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Kimm,
This is my experience too! The first time I called L&I the abondoned building next to mine was in terrible condition. It had a leaking roof and basement both channeling water to me. The owner was a city employee but needed to keep this building to circumvent some residency requirement.
Because I pushed, L&I gave me a fire hazard violation because a tenant must have had a bicycle in the hallway. The abandoned house continued the same way for a few more years until the owner renovated when he could make money. It was a nightmare.
Currently, I have a split tree that has already fallen on my building. The owner of the lot had his drunks tie up the tree with a rope. It's more than a year. After getting the usual run around, I gave up so that i wouldn't get in serious trouble.
These "enforcement officers" are not working to protect and serve the citizens. That would be real work. In an iron triangle relationship, the government agencies find a great comfort zone serving powerful special interests. As long as that is maintained, the powerful special interests give a free pass to the agencies. They can sit around in locked offices eating doughnuts with their phones on silent.
In a plutocracy, we little people have no political power. We don't have government officials that are interested in forcing their agencies to protect and serve us. The officials have "visions" and photo ops that are much more important to them!
Good luck,
Glenn
-----Original Message-----
From: Kimm Tynan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Aug 3, 2008 10:34 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [UC] Re: L&I Sucks (Was Ohara's and Hong Kong Caf=?ISO-8859-1?B?6Q==?=)
I wish they’d get on a mission to take down the dead tree in my neighbor’s yard. If it falls on one of the neighboring houses (including mine) someone could be killed, and my neighbor ain’t going to do anything about it. I reported it to L&I in January. After hounding them for months and appealing to John Fenton and Jannie Blackwell, an inspector finally reported the complaint unsubstantiated in April. Notice, I don’t say an inspector came out, because there’s no way anyone could look at this tree and not see it is very very dead and very very dangerous. Sort of like the DHS social workers who report complaints unsubstantiated just to get the file off their desks. After more hounding and hell raising I got another inspector to actually come out while I was home to appease the crazy lady and he took one look at it and said “Oh, yeah, that’s ID (imminently dangerous.)” He assured me it would be down within a week, maybe a little more. It’s now been over a month, and the tree still looms. I started calling L&I again this past week. The main number constantly goes to hold, and after awhile you get cut off. I tried the district office but no one answers the phone. I called the secret supervisors’ number I got from the deputy commissioner’s office. They gave me the number for the inspector who said the tree was ID. I called his number for half an hour and got a busy signal (the other inspector’s number constantly went to a voicemail box that was full and couldn’t take anymore messages.)
So, I’m thrilled to hear L&I has resources to storm businesses in the wee hours of the morning for missing exit signs. The difference, of course, is that commercial code violations are revenue generators, while dead tree abatement is an expense.
When this tree falls and kills someone, you all can say you heard it here first.
Kimm
On 8/3/08 8:31 PM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
That bar on Spruce was called Kelliann's, used to be Murphy's. I heard that it was recently sold by the owner, who made a nice profit. Also, L&I shut down a Caribbean Restaraunt (where I work weekends) on 52nd and Walnut for not having an exit sign up by the stairway that leads from the second floor to the first. The weird part was that they stormed in at 1:30 AM with 15-20 uniformed officers, two guys from L&I and someone from the LCB. All they found was the absence of the exit sign and made all patrons and employees leave (causing refunds in some cases). It seemed really odd to me that it was conducted like a raid. L&I must be on a mission of some sort throughout the city.
-----Original Message-----
From: Wilma de Soto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Glenn moyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Roger Harman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: UnivCity listserv <[email protected]>
Sent: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 5:33 pm
Subject: Re: [UC] Re: Ohara's and Hong Kong cafe
I noticed the Irish bar at the corner of 44th & Spruce Sts., (I can't
remember the name), is also closed.
On 8/3/08 3:33 PM, "Glenn moyer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Roger,
>
> Here is what I know. Hong Kong was closed first. I don't know any details
> but I was told it too was closed down. The mortgage office Ray mentioned was
> new news.
>
> I got the report about Oharas from a long time employee. It was closedd in
> the middle of the afternoon. There were more inspectors (health and L&I) than
> usual. When presented with the list, the manager/owner(?) told employees it
> would be forever closed. I understand that some customers didn't get their
> lunch.
>
> I think there is another cycle of this pattern locally. One owner told me he
> spent a lot of money taking L&I to court for harrassment. I understand the
> court sided with him. I know another owner who was having problems but he
> sold.
>
> This type of trouble was reported about Baltimore Ave in a few publications
> back in 2003. The lack of accountability in city government is widespread!
>
> Glenn
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Roger Harman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Sent: Aug 3, 2008 12:13 PM
>> To: UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Cc: univcity <[email protected]>
>> Subject: [UC] Re: Ohara's and Hong Kong cafe
>>
>> Did I miss something? Were Ohara's and Hong Kong closed for violations?
>> Roger
>>
>> besides ohara's and the hong kong cafe, the gmac mortgage
>>> office at chestnut hall (39th & chestnut) is also closed,
>>> with 'available' signs in the windows. this leaves penn's
>>> treatment research center and the upenn federal credit union
>>> the remaining ground floor venues at that building. will L&I
>>> soon close them for violations as well?
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