Hartford Residents Rally Against Blighted Property
| Courant Staff Writer
July 1, 2008
AT A RALLY in front of a blighted building on Zion Street Monday, residents and activists gathered. From left are Criket Prouty,16, of New Hampshire, who is with a Quaker activist camp; and residents Zamani Cobbs, 9, Zaire Cobbs, 8, and Zakai Cobbs, 4. The girlsÂ’ mother, Wanda Cobbs, is blocked by her sign. (SHANA SURECK / HARTFORD COURANT / June 30, 2008)
Rosemarie Easterling is a
food services worker for Hartford schools and a monitor for a local bus service
company. But the lifelong city resident also became an activist, as she tells
it, after seeing vacant lots and buildings around her North End neighborhood
looking trashed and becoming a magnet for criminal activity.
"It broke my heart," said Easterling, 53, who spoke at a rally Monday afternoon
calling on the city to enforce its anti-blight ordinance on dozens of "problem
properties."
About 45 people from community groups across Hartford gathered at the corner of
Zion and Hamilton streets chanting, "We are fed up!" Passing traffic and car
stereos blasting reggaeton drowned out some of the speakers. Organizers chose
the location for its backdrop: a four-story, brown brick building that was
gutted in a 2002 fire and has been vacant and in disrepair ever since, despite
requests from neighborhood activists over the years that the city take action.
The front door is boarded up and weeds shoot out of cracks in the littered
sidewalk. Red tape with the word "Danger" wraps across the front of the
building, which has two signs posted: "Private Property No Trespassing" and
"Re-Elect
Eddie Perez for Mayor."
On Monday, residents added
their own handmade signs: "Mayor Perez Enforce the Blight Ordinance" and "This
Stinks Clean It Up!"
Shortly after organizers on Friday publicized their intent to hold the rally in
front of the 445 Zion St. property, Perez's office issued a press release
stating that the building's owner, Mark Getter of
Brooklyn, N.Y., had been recently served with an anti-blight notice
ordering him to correct building code violations within 30 days or face
$100-a-day fines. The city's development services and health and human services
departments tried delivering the notice a year ago, the release said, but
couldn't confirm his address.
The city is also trying to collect on three years' worth of taxes on the
property, which as of July 2 will owe $34,982.30, according to Perez'
spokeswoman, Sarah Barr.
"For the first time in a long time there is a hopeful sign," said Gene Mayfield,
a speaker representing Hartford Areas Rally Together, the grass-roots group in
the city's South End. But, he added, "We've been at this same point before. ...
If the mayor's promise is kept, maybe we won't have to look at this sorry
building for the next four-plus years."
Easterling — a leader of the Hartford chapter of ACORN, the Association of
Community Organizations for Reform Now — sounded a bit angrier. She believes the
record of city politicians on addressing blight and absentee landlord issues has
been "truly a slap in the face" and said "we want to see real change right where
we live."
In a statement released Monday afternoon, Perez said the city has reduced its
number of blighted buildings by 55 percent since 2002, and over the past year
has issued 970 notices and 150 citations and imposed more than $43,000 in fines
to property owners with building code violations. The mayor also pointed to his
five-year, anti-blight plan to invest $50 million in capital funds to clean up
neighborhoods and create new housing and businesses.
Watching the rally from a nearby building stoop was Sigfredo Rosario, a
28-year-old bakery worker from the block. "It's good that they're fixing it up,"
Rosario
said of 445 Zion St. His reason was practical: "So people who don't have homes
have somewhere to live."
Contact Vanessa de la Torre at
vdelatorre@cou