How it works
Antonia Felix, Emporia
Monday, January 24, 2011
Environmental issues run the gamut from climate change to regional endangered species to the integrity of neighborhoods. The latter has been the focus of the housing committee of Building Futures, a positive force for improving Emporia. But after some dazzling efforts like two city-wide Clean Sweeps and hundreds of collective hours of work, the committee is right back at square one.
The goal was to improve the housing stock in town; rental stock, primarily: the neglected, poorly maintained, decrepit housing that has lowered the common denominator of the town’s appeal for decades.
Speaking for myself, not the committee at large, here’s a recap of what we’ve done and learned:
The committee urged city leaders to enforce the property maintenance codes. It urged residents to tell city leaders they wanted the codes enforced with phone calls and letters. Neither the leaders nor the residents came to bat. When there’s no will to act, nothing gets done. That’s how it works.
In a series of articles, the committee shared facts and figures about the benefits that safe, attractive housing has on an entire town: economic, social, health-wise and aesthetic. It provided examples of Kansas towns that put a priority on code enforcement, towns that take their safety and appearance seriously and are proud of it, towns with leaders who consider residents’ rights and concerns equal to, if not greater than (because there are more of them), those of landlords.
The mayor of Emporia said in a public meeting that enforcing codes was akin to being a police state. In other words, some Emporians can continue to break the law without impunity: those who own rental properties and don’t want to keep them up to code have more rights than everyone else. Period. That’s how it works.
Who cares if sagging roofs, broken windows, crumbling porches and yards that look like landfills make neighbors furious and push businesses, families, retirees and students away?
Who cares if the hundreds of young people from countries all over the world who come to Emporia State every year ingest their first impressions of America with daily walks past some of the most wretched rentals in town in campus-area neighborhoods? Or worse, are forced to live in them because that’s all that’s available? “Dear Mom and Dad, my knees are healing up from that fall I took off the steps of our porch with the missing banisters and here’s a picture of my bathroom — we covered up most of the exposed wiring and holes in the wall with the curtains you sent for my birthday. Thanks!”
The housing committee wanted a win-win for residents and business, a common-sense shift of priorities over code enforcement that would fundamentally improve the town’s business climate and quality of life. But the lack of political will is a roadblock that only residents can overcome, and residents have made their point with their resounding silence. That leaves the eyesore rentals still in decay, still degrading our neighborhoods.
Enforcing the codes with adequate manpower could change all that, but it’s a non-issue, no doubt about it. And the proof is in almost every neighborhood because 48 percent of Emporia’s properties are rentals.
Virtually one-half of Emporia’s properties are rentals.
That’s a lot of maintenance to ignore and a lot of responsibility shoved aside. But that’s the general attitude, so that’s the way it works.
The committee is supporting the Clean Sweep group—a collection of city officials, business and university people, residents and others that has worked together for nearly two years—on a modified event that will be publicized soon. They’ll continue to roll up their sleeves because they refuse to give up on changing the general attitude. That’s optimism for you.
BigRed (anonymous) says...
48% of the housing in Emporia is rental and vacant commercial buildings line the streets.
Instead of "Emporia welcome" the new stones should read "Emporia 1857-2011".
January 24, 2011 at 3:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dale011 (anonymous) says...
I have to agree. The area around the campus is just terrible. Thankfully a couple of the really bad looking hovels were torn down last year. But just take a ride from Logan Ave to 12th on any street that goes through and the houses look like they are ready to fall in on themselves. Its just sad.
January 24, 2011 at 4:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Well, well, well. "The mayor of Emporia said in a public meeting that enforcing codes was akin to being a police state."
AND JUST HOW THE HELL DOES THAT DIFFER FROM STICKING THE PEOPLE OF EMPORIA WITH ROCKS THEY DON'T WANT???
January 24, 2011 at 5 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Thanks for a very good article, Antonia. Let me add this to the very end. The only clean sweep we need in Emporia is of the city commission.
January 24, 2011 at 5:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
booker5m (anonymous) says...
Thats our boy The Zim
January 24, 2011 at 5:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lowereastside (anonymous) says...
There are over 60 rental apartments and houses in tonight's paper, I suggest you look for a better apartment. All thanks to the city commission for sitting on their haunches doing absolutely nothing to entice new businesses here or making them jump through so many hoops they simply give up and go elsewhere. The population has dropped 2000 people since the census of 2000. They came, they saw, they got the heck out! The gestapo, Building Futures, that was supposed to rule over all of us homeowners would be barking up the wrong tree because most of us don't have the money for major home improvements right now and still pay Emporia's inflated water sewer rates, property tax, and sales tax and still eat and live. Are you a homeowner Antonia? Does the paper pay that well? Or just a bleeding heart sympathetic to any cause that sounds good on paper?
January 24, 2011 at 8:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
A duck walked into a lumber yard and said,"i've got a fine to pay on my house and do you have a sale going on? The salesman said no. The duck came back the next day and the salesman said, "no and if you come back again, I will nail your foot to the floor." The duck comes back one more time and says, "do you have any nails?" And the salesman said no, and the duck said," do you have any sale on lumber, I can't afford to buy lumber and pay my fines.......SOMEONE EVEN IN THE REAL ESTATE BUSINESS BETTER GET IN THE RACE TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF HOMEOWNERS AND ALL PROPERTY OWNERS BECAUSE I THINK THE DECK IS STACKED. LIKE FDR SAID, 'IN POLITICS THINGS DON'T JUST HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT, THEY ARE PLANNED.'.......WHAT THE PEOPLE REALLY WANT IS LIMITED GOVERNMENT WITH LESS RULES AND REGULATIONS.
January 24, 2011 at 9:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lowereastside (anonymous) says...
Bravo Reddog well said!
January 24, 2011 at 9:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jamesbordonaro (James Bordonaro) says...
Ms. Felix is right on in discussing the state rental units near campus. Last week I dropped off a couple of electric space heaters to some international students because they were spending time at JavaCats as it was too cold in their apartment. A quick check of the basement in their unit revealed that there was duct work going right into the crawl space. Talk about paying to heat the outdoors! I also noticed some problems with the gas water heater ventilation which could cause deadly carbon monoxide to seep into the rooms above.
Substantively, I disagreed with the City's rationale for not proceeding with a previous proposal to allow volunteers to enforce housing codes. I believe that for simple, aesthetic violations, e.g., broken windows, it would be easy to train volunteers to take a photograph with their cell phone and fill out a simple complaint form which would then be processed and mailed out to the homeowner via the code enforcement department. This would free up the professional code inspectors to handle complaints such as I just described with regard to the hot water heater.
January 24, 2011 at 9:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Buffalo_Breath (anonymous) says...
Emporia Rocks
January 25, 2011 at 12:08 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Chiefster (anonymous) says...
Gee, thanks for the beautiful picture of my house in the paper....... Do you honestly think I WANT it to look the way it does? When you live from paycheck to paycheck, a coat of paint on your house is the LEAST of your worries. I'm just hoping to be able to eat all month. Now, if someone wanted to start a fund, or donate some money, or even paint, I'd be more than happy to fix her up a bit.
The bottom line is..........I don't have the money .........do you understand ........I can't afford it.
January 25, 2011 at 9:02 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
b3bill (anonymous) says...
Looks like Felix owns a house. Below is the link copied from the appraiser's section of the lyoncounty.org website for Felix's house. If it doesn't work, you can go appraiser section for the lyoncounty.org site and search by the name "Felix".
http://beacon.schneidercorp.com/Appli...
With all the complaining this woman does about property conditions and everything else, I'm surprised her own property at 817 Market Steet doesn't have the highest possible condition ratings. The info online shows the house is in only average condition, with the detached frame garage and the concrete patio each receiving an "F" for condition, which I would believe is a very poor condition rating.
If they've been improved, I'd think she'd have already contacted the appraiser to get another property inspection so the info on the site would be updated. But then she would have to pay more real estate taxes, and possibly higher insurance, if indeed the property condition was improved and the valuation increased.
January 25, 2011 at 10:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
JAMES, Did you help these kids find another place? People helping people and that's the solution. If some family near the college would like to take in some students or if someone has a nice place call James. Emporia needs to reach out to these students from out of country for our mutual benefit. If you have an extra room let the college know.
January 25, 2011 at 10:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
FriendlyMind (anonymous) says...
Chiefster-saw the picture and wondered--what's money got to do with getting the pile of junk off your porch? And we dropped off paint at the hazardous waste place by the landfill during cleansweep and saw lots of it there that you can pick up for free. No money needed. . . the bottom line is.....do you understand....anybody can afford free paint.
January 26, 2011 at 1:12 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
FriendlyMind (anonymous) says...
James B: I hope those students can get a carbon monoxide detector in their place--did you notice if they had one? That's a really serious thing. It was great of you to help them out with the heaters.
January 26, 2011 at 1:19 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )