[Mpls] If the Slumlords Can Get Off Easy, Why Can't I? (Missing Fire Escape vs. Peeling Paint)

[Dyna]

	I'm jealous- here I am facing life imprisonment for peeling paint 
while 3 young folks die in an upstairs apartment fire possibly due to 
lack of a code required fire escape and their landlords still walk our 
streets. These same landlords had something like 600 some violations 
and our not so fair city has yet to pull their rental licenses. It 
appears that some serious prosecutorial discretion is going on here...

	Last week the Madison, Wisconsin press carried a story about the city 
putting a troubled apartment building into trusteeship. Yet we can't 
even seem to pull the worst offender's rental licenses. While our 
housing inspectors and city attorney aggressively hound homeowners for 
peeling paint, lawns that grow too fast, and that second car you're 
saving for the kids slumlords have carte blanche... what's wrong with 
this picture?

	About the only good that may come of this tragedy is the reform by 
litigation of Minneapolis' housing inspections "system". 3 college 
students with plenty of earning potential died possibly due to their 
landlords failure to keep their property up to essential health and 
safety provisions of the housing code. Minneapolis, with the deepest 
pockets, will surely be a codefendent with the landlords in the 
upcoming litigation. Our city is faced with the choice of settling out 
of court for the better part of $30,000,000 or so... or going to trial 
and having the sordid history of the inspections department and it's 
grossly uneven enforcement open to public review. I suspect that by the 
time this tort is ready for a trial in a few years the city will be to 
broke too settle out of court... and the public outcry will finally 
shutter Housing Inspections and transfer their work to our firefighters.

	While Housing Inspectors seem mostly oriented to protecting property 
values and the city's tax base, firefighters by their training and 
experience will look for leaking gas instead of expired plates and fire 
exits instead of peeling paint. With our city budget coming up short 
perhaps it's time to put Housing Inspections out of it's misery.

	hidin' out in Hawthorne,

		Dyna Sluyter 
 

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