urbanSTL

Stupid, and will anyone be held accountable? The city has a tool to try to avert this outcome. Why wasn't it used?

^I was looking at it over the weekend and thinking the neglect was pretty well taking care of the job. They've knocked out all the windows and half the floors are gone. They're starting to stack bricks. It's . . . such a dang mess.

Huge loss that was possible to prevent.  It's gonna be a long journey to replace what was lost on this stretch.

Should be immediately seized by the City, whoever the hell Kevin Kulich is should preferably be arrested but I would settle for him losing this property.

Ald Martin commented on the matter on Twitter. 

The whole point of that ordinance is that the Building Division can step in and do the work, then bill the owner. In fact, they already can even without the ordinance process. If the owner can't pay, it goes to tax sale. Now they can say the Building Division needs to have the funds to do it, which is true, but the Building Division has some funding, and the City can provide the funding in the regular budget process. That's a frustrating response.

Martin is one of the few members of the Board who is a proactive force in her ward, I don't doubt that she did try to prevent this from occurring. However, the inertia of city government means that it is going to respond poorly in individual cases, especially during a crisis.

Do we have any evidence at all that she actually did anything? If so, what did she do? I'm genuinely curious. I'm in her ward. I'm not impressed.

"Prevent may not be the right word- but tried to find an alternative outcome."

whatever that means.

The three buildings at Jefferson and Chouteau were in good shape when razed. I doubt this location is attractive for a gas station or drive-thru coffee.

this is just a case of the owner being a massive pile of excrement. he's just a terrible f*cking person. the city needs policies to exterminate parasites like him and officials that actually give enough of a damn to implement them.

urban_dilettante wrote: ↑

Feb 04, 2022

this is just a case of the owner being a massive pile of excrement. he's just a terrible f*cking person. the city needs policies to exterminate parasites like him and officials that actually give enough of a damn to implement them.

The city made a policy to do something about it and didn't try to exercise it.

^ right. i guess i mean policies with more teeth. the way Martin talks they're still powerless despite the existing policy—not that i'm buying that she actually made an effort. she sure didn't offer many specifics about how she "kinda sorta tried to find an alternative outcome but not really or whatever".

^I'd certainly not say she's the only alderman who has failed. I've long been a little suspicious as she was a lobbyist before she ran for office. (Might still be.) Her opponent was a community activist, but Martin was better funded and better connected, so, naturally, she won. In spite of that, I'm trying to give her a chance. I want to see her succeed. But I'm not seeing much encouraging and her tweet just feels like deflection. What did she do, exactly? I'm in her ward, but I don't recall getting anything in the mail discussing her efforts, or issues facing us. Maybe she spoke at the Cardondelet Betterment Foundation once or twice, but I never saw it advertised and I never got a notification. I've gotten mail from Steve Butz, from Cori Bush, even from Blunt. But not a peep from my alderman, who in theory lives close enough to actually knock on my door. (And who certainly lives close enough to send out a mailer every now and then talking about issues.) She managed to hang a campaign flyer several years ago. That's the last I recall hearing from her.

shadrach wrote:Take Martin’s comments at face value.

if you know the details, please share. i'm not blaming her for all of the city's problems, but i'm also not going to take vague excuses at face value. these properties have been deteriorating for at least a decade.  the city has had a policy to address this exact situation for like 5 or 6 years now. what, SPECIFICALLY, prevented her from implementing that policy in her 4+ years as alderman? and if there are obstacles to implementation, what has she done to spotlight and address those obstacles? this is a huge, huge loss for the city. the dysfunction is just never-ending.

I do not know the specifics of the situation but if we were to speculate and say that someone at city hall (civil servant) were less than helpful, were not interested in saving these buildings, etc... would it really be appropriate for her to tweet out their name(s)?

^That's a good solid response. The problem is clearly systemic, since it extends to so very many corners of the city and isn't concentrated in one, or even just a few wards. And shepherding development isn't her only, nor necessarily her primary job. The strip on the east side of Broadway shouldn't be the only thing we use to evaluate her performance, nor should we pretend she's the party primarily responsible. There are two separate and complex issues:

1. Is Martin doing a good job of representing her constituents and addressing the needs of her community?
2. What can be done to prevent the kind of bad outcome we're seeing unfold on this south Broadway site?

The first is a fair question of any politician and deserves a careful and complete answer. And it troubles me somewhat that I honestly don't know what she's done even though I'm in her ward. Some of that is perhaps my fault for not digging deeper. But there's also the issue of communication. She has tools available to her to make us more aware of what she's doing. This is not an assessment of her performance, and I make no endorsements, but I think I can safely say she needs to work on her communication.

The second is a real stickler, and I think you're right in that we need something more than we have. There are tools, but they're not working. A failsafe protocol (or two) sounds like a great first step. Is this something like hiring more inspectors, or maybe even a repair enforcement team? How much would such a thing cost and how could we guarantee their safety? Maybe we would need "repair warrants" signed by a judge and police escort at least for the initial contact and assessment, since this does require government agents to enter private property. It's not precisely search and seizure, but it's clearly related. There's a search and a forcible alteration in someone's material conditions. (Note: I am not a lawyer. Just thinking out loud.)

But even if these two thing are separate, there is a connection. Martin has an opportunity to address the issue. She can, and perhaps should, communicate with us about what we can learn from this situation, about what tools we have and what tools are needed. She could take some kind of position. Her previous Twitter statements feel like deflection. I'm hoping to see something more positive. I'd like my representative at City Hall to lead the charge on preservation. We're in a strangely complex ward with an unusually large amount of history and about thirty years of slowly accumulating neglect. At the moment that history is being disassembled, brick by brick. She has an opportunity to do something positive.

Also, invite me over for the wine. Maybe we can solve this together. And post about it on the forums. (There may or may not have been beer involved in my first response.)

^Drove by there again today. It makes me cry every time I see it. Maybe I'm dreaming if I expect alders to send out mail. Maybe the money just isn't there for it. (I suppose it's not for anything else.) But it would sure be nice to hear something direct. To know what those on the inside think we need to be doing to make this work better.

Does she do an email newsletter or some such?