West side of lot looking toward Halsted St - photo #2

West side of lot looking toward Halsted St - photo #3

The city has just completed the "Streetscape" project work in front of this block along Halsted. The sidewalks were widened and trees were planted along Halsted. It looks really nice.

I am sure it cost a lot of money to do this. Yet this owner continues to leave his lot grown with weeds right beside all this work. I cannot find anyone who can even tell me he is being fined for violating the city ordinance.

Neighborhood Streetscape Project Development for Halsted Street, from 36th to 39th
Amount appropriated to this Chicago Dept of Transportation project: $3.7 million

My question: why do we allow the owners of these vacant lots along this stretch of Halsted to take away from these great improvements to our neighborhood?

It does not seem, as far as I can determine, that these lot owners are even fined for violating the ordinance that requires them to maintain the lots so that the grass/weeds are no more than 10 inches tall.

I cannot get anyone to do anything about this lot.

The weeds on this lot are now 6-7ft high. The owner has not done anything at all to maintain this lot during this spring/summer. I regularly see rats come out of this lot when I am out early in the morning.

I called 311 back over 2 months ago and received a reference number for my report. Three times in a row I called back after a week's time had elapsed and I found that the Dept of Streets and Sanitation had

Issue Closed (cont)

...I found out the Dept of Streets and Sanitation closed my report week after week "because the weeds had been cut". But the weeds had not been cut. They were closing the report without doing anything about it.

The process currently in place to resolve these overgrown vacant lots with the Dept of Streets and Sanitation is not working.

Why doesn't the city require these vacant property owners to register with the ward office of the Streets and Sanitation so that when there is a problem with these lots the owners can be notified in a timely manner? Two months after I first reported this lot and I am still being told that they have to do a title search and that they can't take a chance on fining the wrong person. This process just isn't working for anyone but these property owners that don't want to take care of their property.

The property owner will be allowed to do this to our neighborhood again next summer if the Alderman or the Dpt of S&S do not change their process for handling these lots.

typical laziness of city workers. how hard is it to do a little research on the internet?

I don't know enough about it to say that it is laziness. My impression is that the 11th ward supervisor wants to do something about these lots but the process is not working.

I believe that these vacant lot owners should have to register with the ward officials, either the Alderman or the Streets and San dept. That way, as soon as their property is not in compliance with the ordinance they can be fined. If they were being fined daily according to the ordinance, we would not have all these grown up lots.

A tutoring/daycare business is due to open soon next to this grown up vacant lot. This will be good for the neighborhood. Why doesn't the Alderman try to do something about this lot?

This grown up lot is right along the main street through Bridgeport, where the city/state just spent $3-4 million for a "Streetscape" project to improve the sidewalks. It seems ridiculous for the city to allow these owners to not maintain their property right here where all that money was spent.

If the process for enforcing the sanitation ordinance is not working, which it is not, then how is the Alderman going to fix the process? If you don't believe the process is not working, then take a walk/drive down Halsted through Bridgeport. I cannot keep count of all the lots that are not in compliance with the ordinance.

Also, why aren't the business owners along Halsted encouraged to comply with the ordinance that requires them to keep the area in front of their business free of trash and debris? Halsted, especially the east side, looks like a dumping ground for trash all the time. Some businesses do their part but most do not.

I want to give the Alderman and Streets and Sanitation Dept another chance to do something about this lot. They receive this information. Why are they ignoring this lot?

Although I first brought this to the attention of the Alderman's office and the 11th Ward's SS dept in June, there has been NO action taken to clean up this lot.

It seems that the property owner and the city are willing to just let the 5-6 ft weeds die at this point. They also seem to be okay with leaving all the trash and dead tree limbs and branches stay on the property over the fall and winter. Why doesn't the Dept of SS want to enforce the sanitation ordinance?

As of about 2 weeks ago, the owner had only been issued 2 fines for this lot this year. I don't know the amount of the fines.

The weeds on this lot have been out of compliance with the ordinance since early June. The sanitation ordinance allows for fines of up to $1000 / DAY but this is meaningless because the people who issue the citations do not seem to want to fine these owners for some reason, which is why these vacant lots are left unmaintained year after year after year.

As of November 9th, the weeds on this lot are over 5-6 ft tall. Also, there are dead branches, large tree limbs and trash on the lot. No action has been taken to clean this lot up. The owner has only received 2 fines to date, even though the ordinance allows for daily fines of up to $1000 when the avg height of the weeds are over 10 inches. The weeds on this lot have been over 10 inches since May..

Owner cleaned up lot on 4/8/12.