Post and photo by the Hawthorne HawkmanOnce again, there has been a vehicle parked in front of 318 27th Ave N for several days. Once again, this vehicle is sitting on a jack, just waiting for something bad to happen. And ONCE AGAIN, the vehicle has been unattended while children do what children do.
Bashir Moghul, you and your tenants are on notice. I will no longer wait a day or two to call in such circumstances to 311. The instant a car is up on a jack here, it will be reported. The moment it looks like illegal car repairs are happening, that's yet another 311 complaint to add to your already burdened resume.
(Do not click "read more," but do keep an eye on properties owned by the Moghuls.)
(One of two quick-hit blog posts done over a lunch break)
19 comments:
Well, Sherlock Holmes you are not.
I ran a DMV check on the license plate shown in the picture and here is what I found:
The car is registered to a man living on the 1800 block of Clinton Ave. S in Minneapolis. The owner of the car holds a valid Class C license in the State of Minnesota.
I also ran a partial background check on the owner of the car and found that he did NOT have a criminal record in Minnesota OR any other state.
The check also revealed that the owner of the car was at one time EMPLOYED by the City of Minneapolis Park Board and his duties included driving a park van transporting children!
As a respectful courtesy, I have not given the name of the owner of the car as there is NO evidence of any criminal activity related to the car or the owner.
To publish your article while proposing illegal activity directly connected to the property owner, Bashir Moghul is in my opinion, an unfair statement and shows considerable negligence on your part.
A responsible course of action for a Housing Director to take with the matter would include contacting the owner of the car to inquire about the status of the repair. At the minimum, the license plate should have been altered in the picture to protect the identity of the owner. Again, NO criminal activity was found with either the car or the owner.
To claim such activity against the property owner is baseless and negligent.
Dyna Sez: That's a potential roll away accident there. That street slopes downhill, and it looks like they have or had a rear wheel jacked up off the ground. Both the parking sprag on an automatic transmission and the parking brakes work on the rear wheels only on a rear drive car. Thus when even one rear wheel is jacked up the car can roll away. The street in question slopes fairly steeply downhill there, this is an accident waiting to happen!
I never do vehicle repairs on the street unless it's an emergency and I have no other options. And if I'm going to jacking up the vehicle, I'll be doing it on a flat service with every wheel I'm not raising chocked.
Well, anonymous Sherlock Holmes, care to share a link to the site where you looked up this information? Then the next time I see a car in front of this house, on a jack, and just about ready to roll over someone (and there WILL BE a next time, I can just about guarantee it), we can contact the owner too?
For the record, I didn't have my "housing director hat" on when I took the photo or blogged about it. Whether in my private or employed capacity though, I believe the car repairs happening associated with a Bashir Moghul property are putting people's lives (especially those of children) at risk. If you or any other JNS readers have suggestions on how to better address such concerns, I'm all ears.
I have also made sure Mr. Moghul is aware of this problem, and not just by blogging about it. So, who will address this first? The owner of the car, the owner of the property associated with the repairs, or the city of Minneapolis? Let's find out.
There is no need to alter the license plate of a car parked on a public street at a property where there have been repeated problems, with a notoriously problematic landlord...I mean SLUMLORD.
All the things said by the anonymous commenter should be held in doubt.
(Freaking fairy tale font, below)
Well, I ran a license plate check on a private database of the same plate, and found that the 1800 Clinton block registration is old, and the car was sold a couple weeks ago to a guy with a fairly extensive record, though the record is all civil and involves lawsuits over properties and mortgages, not criminal convictions--at least nothing serious in the last few years. He sure has a lead foot, though, in three different states.
Notably, the license plate was mentioned on a blog in Des Moines, Iowa, as a mysterious vehicle "driving around late at night" in a neighborhood with lots of drugs and prostitution. (It was a really cool blog, too, kind of like Johnny Northside goes to Iowa, only I gotta say that blog needed a lot more pictures)
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(End of freaking fairy tale font)
What was the point of this exercise? The point was the anonymous poster is being very specific, but there's no handle to grab what is being said and judge it to be true. Anybody can just make stuff up.
The problems at Bashir's properties are endless, and we're going to keep writing about them.
Hawkman,
You didn't have your housing director hat on???
So what? You ARE the housing director, you blogged about the car and you made claims to criminal activity. You think it will make a difference if you said to a judge, "But, I had my Hawthorne Hawkman hat on and not my housing director hat"?
As for the sites where I looked the info up, I used a pay site that obtains information directly from various state agencies. I only use the one site to obtain the owners info and from there I merely use Google (which turned up the employment info that was listed in a court document).
Past that, I would say you should do your own work but, I am not going to put their name on the net when it is not warranted.
Perhaps I should just copy the contents of this post and forward it to the owner of the car?
Don't worry though, I will be sure to mention that you didn't have your "housing director hat on."
To address you and Dyna,
The car is not on a jack from what that picture shows. It is clearly on some type of block which, would make it terribly difficult to rock the car off of it.
Further, the rear-passenger wheel is the one missing. Meaning, since the car is on a slope with the rear pointed in the directon of the slope, IF the car was knocked off the block and was to roll anywhere, it would roll maybe a foot back and directly into the curb.
Anonymous Sherlock Holmes,
Tell me again, exactly what part of this blog post or activity is going to get in front of a judge?
You used a pay site, fine. Calling 311 is free. Now, if you want to spend your money researching car owners like this, stop being anonymous at least to me. Post or send your contact information and we'll work together on issues like this. Oh, I forgot, you're just another troll.
Frankly, the owner of the vehicle matters very little to me. So he lives in south Minneapolis? Then he's just exporting problems into my neighborhood.
I've seen people come and go from 318 27th and work on cars on that block, so yes, I expect the owner of the property to bear some responsibility for the behavior of his tenants.
Frankly if the registered owner of the car lives in south it just confirms to me that whoever lives at that Bashir house is running an illegal car shop where people bring their auto problems to be fixed.
So Sherlock's efforts are pointless.
Johnny, why don't you reveal your sources rather than discredit mine?
Hawkman, I call Bullsh*t. Since you say I am a troll already, I don't trust that you will do a thing if I post or send you my contact information, other than go back on your word.
So, I call BS.
IF I give my contact info and I am willing to give my first name, last name and phone number HERE on this blog, do you give your word that you will contact me and make good on your bluff?
Or, would you care to revise your statement?
Also,
"Frankly, the owner of the vehicle matters very little to me. So he lives in south Minneapolis? Then he's just exporting problems into my neighborhood."
YOUR neighborhood? Which "hat" were you wearing when you made that statement?
Could we get the exact hours of operation of the office of the Housing Director? This would allow us to determine when and when you do not have the Housing Director hat on. Being a public type employee this should be fairly open to the public. Should we assume M-F 8-5?
Jeff, whether you realize it or not (or care to admit it), you ALWAYS represent the Hawthorne Neighborhood, and you always wear your Housing Director's hat.
On or off the time clock you are the paid Hawthorne Housing Director, and everything you do reflects on the Hawthorne Neighborhood Association, and the Hawthorne Neighborhood.
You need to keep yourself in check, because you're starting to get kind of cocky. And that's not, IMHO, a good reflection on the association.
Maybe you need to scope out what other employees of the other neighborhood association do, and see if maybe you need to rethink your public face.
It's easier to fall in a hole then it is to climb out, watch where you step. And since most holes are dirty, it takes time to wash off the dirt, and sometimes the stains never wash out.
You might be able to throw away a stained shirt, but you can never dispose of a stained reputation.
Some people never learn these lessons until it's too late.
Ok I see you have opted to omit my reply to you, Hawkman.
I didn't think you were a man of your word to begin with.
I guess this makes me a troll now.
Why don't you just call 311 about the problem and stop blogging this nonsense. I seriously doubt Bashir Moghul reads this blog. If you want to put him on notice mail him a letter. You have his address.
Or maybe your precinct crime prevention specialist can send him a letter. Ours does it all the time.
This is an example of an unimportant and unnecessary post that appears designed to to attract and feed the trolls.
And to those doing license plate checks: Unless you have direct access to the State's DMV computers, the online information is outdated. Minnesota stopped selling information to PublicData.com and similar services over 2 years ago.
So while the registration lists to a Southside address, the car could have been sold to someone North. Maybe even someone living across the street from the Moghul property. Or someone who just happened to get a flat tire in front of that address.
Obviously no one knows for sure.
And does anyone reading this blog even give a rodent's tush who owns the car? I'm pretty sure a car that hasn't been moved for a couple of days can be chalked and tagged.
I'm all for calling 311.
AND blogging about the nonsense.
DT, I can guarantee you, actually, we know for a fact, that Bashir and/or someone very close to him reads this blog.
I for one appreciate posts like this. It's good to know JNS is out there ready to call 311/911 at even the slightest indication of nefarious activity.
Keep up the good work caped crusader (or maybe uncaped, as the case may be).
To the anonymous commenter with whom I've been sparring:
Yes, I will contact you if you give me your name and number. And if you want to remain anonymous you have my word that I will keep that information to myself under one condition: you cease communication with known trolls.
That being said, another commenter posted a statement that the information at paid sites may not be up-to-date or accurate, FYI.
To other commenters: I've explained this before, so I'll summarize again. I'm limited to 40 hours per week, I get no overtime. If I work 50 hours this week then at some time over the next few weeks, I have to work fewer hours to compensate. I have meetings that start as early as 7:30 a.m. and ones that end as late as 9:30 p.m. I frequently work at least a few hours on Saturdays and sometimes Sundays.
In short, my hours as Housing Director are extraordinarily fluid. If anybody really has concerns, come to a Hawthorne board meeting and raise them. Otherwise I frankly see this as an attempt to smear me and pressure me into stopping my blogging activities.
Jack, I put you in that group as well, but your comments are often substantive so they get approved. I actually agree with you to some degree about the fact that I represent the neighborhood in my actions. I frankly would have no problem whatsoever, though, in conducting myself in this way (calling 311 on dangerous activities in front of a known slumlord's property and blogging about it) while in my paid capacity though. I make the distinction because there are more important things for me to be doing with my 40 hours of Housing Director time this week.
Finally, this particular Bashir property is less than a block from where I live. Even if I got a different job, the Hawthorne neighborhood would still be MY neighborhood.
Dyna Sez:
First off, I looked at the car in question and it is indeed a hazard. Looks like a rear lower control arm has completely broken through, probably from rust. On a decade or more old car, that usually results in a slow trip to the crusher via the impound lot. Somebody put a proper OSHA approved chock under one front wheel, but I'd have put chocks under all three remaining wheels. But then again, I'd never work on a vehicle on a slope like that.
As far as the Hawkman's job performance, I'm a member of the Hawthorne Housing committee and thus one of his bosses. We're quite happy with Jeff's work, and the neighborhood's only worry is that we'll lose him to another neighborhood group or city that can pay him better. As for the irregular hours and seeming unrelated duties, Hawthorne neighborhood has only a couple employees so they often have to stretch their job description a bit and work odd hours to attend board and other community meetings, etc.
I will confirm that we know FOR A FACT a representative of Bashir reads this blog regularly. In fact, more info about that should be getting posted in the near future.
Thanks for the vote of support, Dyna! One bit of clarification: technically the board chair, personnel committee, and board of directors operate as my boss, and I am the staff liaison to the housing committee.
That being said, I obviously work more closely with the housing committee than any other group in Hawthorne. I expect that committee and its chair to hold me accountable, and I want to respond to the concerns of all HNC residents and members.
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