My Home Town

Often after you have lived in a certain area, most people tend to take a sense of pride or something.  I have lived in Norristown for over 20 years and I now call it home.  I am not from the area originally, but I am now.

The other day I met a person at a social event and when he heard that I was from Norristown he remarked that he was now working in Norristown and was not too pleased about it.  “What a dump”, he said to me, and went on to say that there was absolutely no place to eat.  He said that one gets tired of Mexican food after a while.  While there are a lot of Mexican places, there are other places if you care to look for them.  I left the conversation feeling somewhat offended as if he had insulted my very person.

Yes, Norristown has a ways to go but calling a dump I think is a little over the top.  Perhaps I am looking through rose colored glasses a bit, as is my nature.  I know that there are big plans to change things, but we did get somewhat slammed with the economy when things were just getting started and many municipalities are having issues.  Our main problem is the demographics of the area which is not something that will easily attract new businesses and people.  We have to work a little harder to go after those people and use the plan that we have in place, and make some new ones, to ensure that we have a variety of businesses that will attract people and ultimately residents who want to live in a walk able, sustainable community, while at the same time enforce the rules that will weed out the aspects of the community that cause issues. 

Codes

The other day I was speaking to a resident about who is running for election this cycle. She said that she would only vote for someone who would do something about illegal immigration.  I am sure her complaint was primarily racially motivated, but moreover it was uneducated as the people running for election this cycle cannot really do anything about immigration. It is a federal law and local municipalities can’t do anything about it.

What local municipalities can do is strengthen their codes and look more closely on the violation trends for the properties.  Falling down homes and broken windows, while very obvious are not the only things that cause community problems.  Too many people living in an apartment or mounds of trash on the street – which is not always caused by immigrants – are not-so-clear signs that there are issues going on in that property and something needs to be done about it.  All of these things affect the quality of life for everyone in the block and degrades the town.

If the codes department is on top of things many kinds of things would get violations which would hurt the landlords that are allowing this kind of behavior go on.  Attack negligent property owners in the community by citing them every time they violate the law and they will eventually close up shop and that problem property will abate itself.  It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.  Once the word gets out that the municipality is not going to accept this kind of property owner and things will slowly turn around.

Citations

The other day I was speaking to a neighbor who had received a citation for trash in his alley. He was complaining because a) he didn’t feel it was warranted, and b) he had to take time off from work to go the DJ’s office to fight it.

Currently in Norristown if you get a warning citation about a certain violation on your property like tall grass, you are given a certain amount of time to fix it and then if you don’t you are given a citation. This means you have to appear before the judge and plead your case. If you are found guilty you are required to pay the fine set by the judge and then you are sent on your way. The violation may not get fixed, but your pocket is lightened.

I think that what should happen is that a citation is placed on your door stating the fine for the violation and you either pay it or go to the DJ and plead your case saying you are not guilty. It you have the violation again, you get another citation and the same process starts over again. This does several things:

• Allows people to know upfront what the charge is.
• Reduces the traffic in the DJ’s office.
• Possibly creates an incentive for people to not create the violation again.

I think that if we make code enforcement more user friendly, we might get better cooperation from the citizens. There would be more openness about what violations cost and there could be faster turnaround for the resolutions of these kinds of issues. If I knew that I had 15 days to pay or go to court and that I could get ticket after ticket unless I fixed something, I think I might be more inclined to fix the situation. I tend to think that others feel the same.

Just my two cents...

Condemnation

A few weeks ago I was walking to the mailbox and boom! I saw the familiar red and white sticker on the door of a house indicating a condemned house.  This one is 6 doors down from me. My husband immediately called Code Enforcement to find out the details. It turns out that the resident was not taking care of the property and due to unsanitary conditions it was shut down.

It is a really sad story about the house to begin with. When we moved into the block almost 30 years ago now, a widower and his daughter lived there. The daughter was in elementary school at the time. The daughter has since grown up and her father was sent to a nursing home and she lived there on and off with her occasional boyfriend. Normally it would not be a problem, but she has some issues and she seems to be unable to take care of herself or the house. We were encouraged about the boyfriend for a while, but he is not really that much better. They keep to themselves and aside from the occasional nod they are not really the neighborly type.

Condemnation is done for a variety of reasons. In most cases the house is considered unfit because of unsanitary conditions. It could be from a fire, or in most cases, pure neglect in which case structural damage can crop up or unsanitary conditions that can render it uninhabitable. Generally, code enforcement will come in and give a list of things that need to be done to correct the situation and it is up to the property owner to fix things in a reasonable timeframe. This assumes the owner is known and can be found. This can be a problem because people just up and leave and they ignore the citations. If the bank owns the property, or it’s tied up in court proceedings, then the resolution can be very time consuming. If the house continues in such a condition, it could be slated for demolition but that could be another 10 years down the road. This can begin to be an issue for the attached house, if there is one, because it can begin to cause structural damage to the other house as well and then two structures end up being razed due to neglect.

While the property sits it can be a magnet for vagrants, animals (the four legged kind), and of course the grass and trash could become unmanageable if there no one is willing to step forward to help. On our block the later is less likely to happen as most of our neighbors are the kind to step in and help out if needed. But it requires constant attention to make sure it does not get out of hand.

So this is a situation that will likely have several updates to it. Perhaps a group of helpful people can help fix the place up for the owner. Or maybe a builder can buy the property and fix it and sell it. I feel pretty confident that this property will have a happy ending, but it will take time.  Maybe the lessons learned from this one can help others in the town. More to come.