July 23, 2009

That house on Broad Street

Be sure to take a look at the photograph of the city-owned house on page 6 of today's Bristol Press. It's a little bungalow at 406 Broad St. -- right beside the bank near the corner with Emmett Street. (You can also see the photo by clicking here.)
Now the house itself is probably OK. I'll leave that to potential buyers.
But look at the weeds that are swallowing up its front yard. They're a couple of yards high. It's like Bristol has decided to create a bit of native prairie in the front yard of a house on one of its busier streets.
It's kind of funny listening to city leaders vowing to crack down on blight, promising to clean up Bristol, and then see this house, which the city has owned for a month, that clearly hasn't received one iota of attention since the city took possession of it in a foreclosure case.
If the house belonged to somebody else, the code enforcement committee would be all over it.
Somebody needs to go cut whatever's left of the grass. Chop down the weeds.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

15 comments:

Concerned Constructive Conservative said...

No actually the city should not own it in the first place.

But thank you for pointing this out.

Concerned Constructive Conservative said...

And it's fair to mention that the $10 million mall take-over hasn't paid any dividends yet. It keeps on growing but not giving.

Anonymous said...

Steve, that is just one of many city owned properties that look crappy.

Maybe you can start a city hall of shame.

AnonymousWestconnStudent said...
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Anonymous said...

that should be the cover of the first GOP mail piece - Art Ward's code enforcement policy at work.

Anonymous said...

This reflects Art Ward's Green Initiative and his desire to return things to their "natural state" in keeping with his karma with nature. Right on Art. The raccoons love the place.

Anonymous said...

Let's put the blame where it belongs and that's on the fact that our wonderful mayor has decided to cut the public works budget so taxes won't be raised. I've said it a million times ... I'd rather see a small increase every year than a huge one in one or two years, because you know it's coming. Let's not be ignorant here. If PW doesn't have the money to fix the roads, how in God's name is the City going to take care of the properties it owns?

It doesn't matter if you're a democrat or a republican. It's an election year and our mayor will do whatever it takes to look like he's holding down spending at the cost to the taxpayers both in public safety/eyesores as well as in our pocketbooks. It may not hit our pocketbooks now, but it will down the road, but he doesn't want it on his watch.

Take a look at what happened after Nicastro left. Everyone loves him, but they don't realize we have been playing catchup on city projects all these years, because he refused to raise taxes all in the name of getting re-elected time and time again.

Wake up, Bristolites! Taxes must go up to pay for needed services along with those that are quality of life issues. What type of people do you want to attract to this city ... slummy ones or ones that care and will take care of their homes?

Also, code enforcement is extremely important, but unfortunately our mayor doesn't feel it's a priority. Now maybe after reading what you have to say, Steve, he'll realize that people are watching and seeing what's happening aesthetically in this town and they DO care!!!

Concerned Constructive Conservative said...

I'm not sure what exactly "conservative economics" is supposed to mean, but if one would like a liberal vs conservative fiscal policy comparison look at Connecticut (liberal) vs Texas (conservative). One would have to be in a state of denial to see anything but that conservative fiscal policy is better.

Concerned Constructive Conservative said...

And please look at Europe today, classically liberal of late, when the economy crashed they were smaert enough to lower taxes unlike the clueless community organizer and his band of buffoons who are running this country into the ground.

Thank goodness the American people (with the exception of people like anonwestconn) are waking up.

Anonymous said...

Where is Zoppo when we need her?

NOT mine said...

Apparently someone must have changed the photo . When I followed the link and viewed the home , I saw a lovely little home w/ lush , vibrant foliage one could be proud of . Remember ..... THINK GREEN !!!!!!!

Steve Collins said...

Go take a look at it. It's a mess - or was the last time I went by.
And I'm hardly a pristine lawn kind of guy!

AnonymousWestconnStudent said...
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Anonymous said...

Steve, in all fairness to the city, the city JUST acquired it. There's a very good chance that PW doesn't even know we own it! Unless a complaint had come in, they wouldn't know there was a problem with it especially since it is so new. If this was a property that the city owned for a few months and they neglected it, then sure, go ahead. Slam the city for not taking care of it. But in this case I believe it is very new to being owned by the city.

I would like for you to focus on the absentee landlords that don't mow their lawns. Have you driven by some of those lately? It's pathetic! The focus should be on those folks since we have so many different absentee ones who don't take care of their lawns. You know, out of sight, out of mind!

NOT mine said...

who don't take care of their lawns

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Let's all let the illegal aliens drive cars , buy homes , vote , get free medical care , and otherwise destroy our society , BUT if someones lawn isn't kept to YOUR specific standards , or perform such a Criminal act as driving w/o buckling up , HANG those b**tards .