Back in March, 2007 I posted about this house for the first time.
Late last week, someone decided to light it up like a Christmas tree.
How many tax dollars were wasted, not to mention lives put in danger by having firemen respond to and battle this fire at this vacant location. It has been AT LEAST 30 months (that’s two and a half years!) that the property has been in such a shitty and deplorable condition. Maybe it’s time to start actually enforcing by-laws?
I hate to go off on a rant, but lately the quality of life in our fair City is decreasing at an alarming rate… Our mayor and politicians have spent too much time lately on idiocy (Greenlink, Tunnel deal, Strikes, Canals…) and not enough on actually running the city. We’re coming up on ten months of no action that we’ve had a burned out shell at Walker & Richmond.
Anyone want to start a pool on how long this is going to sit there in this condition?
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Unless you're willing to run a pool for two or more years, it's not even worth talking about. Our elected officials spend more time and money hiring outside "consultants" and "experts" to study the forest that they can't see the trees dying around them. I've long ago given up on this current batch of uninspired lemmings and look forward to a new crop of Councillors that come to the table with a new vision for the city.
The key is - only we can make it happen. 112 days 4 hours until the campaign begins, 420 days 4 hours left until the 2010 Windsor Municipal Election! Are you ready for change?
Yep, in some downtown neighbourhoods burned-out houses have been around for over 3 years! That NEVER happened a decade ago. But now? I am sure it is the fear of litigation or some other BS. I think it is pathetic.
What by-law(s) are you referring to? I had one of the councilors refer me to a manager of one of the departments and the manager said the city doesn't have the authority to go in there with cranes and demolish someone else's property under current provincial legislation. They can just issue fines for disobedience, which normally gets challenged in court and the amount (which tends to be small) gets decided on by the judge and the process drags on for years. Just like the lawn herbicide/pesticide ban, lawyers now being allowed to charge contingency fees and sue for everything under the sun, and harmonization of the GST with PST beginning next year. This mess comes from your friendly neighbourhood fiberal Pupatello.
Nice post. Mike and I wandered around this one and got some shots in 2007 as well. I always hate to see old farmhouses - even unremarkable ones like this - in a state of dereliction.
A lot is happening lately because citizens have decided to move projects forward themselves (boundaries, downtown market, new dog park, etc.). It’s great because it shows that we can really make change if we want to but it’s also sad that it’s left to citizens to make progress.
Well I know that the City can not do anything about burnt out buildings, unless they want to get the Provincial and Federal Governments involved. This is the case for many buildings in our city that have been burnt in the past few years. As the Ontario Fire Marshall's office, is the provincial group that watches these area, along with other items. As for burnt out shells, (for example the one at corner of Richmond & Walker Road), well talk to the Insurance Company/Banks that own the property now. This building like many others are owned by them, as people set them ablaze, and its a criminal problem, so the banks reposes the buildings and property. The property at Richmond & Walker will probably stay this way, till someone at the Insurance Company or Bank has finally settled all the money they were owed from the owners and other clean up charges. In some cases the property will probably just stay that way till another fire and they get taken to court by the Municipality, which usually takes years, and this is not the faults of Council Members or Mayor, but City Building inspection and other Departments of this sorts.
But, but, it's the mayor's fault, says the intrepid (web)logger
http://www.windsorstar.com/Burned+eyesore+could+demolished+this+week/1993351/story.html
Or not...
What I don't understand is what changed in the last decade? Windsor NEVER had burned houses sitting around so long but now they do.
Gammj, I don't see anyone blaming the mayor. What I do see is that people are noticing that this didn't happen a decade ago. The question is who to blame and how can we change it?
All I said is that City Administration has had their priorities in the wrong place in my opinion. They have been too focused on Silver Bullets while the city collapses around them.
There's a city hall press conference at 11:00, some high ranking members of administartion are out.
http://www.windsorstar.com/news/depart+city+hall+shakeup+news+conference/1995558/story.html
We can finish the job at the polls next November...
As of 09/16/09 there is no burned out house, its now a vacant lot. Clean up went quickly. Possibly the Fire Dept just arrived too early. This was clearly a structure NOT worth saving. Its been empty for at least 3yrs, if not longer. Why did the fire dept even fight this fire?