Summers FactCheck Re: Vacant Properties

[Lori Allen _]

Does anyone recall the piece of Summers campaign literature that said something to the effect of: Summers is doing well with dealing with vacant properties?



Everything in this video is factual, with photographic evidence to back it up. Does Summers have any evidence, other than his bulldozing of countless properties (instead of making the owner fix them) that he is "dealing with vacant properties"? How about making sure the lawns are cut for starters? The city keeps a log of all vacant properties in the city and vacant properties must be registered with the city.

Based on this, is Summers really dealing with vacant properties that well?

[Lori Allen _]

When these properties look like this, it is an obvious invitation to copper pipe thieves and burglars that nobody lives there. More importance should be placed on this. What about everyone else that lives nearby that keep their properties nice?

[Lori Allen _]

There is a vacant lot on Victoria by Grant School where a house was torn down, or stolen from the owner, allegedly due to "nuisance" conditions. According to county records, the lot was bought from the Bank of New York Mellon on June 2nd by an EXR LLC. Since this company took control of the lot, it has been all downhill. The grass and weeds toward the rear of the lot grew to be about three feet tall. Also, lots of litter was allowed to accumulate on the property, including someone's soiled undergarments. See photos below:

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This EXR LLC, at first, appeared to disguise themselves well. However, it was not that difficult for me to find. Through public records, I found that the LLC company is located in Spring Valley, NY. They are most likely affiliated with EXR - Residential & Commercial Real Estate Brokerage based out of Brooklyn, New York City. See http://exrny.com/

My question: why did it take multiple complaints and roughly three weeks before the grass was cut? A relative of mine that lives in the area finally wrote to the Board of Health, who called the city about the issue. Thus far, the grass has been cut, but the litter and underwear is still laying on the lot. If I can find the owner relatively quickly through public information available online, what is wrong with City Hall?

I also find it interesting that a company from New York would be interested in a vacant lot on Victoria Ave. in Lakewood. They own no other properties in the county.

This all boils down to one final question: did Summers lie on his campaign literature when he said that he was dealing well with vacant properties? You be the judge.

[Lori Allen _]

Another vacant lot on Hopkins, former site of house that City Hall allegedly stole from the owner. The grass sat long for weeks before finally being cut.

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City Hall can't even keep track of the houses that they are going around town tearing down? Huh?

[Lori Allen _]

This is the old Donnelly's Furnace Co.

Then:

http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cdm/sing ... /208/rec/1

Now:

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Owned by a local person. But still Probably a slumlord.

Think of how Mr. Donnelly feels.

[todd vainisi]

Think of how Mr. Donnelly feels.

Simple check of the auditor's site shows that a "Michael C Murphy" has owned the property since 1980 and sold it to it's current owner. Is that Mr. "Donnelly" or did he not own the building he was in all that time? Did he sell it to someone who wanted to put their business there, or someone who intended to board it up and wait for someone to pay more than he bought it for? If it didn't matter to him, then I suppose he shouldn't have any feelings on the matter, if it was his building.

It feels kinda creepy looking up stuff like this, I think I'll stop and leave the private dick'ing to Lori!

[Stan Austin]

It's an Irish problem. Leave sleeping dogs lay.

[james fitzgibbons]

It's an Irish problem. Leave sleeping dogs lay.

What would you know about it?

[Lori Allen _]

If you go back really far, a W.M. (William?) Donnelly owned it prior to Murphy buying it in 1980. Now it's owned by Mohammed Najjar. He lives here in Lakewood. Summers really doesn't have an excuse, nor does the landlord.

Also, another note regarding all of these vacant lots. The majority of them were homes that City Hall allegedly stole from the owners, even though the houses were in perfectly sound condition.

What is the motivation to allegedly stealing perfectly sound, occupied houses? Vacant lots generate little to no tax revenue and are a target for illegal dumpers, vandals, drunks, etc.

More to come.

[scott gilman]

The process for identifying property owners can be much more involved then just looking it up the county records. For example an inspection of a vacant property is completed and the correction letter is sent to the listed owner, however the property was foreclosed on and the listed owner is now out of the picture. The property goes up for sherif sale and is bought by the ban. Th bank then does not file for the title and the previous owner remains as the listed owner. Once the bank finally files for the title the paperwork for that property gets assigned to some new hire who is responsible for managing a bunch of foreclosed properties all across the country and could care less about Lakewood Ohio. The trick for the inspector is to find the person managing the property. The corporate office my be in NYC but the guy managing the property is in Salt Lake City. He is authorized to do nothing with that property and just will give the inspector the run around till he transfers the file to a office in Austin Texas. Then we start the game over again. My procedure would be to compile a paper trail and once I identified a supervisor and nothing was getting done I would go after the person listed as the president of the company. It takes time to chase all these people down but it gets results.
When it comes to tearing down properties it is a multi step process requiring multiple inspections and at least 4 differ sign offs. When we inspected some of these properties I wondered how they were standing up under there own weight. There were some properties that I felt should have been torn down that have been rehabbed and are now occupied.

[Brian Essi]

So there seems to be a double edge to the "hottest real estate" city??

I am confused.

Why all the tear down and foreclosure talk when "everyone" wants to live in Lakewood?

[cmager]

Chief Gilman, thanks for the explanation. Seems important to the fabric of the neighborhoods to bias actions towards rehab over demo. Sounds like that happens, but perhaps demo should be an even more extraordinary action of last resort.

[Lori Allen _]

Lakewood looks worse now than it did during the alleged foreclosure crisis. Fasten your seatbelts because it is only going to get worse. Businesses appear to keep closing and vacant storefronts appear to be on the rise. The urgent care does not employ that many people, unless you are a Donald Martens employee.

This is a building in the 13300 block of Madison. The front door has been boarded-up for several months. It is owned by some lawyer from Fairview Park. He really has no excuse, but consider the following:

1. If the city the building is in appears to not care, why would he?
2. If nobody is going to make him fix it, why should he?
3. He probably knows he can get away with it.

Not to mention that the 13300 block of Madison is probably the worst-looking block in the whole city. Graffiti, litter, trash, and drug deals abound. This is Mr. Litten's ward and part of Summers' city.

SECTION 6. GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF MAYOR.

The Mayor shall be the chief conservator of the peace within the City; shall supervise the administration of the affairs of the City; shall see that all ordinances of the City are enforced

1306.04 APPLICATION.

(d) The appropriate official from the Division of Building Inspection, Division of Public Health, or the Department of Public Safety of the City of Lakewood and their authorized agents or representatives are designated to enforce this Code unless otherwise stated.

Lots of stuff in here referring to "mayor" or "public safety".

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[scott gilman]

Brian I haven't inspected in about 6 years in 2010 there were plenty of foreclosed vacant properties around. We inspected all over the city and got many of them put back on the market. This included some very visible properties on Bunts, Detroit, McKinley, Madison, Lake and Elmwood just to name a few. JOB documented some of these inspections on the deck. The point of my post was not about the foreclosure or the tear downs but how the process for identifying owners is more complex then just looking up owner info on the county web site. When it comes to the demo of properties it is a last resort as I said there were properties that I thought could never be saved that are occupied today.

[Lori Allen _]

Meet this vacant property at 1635 Hopkins. This property now sits a vacant lot because Summers & Co. alleged that it was a public nuisance and declared that it must be torn down, even though it sat for years and nobody thought it was a problem. According to Google Streetview, the house even appeared to have a newer roof prior to Summers & Co. having it torn down.

Meanwhile, this is what it looks like as of today, August 24th, 2016:

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How long would Summers & Co. allow this if it were on Wilbert Rd, Edgewater Dr, or Kenneth Dr. to name a few examples?

It has already been documented that Summers is apparently incapable of ensuring that privately-owned vacant properties are maintained. This is a city-owned vacant lot. Summers now cannot ensure that the city's own vacant lots are maintained? That seems odd to me.

On a slightly more positive note, it is worth mentioning that I believe these city-owned vacant lots are maintained by the Division of Parks & Public Property. These workers do a great job. However, last time I checked, I believe there were only six or eight groundskeepers on staff in that division. Six or eight people to maintain:

1. All roughly ten or eleven city-owned vacant lots.
2. All city parks, including all of the small parks that nobody ever thinks about, such as Sloane Park, City Center Park, Issac Warren Park, Clifton Prado Park, Niagara Park, and a few others.
3. Groundskeepers must cut grass, empty trash cans, remove graffiti from park stuff and public buildings and properties, pick up litter in the parks, repair the equipment, remove leaves, put down mulch, and so on. How can six or eight people possibly keep up with this at so many parks and public properties?

Another one of Summers' claims on his campaign literature was something to the effect of "doing more with less". A fact check on this will be coming shortly.

This is the house before it was torn down:

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