Tuesday, June 19, 2007

It took a week to report it

From WMPM's news page:
Selma Preparing To Tear Down Condemned Houses - The Selma Town Council has included funding in their $14.7 million fiscal year budget that begins in July to tear down a number of dilapidated homes that have been condemned for months. The town attorney will seek a court order to have the substandard houses torn down, and the cost of the demolition and cleanup will be assessed to the property owner. More than two dozen homes were identified by inspectors as substandard last year. A number of the homes have been brought up to code, but still many others have not. Demolition work on the unsightly houses will begin as soon as a court order is in hand.
I was there for the votes on the housing demolition process to start. What the article did not mention is that there were just as many condemned houses that the council was lenient about, considering that substantial work had been done on them.

The majority of the homes that will be torn down are abandoned with no intention by the owners thereof to get them in any livable shape. They are now an unsafe eyesore. I am usually in favor of private property rights. However, these property owners have abandoned their properties, have done nothing to bring them up to safe standards, are causing a blight upon neighborhoods, and causing property values to be lower because of their own irresponsibility. Ownership is a right, but along with rights there are responsibilities.

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