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What do about neighbor with piles of refuse?

A neighbor has been having problems with trash and refuse dumped beside 3407 East Marshall Street. A listing on SeeClickFix seems to be having a hard time finding the right desk at City Hall and keeps getting closed without resolution.

The issue is described as “Pile of debris from what looks like construction work left in yard, with scattered refuse. No dumpster in use whatsoever. Piles of furniture (couches, bed, stove) on front porch as well.” A walk by finds that this is accurate, if maybe understated.

Larry E. Ingram of Shacklefords, Virginia, owns 3407 East Marshall Street, as well as the adjacent 3409 East Marshall Street and the house at 3412 East Broad Street.

01 couch

33 comments

Jordan 10/02/2013 at 5:13 PM

This site mighth help? Although bulk pickup is suspended until November 2013
http://www.richmondgov.com/PublicWorks/RefuseCollection.aspx

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mjn 10/02/2013 at 5:49 PM

My vote would be to resubmit the ticket under the “Other” category and specifically ask for Code Enforcement to do an inspection.

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Dan 10/02/2013 at 6:26 PM

You might should call the City’s Department of Health.

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Next Friend 10/02/2013 at 7:54 PM

This is exactly what CAPS is designed to take care of. Call the City’s main info line and ask for a CAPS intake inspector. Then email these pictures to the person you talked to. They are efficient, helpful, and effective

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Kathleen 10/02/2013 at 8:28 PM

I have discovered, from my own experience, that it takes multiple emails, calls, photographs and complaints to get the city to do anything. Email as many people as you can, post the pictures everywhere, and see what happens.

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Alex 10/02/2013 at 8:46 PM

Is it an old wood stove? If so, some fellow in Georgia may want to buy it.

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crd 10/02/2013 at 11:31 PM

@3, I called health dept. about a different pile of trash elsewhere and was told they don’t do this sort of thing. I think code enforcement may be the answer.

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Bill 3 10/03/2013 at 8:00 AM

SeeClickFix, in my limited experience, is completely useless. Their workflow seems to be 1. Acknowledge. 2. Wait. 3. Close out the ticket without any sort of resolution. Way to go!

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gdawg 10/03/2013 at 8:16 AM

A simple google search will provide pretty good ways of contacting the owner. He lives about 45 minutes away, unlike many of these absentee owners that live in far flung places. He should be exposed to the sunlight. Why not see if NBC12 or WTVR6 would be interested in a short drive to talk to him as part of a story highlighting challenges of blight in Richmond’s neighborhoods? Let’s hear his story. Even if intentions were good but times are tough, he could at least clean up and secure the property.

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Chimbo 10/03/2013 at 9:19 AM

I dont know about the marshal properties, but the house on east broad has been in a state of disrepair since the late 90s. For a couple of years, the main power line feeding it from the street was sagging to the point that it could be touched by an outstreached hand. The owner works on it only when threatened with action by the city. ANd our city doesnt threaten action all that often.

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Kelly Avellino 10/03/2013 at 10:15 AM

Hi all! It’s Kelly AVellino from NBC12. Please contact me about this massive pile of trash… kavellino@nbc12.com. I’d like to do a story on it today!

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Lora 10/03/2013 at 11:13 AM

I’ve had some success with SeeClickFix when I posted photos and then posted my requests on Facebook and asked my friends to vote for my SeeClickFix requests. That said, my requests were about potholes and other dangerous road condition issues, and not all of my requests were adequately addressed even then. Media attention might be one way to get the ball rolling, though, so maybe at this point the best thing to do is to contact @12, Kelly Avellino.

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Observer 10/03/2013 at 12:47 PM

Media attention tends to make governmental agencies take notice. sometimes you have to thrust them into the lime light and force them to do damage control to get something done. And it seems to 9sadly) work that way on a consistent basis with the City of Richmond.

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Alex 10/03/2013 at 3:02 PM

Ditto what Lora said on SCF. For busted streetlights and stuff it’s awesome. For real action on deadbeat landlords, not so much.

Kelly, any chance you can highlight the house on Broad too?

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bozatwork 10/03/2013 at 5:18 PM

I was reluctant to make it personal, as I truly think this type of stuff is an issue faced by many across the city and especially across Church Hill. But I am the neighbor who filed the complaint and request for code enforcement. NBC12 thankfully jumped on it and Kelly’s story should be on this evening.

#7, I would tell the owner if I ever saw him. Unfortunately he lives out of town and I don’t have his phone number. Clearly this was done by his workers following his directions.

I called the city the night I returned to town after two weeks away and discovered this situation outside my kitchen window. I also sent an email submission to the department via the city site, as well as submitted the city’s form connected to SeeClickFix as CHPN is reporting above. Unfortunately there’s not a simple option on there for code enforcement and the ticket got mis-routed. When the city attempted to close it, I reopened it and placed additional calls. No response.

This is much worse than the typical stuff this property has faced before, like uncut grass or bulk items left in the alley, or pigeons roosting due to windows left open, or feral cats in the crawlspace due to open access, etc.

There was a fire in 3407 recently. Although I don’t know the cause, I was told it came from cooking in the kitchen, but I wouldn’t be surprised if electrical issues were to blame. So at some point properties like this move beyond annoyance with appearance and property values and move more directly into health and safety concerns. It’s been under watch by CAPS in the past but is still on a downward slide.

So if this behavior and treatment of the property continues, what repercussion would be large enough to cause the owner to change? What is the long term solution from the city? We will continue to lose perfectly viable historic urban residential properties due to neglect.

We were out of town to celebrate the birth of our daughter with my in-laws. I’ve enjoyed living in Church Hill and being part of the community, but this is the exact kind of headache that makes people question the value of being part of the community.

What will do more for the city’s long term growth, our property values, and quality of life: a downtown baseball stadium or manageable levels of vacant and neglected properties?

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Alex 10/03/2013 at 7:27 PM

@16 – I don’t know what a baseball stadium has to do with this but if you want to tie the two, it should be positive. A new stadium would should raise property values and demand for houses, thereby making it more likely that the stubborn vacants finally get addressed.

The city’s not going to buy the vacants up with money they otherwise would have spent on the stadium. And given the city’s maintenance skills (as documented on here in great detail) even if they did it might be a net negative.

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Next Friend 10/03/2013 at 10:01 PM

You can ask the CAPS inspectors to come out to the site with you there, especially since it is an absentee landlord. Keep calling. The City staff are pulled in many directions – you’ll get them eventually. Like Lora said, try putting the link for your See Click Fix on this site and on social media.

As for baseball, Alex is right. Even if you think developers are all evil and in cahoots, maybe getting their Eye of Sauron with connections to the mayor’s palindir to focus on your area would be another way to get this pile of junk cleaned up.

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crd 10/03/2013 at 11:33 PM

I had a phone number for code enforcement but cannot find it. I do have another suggestion, though. I have recently had trash issues and I never really got final resolution BUT did get excellent feedback from a person at the city, from the woman who is manager of communications for the city’s public works dept. Her name is Sharon North, email is Sharon.North@richmondgov.com and I would put her phone number here but I cannot access the city’s website at the moment. I would most definitely email her a photo or two, she asked me for pictures when I first contacted her. There is an employee directory on the city website and she is listed if you go to it to get her phone number. She is high enough up to have an impact, and she can probably help you with contacting code enforcement if she thinks that is where this should go. Good luck and please let us know if you get resolution.

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John M 10/04/2013 at 9:35 AM Reply
Lucky Canine 10/05/2013 at 9:02 AM

It’s sad and frustrating that we can’t get any attention or get any of our issues addressed unless the news media embarrasses the city into action. Sidewalks, mowing, street lights, trash – the poor services provided to Church Hill by the city are incomprehensible.

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Alex 10/05/2013 at 6:10 PM

@21 – this is the type of stuff CHA ought to be focusing on instead of liquor license squabbles. Somehow I doubt this shit would stand for long in the Fan.

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clay st resident 10/06/2013 at 9:29 AM

I 100% agree with Alex’s last statement. It’s possible that is a first (HA) but he’s absolutely correct. CHA should be helping out neighbors in our community with issues that impact them directly. We need a group who has clout to start demanding better from our officials for this neighborhood.

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Pandora 10/06/2013 at 10:56 AM

You know, I don’t know that it’s really fair to expect the CHA to be all things to all Church Hillians. It’s certainly not realistic. The CHA membership has its own priorities and really, there’s nothing wrong with that. A lot of “should” won’t change that anyway. Why not start another civic association or re-energize the already existing Church Hill North? The clout thing will happen pretty quickly with good organization, a growing membership, and a clear eye to getting stuff done. It would be infinitely more productive than complaining and wishing other people would do stuff.

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bozatwork 10/06/2013 at 11:08 AM

It’s true, I never even thought of contacting CHA for help.

If it takes a huge development project, possibly wrong-sighted, to bring city response to citizen requests via code enforcement and CAPS then I guess I am in support. I think minor investment in resources to support and improve existing housing would have higher returns.

I’ll update when I have resolution on the request. NBC12 had informed me a city crew would clean it up and bill the owner if he didn’t respond by end of day on Friday.

I think it’s funny the news story and article referenced that the city has an easy process for reporting abandoned cars in yards via SeeClickFix yet somehow code enforcement doesn’t have a simple process.

This would appear to be the main city page for these issues:
http://www.richmondgov.com/planninganddevelopmentreview/PropertyMaintenance.aspx

From there the Citizens Request System (“To report a property maintenance violation”) links to this page, featuring pretty unclear instructions:
http://eservices.ci.richmond.va.us/applications/citizensrequest/frmNewEntryType.asp

They could more clearly state what falls under the SeeClickFix system and what should be reported to CRS, and have separate links for both from this page. I’m sure many people accidentally report through SeeClickFix because it’s not clear.

In either case, I reported it to everyone that seemed relevant and got no response until the news story.

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Alex 10/06/2013 at 12:47 PM

@24 – good points and I’m certainly not trying to suggest that CHA needs to do this. My point was just that a lot of what CHA does is done from a property value / quality of life maximization rationale. Crap like this and all the vacants surrounding their district have a lot worse impacts on both than the type of things they’ve historically focused on.

Whether it’s CHA or some other organization taking the torch, it would be great if there were an organization that had the scale and organization to make the city start caring. I’m less concerned about the who than I was trying to make a point that something centralized is needed.

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bozatwork 10/06/2013 at 9:32 PM

Absolutely right Alex. And that was my main point to NBC12 with this story, that this is a widespread problem and not limited to this one reported issue.

A bit more investigation on my end turned up that DC has different property tax brackets for vacant and blighted properties versus occupied, and requires owners to register a property as vacant. The city also completes an annual inspection of all vacant properties, and is motivated to do so through the escalated tax collection.

I contacted a friend in real estate there who confirmed that he’s seen taxes on some bank owned foreclosures go through the roof, prompting the banks to take quicker action for sale. Our common counselor should look into similar approaches to proactively managing these historic assets.

More info can be found here: http://otr.cfo.dc.gov/page/otr-vacant-real-property

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CHA Member 10/07/2013 at 7:35 AM

You can write/talk all you want on this site about what you think should happen and who should step in and do something about this …… but as a reminder, you have a full time council member that is responsible for this district and similar issues.
This if you don’t the results you want from the City – call, write, and/or email:
The Honorable Cynthia I. Newbille Councilwoman,
Richmond City Council, East End 7th Voter District
Office: (804)646-3012
Fax: (804)646-5468
Email Address: email link
Email Form (Recommended for public computers): email form link

Samuel Patterson, Liaison (804)646-3012.

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Next Friend 10/07/2013 at 9:10 AM

In defense of the City, no institutions have a memory. You as a citizen have got to educate each new City director of this-and-that if a part of the system breaks on the last watch, like code enforcement or trash abatement. Also, good opportunities to get your priorities up front are the CAPS and MPACT meetings in this sector. You can bypass the CHA or whatever association by just showing up.

Just keep in mind that the City government doesn’t walk the streets everyday like we do, so it doesn’t know something is wrong unless we tell it. Also keep in mind the various agencies report to the Mayor, not the City Council, so one might snoop around on who actually reports to whom before loosing one’s temper because a council liason can’t get a result.

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eds 10/07/2013 at 10:50 AM

FYI
The landlord of these properties is a former City employee with friends at City Hall. Or that was the case when I used to live next to one of these properties.

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Lora 10/07/2013 at 1:44 PM

@27, the City of Richmond used to require that properties vacant longer than six months or a year (can’t remember exact details) be registered as vacant, but I’m not sure if that’s still being enforced, or even how one would do that. And @29, I’ve heard that loss of institutional memory is a problem for at least one other property-related program at the City.

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bozatwork 10/21/2013 at 10:12 PM

Thanks to all for the advice on this issue. The owner cleaned up the site the weekend following the post here and NBC12’s news coverage.

The larger issue remains as this building has been unoccupied at least for the four years we’ve been here, and probably at least double that according to some neighbors. Although in a perfect world this property would be fixed before the cost becomes too high, at least I now have the code officer’s contact info.

Did you know that code enforcement has to ask permission to perform inspections inside a property if it’s occupied with tenants, no matter the obvious condition? The inspector was very clear that although he follows the letter of the law there are certain aspects to this process that defy logic.

Although I have no interest in making people homeless it’s clear this property is not fit for habitation in its current state (without gas hookups or any kind of home heating).

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crd 10/21/2013 at 10:42 PM

@32, is it vacant or inhabited? I’m confused as you say that it has been unoccupied for at least the four years you’ve been there, then you say in your last paragraph that you have no interest in making someone homeless (and I understand that, at one point I had a similar issue some years ago). Or are you talking about more than one of the owner’s properties?

I AM glad the owner cleaned up the trash. Sounds like you got some action after all, so congrats.

And I think the code enforcement folks have to ask permission even if it’s vacant. Not totally sure, but think they told me they could not trespass, so yes they are somewhat tied up with some issues.

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