price to such a committee in the first place. Then again, at least Price has the gumption to say what he thinks aloud and for public attribution, rather than saving it for Gahan's non-smoke-filled back rooms. Sewer machinations, anyone?
See you all there, campers.
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9 comments:
Last night, the Harrisonittes called me at home, asking for my support at the meeting.
When I had told them that I am one of the guys they scoffed at during the previous meeting, they assurred me no one in their "group" scoffed at anyone, and in fact there were only maybe two realtors there in the first place, and they woman on the phone should know, she is the one who makes the calls to "rally" everyone to such issues.
Shoudl be interesting Wednesday, and I am inclined to leave the DSLR at home in favor of a DVR camera!
Chris,
Video would be a fantastic idea for future reference!
Obviously no one in that group has ever read your original blog.
On second thought, maybe they did. Perhaps that is why it evaporated into the ethers of the biosphere.
C U there!
Come to think of it, with all the Tribune's reporting on Georgetown's sewer woes along with county governments involvement in that conversation CM President Gahan may soon have his favorite subect to hate (aside from "us people" of course) back on his plate.
"and the beat goes on......."
Pat Harrison called me this morning to assure me that she was in favor of any efforts to clean up New Albany's housing issues as long as they were fair ot all.
She also said citing her as being in opposition to such was false & misleading.
I'm just passing it along.
Fair to all? Does that mean that any new rules must written and drawn in crayon for Councilman Price?
"Rentin' houses ain't a business"
I have one thing to say regarding slumlording - escrow!
When I bought my house in 2006 it was divided into three apartments. The tenant on the second floor was a good tenant. The tenants on the first and third floor were bad, very bad. Drug dealing, pit-bull owning, scary people. Same on the third floor but throw in mentally ill too. Naturally, good tenant on second floor was terrorized by bad tenants but had no recourse to protect herself save just leaving, which was financially difficult for her at the time.
Would a rental property inspection had prevented the slumlord from renting to whatever trash paid the rent on time? I wonder.
Remember, we want what's left of our historic downtown to be taken care of, but we also don't any longer want to be seen as a half-way house for the permanently prison-bound.
Plus, we do have housing codes on the books that we just don't enforce. Any reason we can't just cut to the chase and hire a few inspectors and the legal back-up and start writing people up? Without prejudice as to who owns the property?
Honestly, I haven't bothered to look at any real data, such as John over at CHDO mentioned he had, but from the looks of things we seem to have a disproportionate number of rental apartments downtown. As does Boston. Boston is too big to send out a team of inspectors to inspect every rental apartment every year, and/or license them all. What they have are strong codes, including strong landlord - tenant obligations spelled out, and if they get a complaint they are very aggressive about investigating it and forcing compliance with codes from whoever owns the property.
Every tenant knows as well, cause it's spelled out in all rental agreements (by law) that if they are unsuccessful on their own getting problems handled viz. their tenancy, they have the legal right to park all their rent money in an escrow account.
Without writing a short story here, what I'm trying to say is, let's not box ourselves into one solution to the problem as we work through these initial meeting with the committee appointed to hash things out. I've seem first-hand how a functional city government deals with property violations. It assumes everyone is doing right until someone complains which sets in motion an effective chain of legal actions, and trust me, no one ignores city hall in Boston. Properties are maintained and property values are protected.
See u all tonight !
The proof of Mrs. Harrison's assertions of innocence and spirit of cooperation will be readily self evident in the behaviors she and her collective exhibit this evening and in the future.
Ain't it the truth, Chris.
At some point this evening, we'll know.
Being a newer New Albanian, I'd like to ask...what exactly is the issue? Is there a link to previous discussion as to what is trying to be accomplished? Or can someone explain it to me? I don't even need a crayon/stick figure drawing for it, I'd just like to be a little more informed on some of these issues!
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