A step in the right direction for dealing with blight: good work, Judge Pianka

The 09/04/06 Plain Dealer has a blurb [1] about an important step forward in the fight against blight in NEO, writing that "Starting tomorrow, Cleveland Municipal Housing Judge Ray Pianka will order that every abandoned house in foreclosure on his docket carry a sign identifying the owner and the owner's phone number. The name and number of the mortgage company also will be listed, along with the court case number and a contact number for someone at the court. "These owners and mortgage companies have anonymity now. Well, OK, if the case is before the court, now everyone will know who is responsible.""

I believe Dayton has been doing the same thing for a whle and I think this is an excellent program. It should go further, with online resources to find the same information, and analyses of the offenders. I also feel the same should be done with serious code violations - foreclosure should not be the trigger for such public humiliation, but rather society should respnd to all such poor social conduct, and that should apply to the blighted commercial buildings all over our region. I will never understand how an old factory can be allowed to sit vacant and neglected for years, blighting an entire neighborhood, when it is owned by people or corporations with the abilities to fix the defects or sell the property to someone who may. For example, Jacobs owned the old Coast Guard Station and blighted it for years... Wolstein is blighting the Flats... why is that allowed.

Worse, in my neighborhood, 1,000s of properties are poorly maintained. Many are rentals that are lived in by families, and so the children are lead poisoned. If housing inspection, was linked to health inspection and lead poisoning data, and the courts became involved, then the owners of the properties could be prosecuted rather than rewarded for their evil. The GCLAC is looking at ways to accomplish this, and Judge Pianka has shown the community that innovation in enforcement is needed to solve core community problems, like blight, so let's now take enforcement to the appropriate level and attack all the property-abuse based problems of our region, and go after the property owners, banks and other principle parties that are responsible.