This is a post which I spent a week trying not to write. It is a story of favoritism and abuse of power. About four years ago a homeowner, in a quiet south side neighborhood, moved out and rented the house to his brother. Under Allentown regulations this property hence became a rental property, and subject to license and inspection procedures. As it turns out, these brothers are childhood friends with an Allentown inspector. The second brother, the tenant, has been disruptive in the neighborhood by every criterion relevant to code enforcement. The property became unkempt and subject of numerous police calls, including the SWAT team. All calls for relief from surrounding properties seemed to end up with the family's inspector friend, and brought no relief from the problems. 
Allentown has been very pro-active with problem properties. In the first eight months of 2010, 342 properties received orange tags, forcing the property to be vacated. Most tags were issued for problems significantly more minor than those occurring in the subject of this post. This past October, the bank foreclosed on the property. The tenant legally became a squatter. A neighbor's complaint resulted in another inspector discovering that the bank owned property was an unregistered rental, and he issued a 30 day to vacate tag for illegal occupancy. It appeared that finally the neighbors would get relief from the trash, noise and police calls. The childhood friend inspector intervened, and the 30 day notice was never enforced. My efforts with the inspector on behalf of the other property owners (including myself) were to no avail. I have spent the week documenting the problem up the chain of command, right to the Mayor's office. Although the property is in gross violation of code, the illegal tenant is allowed to remain. Although in the last eight months police have surrounded the property several times in complete violation of the disruptive tenant ordinance, the occupant remains. In typical City Hall fashion, they have circled the wagons around the inspector, around their own. They are now actually trying to work with the bank and make him the homeowner. The top photo is the back yard on May 9, 2011, with years worth of garbage. You will be happy to know that a city contractor has now been hired to clean the property and cut the grass, at your expense. The City's course of action is a total insult to the neighbors. I did see some inspectors today, they were walking around my property. above reprinted from June of 2011
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 13, 2021: During the Pawlowski regime, city code enforcement was weaponized. As both a landlord and blogger, I took on substantial personal risk to expose the Pawlowski regime for its corruption. While the Morning Call borrowed some my other blog posts without attribution, they never once used ones about city hall shenanigans...That's why Pawlowski got away with things for so long.
I'd like to tell you that city hall is completely cleaned up, but it isn't. Just two years ago I had to defend an east side woman from code abuse. While things are certainly better at city hall, it's still filled with people who were appointed and promoted during Pawlowski's three plus terms. While there's still a residual arrogance of power there, I'm hopeful for a more accountable city hall as time passes.
Although the years have slowed this blog down somewhat, I'm still on patrol.
ADDENDUM JUNE 10, 2022: While there's a new mayor, any change remains to be seen. Matt Tuerk chose to keep everybody in place at city hall, including code enforcement. While I understand his reluctance against a clean sweep, some changes were in order.
Tuerk has been preoccupied with inclusion and making all citizens feel welcome. While that's all nice and good, the time has come to start improving the rights of the property owners...The right to equal and fair treatment by all the departments within the city.
ADDENDUM DECEMBER 12, 2023: What is bringing on these Code Department inequity posts is the statement by Vicky Kistler that she was offended by the rumor that the code department was in a reprisal mode when they inspected the Hamilton Business Center last week. I have no knowledge of that situation or the appropriateness of the city action. I do have extensive knowledge of historical abuse by the code department. She (Kistler) should take no offense at any lingering rumors.
The song is a few years old, but the words still apply it seems
ReplyDeleteOh the games people play now
Every night and every day now
Never meaning what they say now
Never saying what they mean
I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here
I'm appalled at the nature of the alleged violations. I'm equally appalled at how many people are critical of the City when they should be applauding the pro-active public safety concerns from qualified Allentown employees doing there jobs. The lady who is complaining about the pending building closedown and how it will impact the daycare is typical. She's more concerned about her convenience than she is about the safety of children in this apparently rogue building with a non-inspected fire suppression system, erected walls blocking fire exits, un-permitted residential uses and gasoline operated equipment etc. The magnitude of violations to the building code and the zoning ordinance alone must be staggering. The anger should be directed at the owners: GLR Properties out of Claymont, DE, who's corporate offices are located in a glorified shack in the back yard of a blighted, nearly abandoned strip shopping center outside of Wilmington, DE. The fact that this outfit paid $5 million for the properties involved says a lot.
ReplyDelete12:32 - Really?
ReplyDeleteIt the selective enforcement that makes people critical of the city’s actions. Go to any neighborhood and you’ll find TV dishes or mailboxes) far in excess of the number of units permitted at a property. Or single-family homes that have multiple families in them. But zoning/code has no interest in investigating those complaints.
I would urge the Mayor to drag Ms. Kistler, and the code/zoning departments out of their offices when it gets warmer and actually walk the neighborhoods to discover what’s actually going on in the city.
And if they can’t see the obvious, I’m willing to bet there will be plenty of residents who are able to point out the problem properties on their blocks.