Friday, October 5, 2012

Digging Into Story Of "Shots Leave Four Wounded" At 1527 Queen Ave. N.

Creative stock photo, FOB Gardez, Afghanistan, blog post by John Hoff

A shooting that left four wounded in North Minneapolis was eclipsed, some days later, by the city's worst shooting...an event that was only MISTAKENLY ATTRIBUTED to North Minneapolis.

Only by dumb luck were there no deaths when shots were fired into a residence at 1527 Queen Avenue North. Interestingly, the text of the Strib article says the house was on the "1500 block of Queen Avenue North" but then captions in photos with the story say "1527 Queen Avenue North. This isn't the first time I've seen that contradiction in a STrib story, either.

What's up with that, STrib?

In any case, it was hardly the first time trouble came to the house at 1527 Queen Ave. N...

According to online city property records, the house is owned by Robert D. Zeman who lives all scrunched up inside PO Box 11055 in the 55411 zip code of North Minneapolis. Or maybe he actually lives at 5865 Fernwood Street in Shorewood, MN.

The property and landlord Robert Zeman are named in a HUD document that can be found online, click here, and names the property in question and 19 other properties as part of a settlement involving lead paint. With the exception of one property in South Minneapolis, all the listed Zeman properties are in North Minneapolis. Here is another online document about that same settlement, click here, which names Dominium Management as being involved.

In a Fourth Precinct CARE Task Force report, found online, date unknown, it is alleged that upwards of 20 teens have been seen hanging in front of the property. Gunshots have been heard at the property and drug dealing is suspected.

In an article written back in 1996 by Steve Brandt, landlord Robert Zeman is described as a landlord who has found a niche renting to "virtually anyone," including people with criminal records and evictions.

Oh, and here is my PERSONAL FAVORITE "blast from the past" article about Robert Zeman, where an "accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound" was keeping him from sitting up in bed and being able to sell off a troubled property, click here for the article.

It may be that Robert Zeman's bad habit of renting to "anybody" is occuring again. The city needs to scrutinize this guy the way they've scrutinized, for example, Slumlord Mahmood Khan.  

4 comments:

Jeff Skrenes said...

Know what would be great? If WE could dig into this by searching for property ownership by name on the city's website.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe he is still allowed to be a landlord. He was a slum lord in the 80's and had numerous complaints. I see none of it helped much.
MCullen NE

Johnny Northside! said...

An earlier version of this post said slumlord Zeman was named in a "HUB document." That should have said "HUD" document. The post has been corrected accordingly after a reader drew this error to my attention. Thank you, alert readers.

boathead said...

The original North Minneapolis slumlord, bar none, is back with a flourish. I guess trying to disable a shotgun by slamming it against the frame of the door and then having its contents lodged in your fat stomach isn't enough. I honestly thought that asshole was dead a long time ago. There are a whole lot of us stiil around when you were champion renter to muderers and rapists. I recall 1026 Morgan Avenue North real well. I believe it ended up mysteriosly burning down sometime after a few murders had been committed there and i also believe that his properties set the record for police calls back in the so-called day. I will quote Yogi fucking Berra by saying that this is Deja_vu all over again. Good Day.