A Mixed Message
This placard on Park Avenue explains in detail the features of a renovated property up for lease.
This building was a dentist office for many years. As I recall, that was its original use and it carried over through the decades. Some may recall Dr. Peter Pappas having his practice here. The building is on a list of historic sites.
However, the presentation is marred by this pile of garbage and also by the graffiti scrawled on the front walk and the adjacent walls by street people who may have been squatting here at one point. Property owners have an uphill fight when squatters or street people decide to claim a site as their own. The blue-tiled building at Park & Seventh has suffered a similar fate and there are many more tucked away in other parts of the city.
Surely the building above, on the city's main north-south road, gives a mixed message to prospective renters, let alone the passing public.
--Bernice Paglia
posted by Bernice at 9:14 AM
3 Comments:
It may give a clear message to the prospective renters and the passing public that this Administration cannot seem to get it right when it comes to property maintenance and enforcement.
It is also up to every renter, landlord and home owner to make sure this city is clean and looks every bit the Queen that it is.
It is up to us all.
Someone please explain to me why the outside of this building is in the condition it is. The reason I ask is Plainfield has fined and hasseled me over the last few years to paint the outside of my house. Because my house is over 85 years old, the paint layers have been disentegrating due to moisture and a host of other issues over those many years. So a few years ago I begain to work on the outside. In the process of preparing the house for painting I also worked on carpentry issues and surface preparation to get a good job. I did not expect how much work and time it would take since I have been doing all of it by myself. In the process I have had to remove over 35% of the siding for various reasons as I begain scraping (warped boards, splits, rusted siding nails, etc). This work also revealed deteriorated underlayment, water damage, termite damage some structural damage and the poor condition of the vapor barrier and how the tongue and grove underlaymenat shrank and moved. The process has been long and difficult considering I will be 60 in a few months. The effort I have put in has reaaly been dramatic both in appearance and my heating bills I still have work to do. To me I believe this is profiling and discrimination on the part of Plainfield and their employees. I recently took a walk to see the condition of other homes in my area and found a significant number that have been neglected and appear to have nothing been done to them.
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