Hope for Notorious Slope Building?
We stumbled across an interesting tidbit of information browsing last month’s CB6 minutes: “Chairperson Kummer informed that Board that he recently met with Council Member Steven Levin…He was very pleased to hear that the Council Member was most receptive to our need to put our heads together to come up with a way to motivate…
We stumbled across an interesting tidbit of information browsing last month’s CB6 minutes: “Chairperson Kummer informed that Board that he recently met with Council Member Steven Levin…He was very pleased to hear that the Council Member was most receptive to our need to put our heads together to come up with a way to motivate property owners and developers to make their properties safe and remove blighted conditions from our community. It was reassuring to hear that their office was already in touch with the owner of 187 7th Avenue at the corner of 2nd Street, which has sadly become a poster child for exactly this type of challenging situation.” We spoke with Council Member Levin’s rep Hope Reichbach, who confirmed she’s been in touch with the property owners. Reichbach said the “owners seem open to start a conversation and move forward with the site.” Right now talks are very preliminary and no action has been taken thus far. Options with the long-blighted property include assistance for the owners to make necessary repairs or marketing it to a private buyer. These options, however, are entirely dependent on how discussions go with CB6, local politicians, the community, and the owners of 187 7th. Last month a listing popped up advertising the availability of the building’s ground-floor space.
Will Infamous Slope Ruin be Reborn? [Brownstoner]
Doings at the Dilapidated 7th Ave & 2nd St Building? [Brownstoner] GMAP
Denton, I am not at all slippery, thank you very much. 🙂
Seriously, I think one could make a distinction. Those who opposed using ED for AY I think largely rejected the noton that a true public purpose was being served. We don’t need to have everyone reargue both sides of that to acknowledge that it may not have been a blanket opposition to all uses of ED. Here, one could argue that core public purposes would be served, such as protecting public safety and health. One need not be an absolutist either for or against ED, and one could support lesser intrusions for a public purpose.
“that’s a very slippery slope”
Especially when the OP is anti-eminent-domain with AY.
I fourth vinca’s, third Pete’s and second fsrg’s comments. Hope Reichbach was making the rounds as either a committee or district leader candidate last fall and canvassed my house. She seemed young, sort of well-intentioned and not very savvy. I could see her getting yessed to death, giving her enough CYA for her boss to look like he’s doing something, with the owner having no intention of doing anything. I could not imagine her exerting much political muscle in teh situation. We need a bit more than “owners seem open to start a conversation and move forward with the site” for there to be any news.
The mother and 2 daughters are completely dysfunctual. If they say they are willing to “talk”, it would only be to placate. Sadly, they are simply not capable of making any changes.
I third Vinca’s comments.
Most likely the true story is working it’s way through the civil courts at a glacial pace.
I agree w/ Pete that the council person is being incredibly naive, overly optimisitic, disingenuous…
I’m with Vinca. Either put out the whole story or link to the details or cut it out. This is half assed. There has been a LONG and seemingly never-ending battle over who is the true owner of this property. Fraud was alleged, etc etc and the case has been working its way through the courts forever and a day. With that being the situation, nothing could really take place with this building because it wasn’t yet legally determined who owned it. The owners have not been under a rock, they’ve been in court trying to get clear title. I don’t know if the case has been resolved fully as of today, but you have to remember that that explains a lot here.
Don’t know if that is true. The owner of the “rat/squirrel house” on Kane is not well-connected (but in her case, mental state seems to be a definite issue.) The corner property on Henry near the hospital is owned by “cement magnate” John Quadrozzi Jr.–so well-connected in some sense, could take that many ways–the city is actually suing at this point. There was one house in Willowtown that was a family feud standoff. So, basically, these are unique and complex situations. I do feel, however, that when it is a landmarked property and is so neglected that it is in danger of collapsing or injuring people, then you need a mechanism to force some kind of action (repair or sale). Seems like the city has gotten just a bit more forceful recently. Of course the priority sites will be in the fanciest nabes…
connections help keep it as-is. if owner was a nobody, DOB would be showing up to tear it down soon and charge the owner for the demo