by Pamela Powers Hannley
Exactly one month ago, I wrote a blog post trying to shame lazy landlords and trashy tenants and trying to push the City of Tucson into holding property owners accountable for illegal dumping. Apparently, slumlords are shameless bunch… but I perservere.
Instead of uploading another collection of trashy photos, I decided to focus on a case study– the midtown property owned by Alice Reynolds-Jordan and Gregory Jordan, 4160 Old York Rd., Monkton, MD. Why the Jordans? Because their collection of duplexes in midtown were in my July 2 code violation article (photo below), and a month later, the trash pile not only still sits in the curb lawn, it’s gotten bigger.
Alghough there have been several complaints to the city about this property, the original mattress is not only still there, but a couch and other pieces of furniture are now piled on top of and around the original couch (photo above). Also, often than not, there is junk furniture or just junk dumped illegally in the curb lawn in front of this property. My question to the city is: Why does it take SOOOOO LOOOONG to crackdown on repeat offenders like this?
The city has a graffiti reporting app to aid in rapid the reporting, clean-up, and tracking of graffiti. Why not a code enforcement app to report, clean-up and track illegal dumping? It could work the same way: concerned citizen snaps a digital photo and poof sends it to the city with the address and complaint.
Why don’t we have this app? The only reason I can think of is that the graffiti app potentially catches “criminals” while the code enforcement app would catch businessmen who are relying on the inefficiency and glacial speed of the city to aid them in breaking the law. (The plot thickens.)
More after the jump.
I looked up the Jordan’s house on Google Earth. Pretty nice area— trees, winding suburban roads. Don’t the Jordans realize that the neighbors who live near their rental would also like to live in a pretty nice area?
Landlords charge deposits (which they rarely return in full, if at all). They also charge cleaning fees. The landlords have the money to pay handymen to do maintenance and hauling. You’re right. The trashy tenants and the lazy landlords are milking the system.
Another slumlord millionaire came to my attention after I posted this story. She’s an associate professor at the UA College of Nursing. She owns a property on Edison in midtown and is a repeat offender with multiple reports filed by neighbors. This slumlord millionaire UA prof lives in a half-million-dollar house off of Sunrise. Living where she does, she probably has a gardener and a maid. You can’t tell me that she can’t afford to hire someone to haul sh*t away from her rental properties and keep the weeds and grass under control.
Definitely, the lazy landlords should be charged the cost of cleaning up their sh*t. Why not make it like the stupid motorist law. People who are rescued from washes have to pay for services. A steadily escalating fine would help this problem. Now the lazy landlords try to wait it out until the next bulky pick-up (months later).
Sadly 90% of the street has the pile it up and let someone else pick it up entitled attitude. Residents, slum lords, City of Tucson run housing program facilities up the street and the Rental companies paid to keep the properties in good condition. To many of them don’t care so the street will probobly always look like this. Add to your app idea a removal and transfer Fee of $400 for the cost of 2 city workers time,the truck , and the gas to transfer the pile from the rental home to the driveway of the Owner or Property manager Home or business.