Here is a photo I took a couple days ago at 3020 6th St. N., the former crack house which is rapidly turning into a neighborhood success story. For now, however, it is still owned by a distant and impersonal bank. The bank doesn't seem to have a lot of time or attention for minor details like, oh gee...
One of the basement windows is an accident waiting to happen. Somebody could just fall right in there and break a leg. This house is right next to an alley which presents a constant shortcut, so such a scenario is hardly implausible. Only the other day, I advised some school age children not to be cutting across the yard of that house...and I got a whole lot of attitude from their mother, who said nobody should dare tell her children pretty much ANYTHING, including not to trespass across the yard of a former crack house.
ANYWAY...
Accident waiting to happen. Enough said. This is what the foreclosure crisis is doing to our neighborhood or, more precisely, this is what big, aloof, distant banks are doing to our neighborhood through mortgage foreclosures.
(Do not click "Read More")
What are you, a little old lady? Sometimes a kid has to break a tibia. It's how they learn.
ReplyDeleteso... what's the deal? that window well was there before the foreclosure. what circumstances have changed during the foreclosure process that now make this window well more dangerous than it was before the foreclosure?
ReplyDeletewas the yard not always used as a shortcut? in my experience, many people of NoMi (young and old) have no understanding of the following concepts:
1. sidewalk
2. private property
3. garbage can
4. esthetic
5. decible level
6. respect
7. self reference
8. otherness
9. order
10. rules
11. rule of law
12. social norm
I have a tough time believing that the trespassers' short-cut is a function of the mortgage crisis.
The window well was COVERED before the place was lost to foreclosure. They pulled off the covering to board the window, then didn't replace it.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to submit more substantive discussion rather than just a list of words.
I wanted to stop by and commend you for your openness to stopping the DVD piracy issue in North. I take refuge in knowing that you wanted to be acknowledged for the event and are not scared of any perpetrator coming after you because of what you did.
ReplyDeleteOh, haha. What I meant to say is that I'm glad that your self-serving nature hasn't been lost from the Daily even though you've been gone over a year now. Good luck on continuing your one-man crusades on your own, but don't come back to the Daily to spout your useless garbage. We already had way too much of that in the past.
So, how far onto someone elses (or the banks) land did you trespass to get your photos of the accident waiting to happen?
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you're on a crusade to "clean up the north side" and yet you think nothing of the crime of trespassing.
Oh well. Follow the laws only you want to see enforced, right?
Johnny,
ReplyDeleteumm, if the window was covered before the forclosure, it would be a very naughty thing to be doing.
That is not just a window, that looks like ( at least fromt he picture ) it is an emergency egress window. Those things are required by law if you have living areas in a basement.
Now, I see plenty of those styles of window openings all over the metro. Some are a lot more fancy than others, but none of them are covered.. because, well, you are not supposed to cover them.
So, the question becomes, is it an egress window?
To the commenter who suggests I trespassed to get the pictures...
ReplyDeleteUnder the city's adopt houses mandate--which is so well publicized you can hear about it while on hold for 311--checking on the safety and security of a vacant house is NOT trespassing. Cutting across a vacant yard for no purpose other than shortcut...that is trespassing.
Uh, yeah, you are supposed to have removable covers on an egress window. I know because we have two of them when we built our house and if they are too deep. (Don't have the ordinance in front of me, they are supposed to have removable covers). If you are a homeowner you want them anyway, not just because of the liability but because dead animals and trash fall in and they are a bear to clean. It's also a small barrier to someone trying to break/see in.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, egress covers for a window like that are not cheap. Even the crappy plastic ones that break easily are $80-100 bucks at Menards and will probably get broken, come off or get stolen. If you are unlucky enough to have odd sized windows, you'll have to get them custom sized.
If any of you flippers out there have cheap, attractive solutions for this problem, I'm all ears.