The messy house
Lou Johnson
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
THIS IS AN ANSWER to Jan Collins on “Enforce The Rules,” a letter about a neighbor’s unsightly yard published July 19.
What do we do to change the zoning regulations and ordinances?
Do we need to put up a petition to go to the city commission to get the help we need?
This is a disgrace to the city of Emporia and to our neighborhood.
Junked yards will accumulate rats and mice. This honestly looks like our sanitary dump.
This home also has a car with a Texas license plate that has no year or tag on it with more dump stuff around it, so you almost can’t see the car. All in all, there are five cars around the house.
Just come and take some pictures of all this mess so you can SEE for yourself.
The poor mailman had to tell them to move their mail box because he couldn’t get to it. There has to be more than one family living there.
Paccifier (anonymous) says...
What is the address? All these comments about bad looking houses, yet nothing to identify the disgrace- It probably won't make any difference, but put the addresses in the paper for all to see- In the July 19 article, there was a house mentioned, but again, no address. And who at the "City" was called? There is a city housing administrator- Jeff Lynch, was he the one who was called? There is a city housing nuisance ordinance, seperate of the zoning regulations code- Maybe we should (not joking here) get a web site and load digital photos of the worst houses and the renter and property owner's name if it is a rental- so everyone can see who allows property for fall into this shape. Might be surprised who some of the owners are, or maybe not.
August 21, 2007 at 4:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tosie (anonymous) says...
DRIVE AROUND PEOPLE.....it's obvious where these addresses are at.....I think the point of not posting the addresses is for safety purposes. What if the people have a criminal history as well? It's called being "anonymous".....The cops know the addresses and so does the city- it's just getting something done about it. Kudos for Jan having guts enough to say something about it in the Gazette.
August 22, 2007 at 11:29 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Paccifier (anonymous) says...
Kstrebuchet- Sorry I have no idea how to set up a web site- I can get by with a camera & posting to one though- and will probably send a few shots to City staff- The City housing nuisance ordinance is probably the best way to deal with most of these places- Zoning really won't do much based on the description- The real problem may be that there are getting to be to many places to deal with- between houses and trailers. The budget cut backs are eliminating the plans to hire someone at city level to deal with this sort of thing specifically. Maybe the Gazette can include addresses in the "Daily report". As far as being annonymous- most folks can be found in the phone book- with addresses listed-
August 22, 2007 at 5:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
netloafer (anonymous) says...
The Gazette published photos a couple of years ago, partly to embarrass the slum lords and partly to embarrass the city for not doing anything about the problems.
Nothing has happened.
I have friends who have gone to Jeff Lynch down at city hall and he tells them he can't do anything until a complaint is filed by neighbors. He's also said he's too busy with other things to inspect independently.
The city supposedly gave the human relations commission authority to sue slumlords. Again, there is very little activity on this front.
Why should something like this be happening? Are the slumlords that powerfully connected? Would revealing who they are cause some real embarrasment to this city's upper crust?
Will the city act forcefully? History is not a good indicator.
I think the Gazette should run a long term series exposing the problem, the culprits. We need a few muckrakers on the job. They need to be like bulldogs, sinking their teeth in until the culprits cry "we surrender." We need some heat and pressure put on the slumlords and we need the heat and pressure till the problem is fixed. We need the Gazette's reporters to step off the fluff beat for a while and come out and play in the traffic.
August 23, 2007 at 8:12 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tosie (anonymous) says...
I know who has been called, including Jeff Lynch and nothing has been done. I agree with calling the INS- that would clean up a lot of Emporia.
August 23, 2007 at 9:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
vankamp (anonymous) says...
The section just east of the new REG plant is a disgrace. There are lean to shacks and hundreds of blue barrels in a very small space. The grass is over 5 feet tall. There are probably 15 to 20 cars parked up and down the road at all times.I don't know if there is illegal activity going on or not. I'm not sure if this is city of county. What can a person do if this is out of the city limits? Does anyone know what the blue barrels are for? I would think the city would be embarrassed to have their wonderful new plant next to such filth.
August 23, 2007 at 11:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MrCmonkeeDo (anonymous) says...
Little Boxes
by Malvina Reynolds
"Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of tickytacky
Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses all went to the university
Where they were put in boxes and they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and there's lawyers, and business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf course and drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children and the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp and then to the university
Where they are put in boxes and they come out all the same.
And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky and they all look just the same."
See Ya...wouldn' wanna be Ya.
August 23, 2007 at 6:01 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
I don't think we'll see this monkee downtown at the cleanup.
August 23, 2007 at 7:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
4Jayhawks (anonymous) says...
Is the health dept. an option to get involved? Surely so much trash and litter would cause a health threat.
August 23, 2007 at 11:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
emporian (anonymous) says...
I like the website idea, I have a digital camera and will travel. I think you would be very surprised at who some of the slumlords are. One is very well to do in this community, and his family is very big in their church however he treats tenants very poorly, very little upkeep on the house, and when their water coming out of the pipes was orange he told them it was normal and not to worry about it. Most are in it to get richer while the poor suffer.
August 23, 2007 at 11:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
emporian (anonymous) says...
it was an issue in a rental house a couple years back. He told the renters it was okay. Two of them ended up with kidney stones. The landlord kept saying it was no big deal.
August 24, 2007 at 2:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tosie (anonymous) says...
To go back a little bit- the land to the east of the new REG site houses a hispanic family who raises roosters for cock fighting. Years ago it was pretty clean and picked up over there, but for all I know a different family has moved in there and has let it go. Either way, the blue barrels are what houses the roosters. They are tied to a cable which is attached to their leg and the cable is staked in the ground, then they can go into the barrels for shelter. So the answer is no, it's not illegal to have them, but it is illegal what they do with the roosters when they take them to Oklahoma to fight them. Some fights also take place in wooded areas outside the Emporia city limits. And if they have 15-20 cars parked there at a time please contact the Lyon Co. Sheriff's dept and report suspicious activity.
August 24, 2007 at 2:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
emporialifer (anonymous) says...
Hmmmm - I noticed a little orange tinted water coming out of my faucet a couple times - I wonder if I should worry? It's not a rental property or an old house though, so perhaps it's a City of Emporia Water issue?
August 24, 2007 at 3:10 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )