War On Low Income People Continues.
Please click onto the comments for the post.
posted by Bob at Monday, April 23, 2007
Custom Search
Monday, April 23, 2007
A DEMOCRACY TOWN HALL HOME
Do you have a topic you want to discuss at the Town Hall? Email your request to A_Democracy@yahoo.com
“A DEMOCRACY” Disclaimer- While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to this forum express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.
You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned
THE ROOF GUYS
Mickey's Diner 1950 7th Street West, St Paul, MN
(651) 698-8387
AX-MAN SURPLUS
1639 University Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55104
Tel:(651)646-8653
LANDLORD.COM LINK HERE
SHHHH! While we listen to words of wisdom from a wise man.
Conscience is the light of the Soul that burns within the chambers of our psychological heart. It is as real as life is. It raises the voice in protest whenever anything is thought of or done contrary to the righteousness. Conscience is a form of truth that has been transferred through our genetic stock in the form of the knowledge of our own acts and feelings as right or wrong. A virtuous and courageous person can alone use the instrument of conscience. He or she can alone hear the inner voice of the soul clearly. In a wicked person this faculty is absent. The sensitive nature of his / her conscience has been destroyed by sin or corruption. Hence he or she is unable to discriminate right from wrong. Those who are leading organizations, business enterprises, institutions and governments should develop this virtue of the ability to use their own conscience. This wisdom of using the clean conscience will enable them to enjoy the freedom.
Dr APJ Kalam, President of India given during the inauguration of the seminar on “THE EFFECTS OF CORRUPTION ON GOOD GOVERNANCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Previous Posts
- Spring Violence Is Simmering, The Long Hot Summer ...
- We Need Affordable Housing. Not subsidized Housing
- Spooky but true!
- TRASH
- VICK trial update.
- A chosen FEW. The City needs your input.
- Helgen Does Not Get DFL Endorsement
- Non-Profit Accountability
- A Democracy objectives.
- The Selfish Bastard
11 Comments:
Print Email
St. Paul razing nuisance homes
Many neighbors cheer revitalization effort, but some decry loss of affordable housing
BY JASON HOPPIN
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 04/22/2007 11:53:54 PM CDT
The first of two neighboring houses — at 63 and 67 W. Jessamine Ave. — is demolished Monday. The city has destroyed 11 homes so far this year, more than in all of 2006. Many more are expected. (CRAIG BORCK, Pioneer Press)Cousins Dominique Fowler and Portia Carter woke up a week ago in their North End neighborhood to find the house next door gone.
It had been reduced to rubble. Atop the pile was the instrument of the house's undoing - a Case 9040 backhoe.
As the women took a front-row seat on their porch, backhoe operator Rob Buberl continued his spectacle of destruction, using an iron claw to tear apart the house next to the one he'd already demolished.
Across the city, St. Paul is stepping up efforts to raze blighted and unsafe homes, having removed 11 so far this year, more than in all of 2006. And many more demolitions are on the way.
Neighbors are cheering the move - Buberl said he's received gifts of candy, even a dog - but some housing advocates are sounding the alarm, saying the city should not be tearing down homes in affordable neighborhoods.
The cousins were glad to see the houses go. Each had been empty for about two years, and squatters and drug users frequented them. They were, in Fowler's words, "raggedy."
As they were being torn down, neighbor Linda Clark watched from across the street and applauded the development.
"I'm glad that they're getting rid of a lot of these abandoned houses. Put something nice there where people want to live," Clark said. "Sometimes it's out with the old, in with the new."
The owners of the houses, at 63 and 67 W. Jessamine St., didn't show for a city hearing declaring the properties nuisances and did not return phone calls for this story.
In February, Mayor Chris Coleman announced "Invest St. Paul," a broad, multimillion-dollar neighborhood revitalization program focusing on Frogtown, Dayton's Bluff, the North End and the East Side.
While the details remain foggy (an expanded home foreclosure prevention program is the only specific proposal so far), the city is attacking its expanding list of 926 vacant buildings with gusto, removing decaying, neglected eyesores as the first step to rebuilding
Warren Johnson watches Rob Buberl finish knocking down the first of two houses Monday in St. Paul. (CRAIG BORCK, Pioneer Press)neighborhoods.
Bob Kessler, who heads St. Paul's Department of Safety and Inspections, said the city has doubled the number of staff working on vacant buildings and is ramping up demolition efforts, a process which must be approved by the City Council.
While the council ruled on just four such properties in January, by June it will see 20 a month, Kessler said. City officials hope those rulings get homeowners to submit plans to fix their properties before the bulldozers come.
"The main purpose is to get them rehabbed. But if it's not economically feasible, then we tear them down," Kessler said.
That concerns Caty Royce, director of St. Paul's Community Stabilization Project, which helps low-income families meet their housing needs. Homes should not be torn down unless they are unsalvageable, she said.
"That's exactly the kind of housing stock we need, those three- and four-bedroom homes," Royce said.
The properties are not just being torn down because they're about to collapse, though that is a factor. Instead, the city declares them a nuisance, which gives owners 30 days to fix problems uncovered by city code inspectors. A nuisance is defined as something that "threatens the public peace, health, safety or sanitary condition of the city or which is offensive or has a blighting influence on the community."
So far, most of the buildings torn down were rental properties that have severe code problems. Tenants can help by forcing landlords to make repairs
The last portion of two neighboring houses at 63 and 67 W. Jessamine Ave., St. Paul, comes tumbling down Monday. (CRAIG BORCK, Pioneer Press)through Minnesota's Tenant Remedies Act or by filing a rent escrow action, and Royce said they could contact her group or Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services for help.
But many more are the product of foreclosures, city officials say. And now that banks are holding them in a sagging market, trying to force improvements can be difficult.
"A lot of mortgage companies are nonresponsive or not proactive in addressing the problems," said city inspector Steve Magner, who oversees St. Paul's vacant buildings.
One mortgage company did become proactive recently, filing suit against the city to prevent a demolition. The building had already been torn down.
Magner said the houses selected for demolition are chosen for a number of reasons. Focusing on the four Invest St. Paul neighborhoods, the city is working with neighbors and neighborhood groups to identify the homes that need to go. Each demolition costs about $10,000, which the city hopes to recoup by adding the bill to the property tax bill.
Many homeowners do submit work plans to the city in order to save them from the wrecking ball. However, Magner said, the proposals are frequently insufficient.
"Code enforcement should not have to be out here two years from now," Magner said. "We want these buildings to last for 50 years. That's how the city will improve its housing stock and improve its neighborhoods."
Jason Hoppin can be reached at jhoppin@pioneerpress.com or 651-292-1892.
Article correction... There is 933 registered vacant homes.
Getting the houses up to code is not the issue. Gentification and moving the poor people out of the city is what they are really interestd in. If it was fixing houses they would be willing to work with you, but instead they come up with all these bogus saftey issues that people can't argue with and when you can't afford it, then they tear it down. If it was really saftey they were concerned about, then they would require every house in the city to undergo these repairs because they all have the same repair issues.
Some help this Caty Royce is to these tenants. Where has she been for the last year when we have been bitching about htis stuff going on? Wo is she? No one even knows of her except for the newspaper. Some help she has given to the poor....just like all the rest of the government types, she just sits around and watched it happen and then complains.
Almost 99% of the black population is going to be be percieved by the white communbity as being offensive and threatening the peace of the community just because the blacks like to barbeque and have family get togethers in the front yard instead of the back yard. This "Nusiance law" seems to written in such a way so the city can apply it to whoever and whenever they want. I'm willing to bet it is being applied to blacks mcuh more than white, and that makes me wonder.... is this is a racial profiling thing going on?
The poor will rise up and strike back in the voting booth this November. This city is all done telling to "eat cake!"
You landlords are all done "sluming out" our neighborhoods. We've had you on the run for the last few years and now we're goning to finish you off. We're going to tear down your slum properties, destroy you financially, and once and for all get you the hell out of our town. With 20 houses a month getting torn down, it's really an exciting time for neighborhood revitalization and the demise of the slumlord. Good riddens!
Boy that Jason Hoppin is a good reporter.He really talked to both sides on this one--Hint hint Mr.Hoppin read the three federal lawsuits they might tell you really whats going on.When you just talk to the city you just hear their spin,but on the other hand maybe thats easy reporting for ya.
The days of good reporting is over boys and thats why local papers a dying.
The Dispatch and Star Tribune only report the info the City wants reported. Just try to get them to report the truth and you will find out they aren't a bit interested. They are truly just a joke!
The end is near St Paul.....just 6 moths to go and your toast at the elections, with Lantry probably being the exception, but that is not all bad either. I will enjoy watching her be part of a Council that won't put up with her BS and she has no power at all. Her ego is too big to do very well in such a situation, and all the people she has stabbed in the back along the way are going to love watching her being relegated to not much more than a nothing!
Two down, and they will try to put three up in there place.
The price of one home going up, would make the tax value of the home around it go up.
Soon they can say the other homes around the area, has to look as good as the newer homes.
And then it all starts over.
The people that complained about the condition of a home will be the home pointed at next.
Sad, But True.
Post a Comment
<< Home