Mayor Nutter Blight Press Conference (credit: John McDevitt)
Reporting John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The city of Philadelphia has announced new initiatives to fight blight. Mayor Michael Nutter held a press conference in Port Richmond on Wednesday afternoon to put all Philadelphia property owners on notice.
“If you don’t have your property up to Philadelphia’s code and you are not in compliance, we are coming for you! Philadelphia residents should not have to put up with this crap anymore. In our city we are sick and tired of being sick and tired about blight and deteriorated properties, in this city we have had enough!”
According to licenses and inspection, there are between 17,000 – 20,000 vacant properties in the city of Philadelphia
. 
Letters will be sent to property code violators from L&I. If there isn’t compliance, a court hearing notice will be issued with a dedicated court time.
L&I officials has the ability to ask the court to fine the owner $300 a day per opening for not putting in doors or windows.
According to L&I, so far about 80 owners of properties have been taken to court and agreements are underway where owners are putting windows and doors in, or they’ll be back in court in a month. and the court has issued $150 thousand in fines all ready in just those 80 properties.
Reported by John McDevitt, KYW Newsradio
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2 Comments
Why invest money in these areas when clearly the citizens themselves have created the deterioration, trash and crime. You can give them all the money you want for improvements.. Re vitalized? why did it get that way in the first place. The responsibility lies within the neighborhoods and they don’t care about a thing.. putting trash in a trash can is free.. which they cannot bother to do… Stopping the littering costs nothing.. that is the least of their worries, crime , drugs, human and animal abuse,etc.
October 27, 2011 at 6:36 am
Jobs, a thriving, employed populace; generating taxes to pay for public services is the only way to go. Protect the integrity of the Family, the building blocks of strong communities and things will get better.
October 26, 2011 at 9:42 pm