Through the Price Hill Civic Club, several West Price Hill homeowners have contacted City Council about the 18-unit apartment building at , which they say is a neighborhood nuisance.
"This property accounted for more than 80 calls to service by Cincinnati Police from January through September this year [2008]," Witte says. "The drain of resources, the deplorable conditions and the continued disregard for the surrounding community has made this property public enemy number one."
Known as the Phil's Manor Apartments and owned by Phil Yeary, the property has been subject to poor maintenance, littering, and some less than respectful renters.
"This building is ruining this stretch of W Eighth," says Pete Witte, vice president of the Price Hill Civic Club. "We are losing homeowners!"
One 25-year resident says that Yeary is "low involvement, low maintenance, and a non-resident".
"You could say he is an overly generous judge of character as far as the tenants he allows," she says. "Over the past few years he has seemed to take advantage of the Section 8 craze that has taken over the West Side."
Not only has she complained about overflowing dumpsters and furniture left at the curb for weeks at a time, but she has also witnessed more severe criminal activity.
"We have witnessed alcohol abuse, marijuana use, verbal abuse, fights, what we believe to be drug deals, and abandoned cars over the years," she says.
She adds that a neighbor has already moved away because of the nuisance, and that Phil's Manor has led to a devaluation of her own property.
"We challenged the valuation of our home a few years ago, and the apartment building was deemed part of the reason our challenge was successful," she says. "The outward condition of the apartment building was considered a detriment to the value of ours and surrounding properties."
Apparently, Yeary has put Phil's Manor on the market.
"They will probably never sell, housing market slump or not," the resident says.
Residents have reached out
A resident who refers to himself as "an aging Elder Panther" has the same concerns about the property, and its absentee landlord.
"Phillip Yeary shows no concern for the neighborhood but rather the rent money he can scam from the government," he says. "Mr. Yeary has been made aware by many of the neighbors of the drug deals and garbage spread all over the property. Bed bugs, rodents, and even rats have been seen around the premises of this property."
He says that he and his neighbors have made an effort to reach out to Yeary, inviting him to attend Price Hill Civic Club meetings or to discuss the condition of Phil's Manor over the telephone.
"He will not give us the time of day to discuss these problems," the resident says.
Discussing litter with the tenants has been a losing proposition.
"If you darn say anything to the tenants, the response is so vulgar and you need to fear what retaliation you are going to receive," he says.
Loitering makes neighbors nervous
A couple who have lived in the area for 37 years says that they get nervous about the large crowds of young men who loiter in front of the apartment building.
"One evening there were about 40 men out in front," they say. "I called the police. This was not the first time."
They also touch on the issue of the neighbor who got fed up and moved away -- and out of the City.
"Now this house they raised their family in sits empty," they say.
"I'm begging you, Mr. Mayor and members of counsel [sic] to please step in and help the good people of Price Hill to either make Mr. Yeary have some monitored sanctions or to permanently close this filth-infested building, so it can be managed by someone who cares about the revitalization of our city and neighborhood," says the aging Elder Panther.
A report from city manager Milton Dohoney Jr. is scheduled to be presented to council by February 4.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
4373 W Eighth Street: A nuisance?
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10 comments:
I know one thing that building is guilty of for sure and that's being UGGGLY.
Even with the two lovely arched niches and a mansard roof, this building should never have been allowed to be built there. It in no way fits in with the surrounding nice houses. Allowing junk like this only weakens the fabric of a neighborhood - obviously.
When buying into a nice neighborhood like this one there needs to be some assurance that the nextdoor neighbor will not tear down their property and build something like this. Because there is an old multi-family down the street built before intelligence kicked in shouldn't justify the random placing of another one. The directly affected neighbors need to be considered first. That's how you build/or maintain continuity. And continuity is a good thing. Poor city practices are not.
What a GREAT post, Kevin. You know, if I had the time, this is the type of blog I was going to start -- a comprehensive list of all the blighted, unkempt, non-resident owned properties on the west side.
^Anonymous above is right: who the hell was on the planning board/city council when junk like this was allowed to be built? They ought to be rounded (or dug) up and kicked in the a*s. What were they thinking? Oh -- right, they weren't thinking. At all.
Being from Westwood, I can cite plenty of examples where the character of the neighborhood is disrupted by such garbage (the building and their tenants). How could you allow trash like this to be built across from this beautiful home or this one (which now has a sale pending -- such a bargain -- would be 4-5x price if on the east side)?
Without organizations like Price Hill Will and the Westwood Civic Association, the western portion of Cincinnati would be doomed.
These owners need to be exposed. Photos of the troubled properties, how many times they've been cited and why, the number and nature of all police calls logged to the address, and most importantly -- all available contact / biographical information on the current owner(s).
Most of this information is probably readily available as public record -- if I had time, I would tie it all together using Google Maps in hopes of exposing these criminally negligent owners and perhaps giving the city government and local community organizations a powerful tool to rid themselves of such trash.
I would do the same if I had that kind of time. It would definitely be a very LARGE project to tackle, though. I don't think any one person could tackle it by themselves -- it would have to be a group effort.
^:
Yes, it would be tough to implement this type of thing flying solo -- the data is available (you know that better than anyone) -- but it might not be in a format that is readily accessible if we built a Google Maps mash-up to render it.
If I was a Cincinnati native my enthusiasm level might be high enough to give it a shot -- but being a transplanted east-coaster means I've never seen the "before" state -- so the "after", while sad and depressing, doesn't generate as much anger in me as it should for a local.
To be honest, this is the type of thing the city should already have in place -- or it should be an initiative in the planning. Lots of money for streetcars (I'm not opposed, but I don't believe that project should be near the top of anyone's list) -- even, if I recall, a proposal from Chris Monzel (I think) about monitoring the status of the city's public garbage cans -- but nothing about tracking and displaying these blighted properties and their uncaring (that's being kind) owners.
Cincinnati: Prioritize! If you lose your neighborhoods and historic structures you will become just another midwestern city with nothing special to entice anyone to ever travel/move/work/shop here!
If you are here only for a few months I would agree but if you have indeed been transplanted, it means you are putting down roots here in your new home.and you might want to care about the place you now live. Your involvement can only help you as well as others. I'm sure you would be welcomed with open arms maybe you could do more than those from here can with your views from outside of the box. The problem is one that can be seen now. I doubt you would want to sit in your house and watch your surroundings deteriorate especially when knowing you could help. That would be no different than what the landlords and CMHA do.
The mega and disproportional concentration of section 8 is a bad thing too, just look at Galbreath Point in Finneytown - talk about nuisance. Please take a detour and tear that down too.
^^ Another issue is...how can you verify who actually lives in property they own, and which ones are rental?
It's an interesting idea...maybe to start a "pilot" list consisting of maybe one census block group or something and build it from there.
^ @ Kevin-
I'm not sure it would matter initially if we were able to identify rental vs. occupied-by-owner -- just getting a name and contact information for the person ultimately responsible for the property would suffice. If we had that information we could provide it -- maybe (3) different value options for a single declaration:
[ ] Rental Unit
[ ] Owner Occupied
[ ] Unknown
I think your idea of beginning with a smaller area as a POC is perfect.
I nearly registered "singlebrokenwindow.com" as a domain (based on a portion of "Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival" by Paul Grogan and Tony Proscio.
"Making that happen is a challenge much like others we have discussed so far: rebuilding dilapidated housing stock, organizing residents, and attracting capital and commerce. It starts with treating neighborhoods as places where people care what happens, and where both residents and government are mobilized to fight disorder root and branch. It starts with creating an environment where a single broken window (whether literal or metaphorical) is treated as the beginning of chaos, and is swiftly repaired."
I highly recommend that book to anyone interested in reviving an urban core.
^^ Anonymous:
Actually, we voluntarily transplanted ourselves here. My job allows me to work from home, and home could've been anywhere -- but we chose Cincinnati. We are members of both our local Civic and Historical Societies -- so we are involved (although perhaps not as much as we'd like to be -- we do have to work for a living, and chasing after our own old house is a full-time job in itself!). I completely agree with your points regarding heavy concentrations of Section 8 in a single area -- but that topic is a discussion for another time.
^ Thanks for the input, Bob. Unfortunately, some neighborhoods (even streets) tend to be more organized than others.
It seems that this Price Hill group is fairly organized. And the fact that they were able to identify one property, instead of the amorphous "Section 8", might get some quicker resolution.
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