Albany residents petition City to act on nuisance houses
Albany resident Mindi Ritzman and Jennifer Dyment wrote the letter below to urge city officials to solve the problems with two dilapidated houses on their block:
“We live on the 900 block of Jackson Street, which contains two abandoned houses – 947 and 953 Jackson Street. Over the years individuals in our neighborhood have asked the city – Community Development Director, Building Manager, City Attorney, Council Members, and other city staff – for help in correcting these problems. Unfortunately, all of our individual requests have been disregarded. So we created a petition to ask, as a large group of residents affected daily by these properties, that our elected officials on the City Council simply do what is outlined in Chapters 12 & 18 of the Municipal Code.
Over the past several weeks we have circulated a petition among our neighbors. The response has been very, very positive. People are tired and frustrated by the condition of the properties and the city’s indifference. The petition currently includes over 100 signatures of neighbors and parents of students at nearby Ocean View Elementary School. We wrote to the City Administrator and Mayor Atkinson asking to present the petition at the City Council’s June 15th 2009 meeting. If they will not add us as an agenda item we will still go as a group and present it during the public forum. We have created a web site and email group to share information and ideas. Please email us for more information: JacksonStNeighbors-owner@yahoogroups.com
Some background on these properties: One (#947) has been abandoned for over 20 years and the other (#953) has been abandoned for over 6 years. Shortly after the City passed its nuisance abatement law in 2003, the owner(s) of the home that has been abandoned for 20 years began the process of obtaining City approval for proposed improvements to the home.
After several years of delay, aided by multiple extensions of design review deadlines from the City, the property owners(s) took out a construction permit for the house in January 2007. Minor demolition work was completed between September 2007 and October 2008. In November 2008 the house was raised approximately 10 feet above the ground and supported on stacks of wood cribbing. As of the date of this letter, the house is still raised. The old foundation has been demolished, but there isn’t a new foundation to put it on. Often, weeks go by with no work done on the house, and when someone does come to work, it is never for more than 2 hours at a time.
The owner of the other abandoned home moved to Southern California approximately 6 years ago. There is an abandoned car in the driveway that has several smashed windows, the backyard is completely overgrown with vegetation, and the neighbor takes it upon himself to periodically cut down the weeds in the front yard. As far as we can tell, no one ever comes to check on the house and the Southern California phone number that the owner gave the neighbor stopped working about 3 years ago.
Mindi Ritzman Jennifer Dyment
Residents successfully petitioned the City to act on a dilapidated house on Talbot Avenue last year. Click the links below to read several articles on the story published by Albany Today in 2008:
Neighbors urge city to act on “haunted house”
City of Albany moves to deal with nuisance property
City of Albany inspects Talbot house for health and safety violations
The jacked up home appears to be a severe safety hazard. With one good sized jolt from an earthquake, that home could fall over.
How about obtaining the owners’ names and filing a public nuisance in small claims court. That may get their attention.
Perhaps the car parked over the sidewalk can be towed. Seems like a no-brainer.
Good going, Jen and Mindi! Gayle Williams, a friend and neighbor of mine, was the driving force behind getting the city moving on the Talbot Avenue house with a petition similar to yours. Calling the city as an individual plain doesn’t work. I hope these two incidences will make the city more motivated to do something about derelict houses in the future.
We were not able to get on as an agenda item for this Monday’s city council meeting, but we are still asking everyone to come to the meeting and at least Jen and I will speak during the Public Forum/For the Good of the City portion of the meeting.
A correction to the picture captions – the green car that is partially blocking the sidewalk is actually in the driveway of 955 Jackson not 953.
Thank you for helping us publicize these problems. The house at Talbot & Dartmouth and these 2 houses on our street are NOT the only nuisance properties in Albany. We hope this attention will spur the City to be more proactive instead of waiting for neighbors to create petitions.
Please join us on June 15 at 7:30PM at the City Council meeting!
Well,
Is that sound applause or a collective sigh of relief, that at least one home on your block has made positive changes towards a prettier Albany??
Did it ever occur to you “neighborcrates” to call the police, have the car ticketed for encroaching the public right of way? I made one call to parking control and solved your problem for you. (Now I can hear the appaluase)
Second, did it ever occur to your block to do the cleanup yourselvs and send the owner, whose info is easily found, a bill?
Gee wizz folks, it only took me 16 hours to do it all.
Well I guess not, since it is way easier to vetch and complain, than do any really hard work yourselves. What ever happend to the concept of ‘love thy neighbor’ and ‘caring for one’s fellow man?’
So I will say it; in tough times like these, isn’t it nice to pitch in and help your fellow man? Or do we only care about bankcrupting our state and county coffers to help illegal immigrants get a better life!
Hopefully you are ALL satified and can go pick on other ugly poorly maintained homes in your town. After it is all said and done let it be known that the mistakes your posting contained are numerous and NO apology was ever printed about the errors.
The property at 955 Jackson St. Owned by Ed Krammer is still not cleared for fire safety and rodents like 953 Jackson has been. Why is it, that after three solid weeks no clearing has begun at 955 Jackson, except for the car being moved and a few motorbikes being salvaged from the rear yard. Go pick on Ed Kramer and his wife. They have a brand new DP Cruiser w/ disabled plates.
A far as I can see, they are the culprites too but never mentioned. Their yard is not maintained even after the city, the fire marshall ordered a manadatory clearing of all noxiuos weeds and plants!
As well, during my clearing sessions at 953 Jackson, I discovered that the neighbors at 951 Jackson have been using the driveway of 953 Jackson St. to store their junk, and were supposed to be doing the maintenance in front of 953 Jackson, but failed to do so. Since they own the cafe at La Pena Cultural center on Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, you can go complain to them in person.
Now do you have a clearer picture of the situation on your block?
The owner of 953 Jackson is almost 80 years old and caring daily for a very sick relaltive. He is not living the good life in SoCal, as your earlier posting implied.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK PEOPLE and go after the real villians in your town, your county and your state.
Respectfully yours,
sb well
owner SaChi
good luck/good fortune to you all…
We presented our petition to City Council on June 15th and I wanted to report back on the progress.
It took 2 ½ months but there has finally been some great work done to 953 Jackson Street . Since Labor Day weekend 953 Jackson Street has been painted, the windows were replaced, the car was removed, they built a new fence and cleaned up the yard. It is an amazing transformation. You should drive by & see what the owner arranged with contractors from San Diego. According to the San Diego contractor it still needs significant structural work before it can be rented but we are hopeful that will happen.
947 Jackson Street is still up in the air – literally! It was raised up into the air on wooden cribbing almost 11 months ago. Our monthly photographs show that very, very little work has ever been done. Unfortunately we have no progress to report at this time.
I wanted to thank Ann Chaney and her staff for keeping us updated, Barbara Chambers for gathering so many signatures on the petition, all the people in the City of Albany who signed the petition & supported us, Gail Williamson who provided invaluable experience & advice and Mindi Ritzman who organized & motivated us.
Sincerely, Jennifer Dyment