Friday, January 3, 2014

Building Involved In Fatal West Bank Fire Was A "Graffiti Hotspot" Constantly Reported By This Blogger...

Contributed photo, 2010, blog post by John Hoff, photo shows
building at issue and is not a stock photo

When I saw mainstream media coverage of the fatal fire at 516 Cedar Ave. S., I thought the building looked eerily familiar. I did some checking and, sure enough, I know that building all-too-well as a graffiti hotspot that I've reported to 311 not once, not twice, but probably a couple dozen times. The building at 516 Cedar Ave. S. is the "master address," but other addresses (including 510 Cedar Ave. S., where the graffiti always appeared) are included in the master address. 

Click here for a blog post about the never-ending graffiti in August of 2010. In a follow-up blog posting in early September, I mentioned how the graffiti had been cleaned up, but had been hit AGAIN after being cleaned up and I'd reported it AGAIN. 

That was, in fact, the pattern. Graffiti would appear, I'd report it, and the graffiti would get cleaned up. Only to reappear. After a while, graffiti got paint slapped upon it WITHOUT being reported, but then there would be slack. Then I'd have to make reports again. I simply made a report whenever I saw graffiti. I knew the address by heart, so I could make the report while WALKING. 

Based solely upon my experience with the graffiti, I'd say stuff at that building was neglected and not taken care of in a timely fashion, but even I might conclude that draws too much inference from limited data. In any case...

Wow. That building was my little "mission from God." Each time I was in the area, I reported the graffiti. And, I must say, there was some attempt at painting a mural of flowers or something which seemed to repel the graffiti for a while, but only a little while. 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for you, John, just MAYBE, the city of Minneapolis might get some balls.
Life is the limit now, and unless it is a major catastrophre ...bullshit, our Somalian brother's and sister's lost their live's...up the inspection's ,Betsy....any life deserves that!! I'm a lifelong resident and I want answers from EXEL or whatever their cute acronym is.

Anonymous said...

Wow is right. It's a pretty big leap from some graffiti on a door to an explosion. But I guess with you it's never much of a problem to make ridiculous leaps.

Johnny Northside! said...

Why don't you go back, very carefully, and read the article? Then try commenting again, this time intelligently.

Anonymous said...

You look like one dufas fucking dumbass fucking asshole I hate you Johnny Nothwoods disappear!Thank you that is all have a good day