Satisfaction

I spent last week getting to know my friendly neighborhood code enforcement officer. Talking with him I learned that the city can't do a damn thing about an abandoned structure. Not really a damn thing until it burns down - If it burns though, bang they are on it and they can take it down at will.  Not a damn thing they can do with either of the houses  that I have issues with. Damn it.

Problem #2 house at the end of the street is a shack. This isn't the most high-end area in Raleigh but we  don't live in shacks and that one needs to be taken down before it falls down. If  the city can't/won't deal with it the next big storm is going to do the job for them and that could be messy and dangerous.

 The city can't do anything about it because the lady who owned it, died and did so intestate. The structure, now owned by no fewer than fourteen out-of-town kin and they aren't in a hurry to deal with the shack, but good news! according to my friend with the city an executor has been listed so maybe they can move on it soon. The guy with the city said he had driven by and it looked like someone was working on it. I told him it was being taken down piece by piece and it wasn't because someone was "working on it". Its being parted out like a stolen Buick.

On the upside, once the city and the power company cut the cables to the house, the transients moved out! It had power and water for months, WHY!?  That shit should have been cut off when the DEAD woman didn't pay her bills. GAWD. In my mind, once transients have moved in, its okay to take it down with prejudice.  If the absentee family members let it get to that point they have no concern for the property and it should revert to the city. The city should at that point auction it or tear it down.  The owners could be given whatever the market value of the structure at the time of disposal. Or a gift card.

Anyway. I spoke with the city about Gangsta's Paradise and they said it has an owner and they have spoken with him and yada, yada, yada nothing-they-can-do. I said "Property Values! Vandalism! Trespassing! B&E!"  I get nowhere.

That was last week. This week I spoke with the owner.  I saw cars there and went in for the kill. We talked, actually,  I talked and he listened. I spoke eloquently and at length about what abandoned structures do to a neighborhood and how much they piss me off.  I listed my gripes and he apologized. I told him his burglars woke me up every time they broke into his house. He apologized. I told him I called the cops.  He apologized. I told him I called the city and tattled on him.He apologized. He said they called him. He says he wants to work on the house,he values they house,  he says wants to live there. I don't really care. I mean at this point I really don't. I care about my property values and crime, I could care less about his hobbies.

He gave me his name and numbers and his worker boarded up the smashed window. I cared a lot.