post by John Hoff
Click here for a Minnesota Court of Appeals case from December of 2014.
We Are Winning!
In yet another major piece of progress for North Minneapolis neighborhood revitalization, the Star Tribune is reporting that slumlord Mahmood Khan likely faces the loss of all his rental licenses, which would be the biggest action against a landlord by Minneapolis since...
...our city took down infamous Southside slumlord Spiros Zorbalas.
Minor side note: I have seen Khan's first name spelled both "Mahmoud" and "Mahmood." Having never seen the metal plate on Khan's cryogenic sleep chamber aboard the drifting derelict starship Botany Bay, I do not know the official spelling. (Click here for "Khan" Star Trek tribute link, YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO!!!)
Blue Tag Slumlord Special?
The Star Tribune's coverage is in-depth, and there's not much this blog can add at present. But like I told Jeff Skrenes (Hawthorne Hawkman) when the story broke, "I just want to get a piece of it."
Well, it turns out I have one small, relevant piece to add...
Click above, or here, if you prefer, for a link to the Appeals Court Case which was apparently the "final straw" which broke the Khan empire. The case involved seven "blue tag" notices directing Mahmood Khan to address trash problems at one of his properties. The case doesn't identify the Khan property in question but based on the Strib story it's almost certainly "2714 N. 4th Street" as the Strib calls it. (I guess I would say "4th St. N.")
And so the Khan cookie crumbles.
Despite what might be characterized as "resounding joy" over this news (by this blogger, and by a sizable segment of the North Minneapolis "revitalizer class") now would be a good time to sound a cautionary note.
Here, Picture A Concerned Frowny Face
What happens if Khan starts converting his properties into "contracts for deed," a tactic we've seen emerging in the last couple years on the Northside?
Landlords who can't keep rental licenses purport to sell their homes in "contracts for deed," but then set the price and terms so unrealistically high and over such a long period of time that the "contract for deed" effectively functions as a rental, with the added bonus of leaving all maintenance and repairs to the tenant.
Even if Khan sells his properties, who buys them? Will it be the NEXT problem landlord? Khan's failing empire could become a "starter set" for half a dozen new slumlord empires. Northsiders who have been fighting these battles for years, even decades, would like to see these single family homes and duplexes become homes and homesteads, not rentals.
If the City of Minneapolis botches this golden opportunity, we could end up with something WORSE than Mahmood Khan. And we're already BURIED ALIVE in his trashy rentals.
(Echo effect: Buried alive...buried alive...)
(Voice, shouting: KHAAAAAAN!!!!!)
Hopefully the City of Minneapolis is on top of those issues. In a Johnny Northside dream world, Khan would sell his properties to Minneapolis for pennies on the dollar and those properties would be sold to rehabbers and converted back to affordable family homes.
I was speaking to a regular reader on the phone--this regular reader says she never comments--but she said, and I quote, "It looks like whoever tried to break down that door wanted to KILL whoever was inside."
ReplyDelete