The boarded-up house alongside the Portland & Western Railroad track is at 329 Pine St. S.E.
For people on foot or on a bike, there’s a shortcut across the railroad tracks on Pine Street in Albany. If you take it, as I did again on Sunday, you pass a boarded-up house marked with a City of Albany notice: “Derelict Structure.”
What’s happening with that sad-looking place, a manufactured home, at 329 Pine St. S.E.?
The notice apparently has been there since the summer. It gave the owner until Sept. 19 to fix a number of defects.
A few weeks ago I ran a photo of the place to illustrate a story about amendments the city council had approved to the property maintenance requirements in the Albany Municipal Code.
That photo brought a comment from someone who complained that for years the owner had failed to maintain the place, that the tenants had tried to do what they could, and that condemning the place as derelict “practically forced those tenants to become homeless.”
At the time, in late October, the front of the vacant house was covered with graffiti. In November, volunteers painted them out.
What happens to the property now?
In cases such as these, the city’s costs of abatement, such as putting up plywood, are assessed against the property. If they’re not paid or the code violations are not fixed, the city may foreclose and take ownership of the property.
Then the city would decide whether to repair the place and sell it, or demolish the structure and sell the land.
“As far as the foreclosure goes,” Albany Code Compliance Officer Kris Schendell told me a month ago, “it has been forwarded to the city attorney to act on, and I am unsure of his timelines.”
As I said, I use the Pine Street shortcut now and then. So I’ll probably see what if anything happens there next. (hh)
The tree-lined 300 block of Southeast Pine Street ends at this barrier before the tracks.
The city’s notice was still there on Sunday.
Yeah the worthless owners and the city of Albany made my son to become homeless who was the most current tenant at this address. The city refused to turn the water on. And the owners refuse to bring the place up to code.
Next up: The city assigns each resident a social credit score to determine their worthiness to live in Albany.
Continuous surveillance with hard consequences will be forced on those who violate the Albany Municipal Code:
– banned from obtaining free CARA money
– banned from riding city buses
– banned from commenting on Hasso’s blog
– banned from taking a spin on the city carousel
The scope of the system is limited only by the city council’s imagination.
Let the scoring begin….
I feel a home like this if someone volunteers to go in there and do the repairs and clean up the property then it should be willed to them not to the city not to the homeowner to the person who does the work that’s just my opinion
I appreciate this article and the issues it raises, but if it’s clicks you’re after maybe you should post another article on margarine.
That issue appears to be most provocative in Albany.
Margarine?
He was referring to this: https://hh-today.com/the-spread-that-disappeared-a-mystery/
Interesting! I thought it would be Gunzzz but you are right (for once). 47 margarine comments to a pedestrian 34.
The City takes the property and then donates it to Habitat For Humanity.
Like a certain former Dear Leader once said: “Burn it down.” Terminate all rules, regulations and requirements, including those found in the Constitution. Simply burn it down
Good idea! There is a house in our area where they did exactly that. The fire department used it as a training exercise for newer firefighters.
Maybe they’d let you put up a few of your webcams for viewing.