The weeds growing up through cracks in the sidewalk are not the most pressing problem, but they are the easiest to fix, requiring no special equipment or costly materials. Vegetation gone wild is what greets those walking the block, whether it be for exercise, to grab lunch, get a haircut, or get into the apartments located above commercial space.
The weeds are the proverbial iceberg tip.
Moving one’s eyes up from the ground to the actual structures listed as 393 and 399 Capitol Avenue on the assessor’s site, other signs of disrepair are apparent. Windows, scratched and cracked, remain in place despite requests for replacement. When Virginia Iacobucci, owner of La Paloma Sabanera, which was located at 405 Capitol Avenue (within the 399 Capitol Avenue parcel) requested the windows be replaced, the building’s landlord offered to split the cost with her 50-50, rather than cover the entire cost or utilize something like the façade program, which provides property owners with a deep discount for repairs.
The front door at 405 Capitol Avenue continues to contain plexiglass, which made it easy for the space to be burglarized in the past. And, before the back door at 405 Capitol Avenue was replaced a few months ago, it consisted of plywood. Now, an interior door is being used as an exterior door.
On the side of the building facing Babcock Street, a mural was defaced with graffiti. This was first noticed in early June. A complaint was filed with 311 then. As of late July, the graffiti remains.
At the left edge of the mural, damaged brick is visible. Water had been seeping inside the building here for years and has steadily gotten worse. Instead of repointing the brick, it was patched with a material, possibly ready made concrete, not specified for this task. Covering historic brick with this harder substance can cause further damage, as brick expands with the temperature. Not having any place to expand to, the brick can deteriorate.
Above the section of damaged brick, one can see that there is a missing gutter and downspout.
A glance at the top floor shows missing, boarded up windows.
This is just what can be viewed from the sidewalk without trespassing. One residential tenant said that the back door of the building he lives in has been broken. Tenants have not been given keys to the building’s front door, he said.
The same tenant indicated that there had been a bedbug infestation in the past. Bed Bugs are a fairly widespread issue, but it was the handling of the problem that this tenant did not approve of. He said that a former tenant, who had several young children, lived for months with a Bed Bug situation in her apartment.
The City of Hartford has an ordinance that deals specifically with the extermination of Bed Bugs.
When this man’s apartment was impacted, he said he was not willing to endure this. “I’m not going to live like an animal,” he said.
To get this resolved within the week, he claimed to have told the landlord that he would have a local television news station come down and cover the story.
Bed Bugs are not the only pest issue the buildings have seen. There are reports from residential tenants of roach-infested apartments, which had not undergone extermination in over six months. Untreated pest problems spread. Tenants have also reported mice.
One of the few maintenance and repair successes came after the City issued a citation against the landlord because the too small dumpster was constantly overflowing. It took numerous complaints from building tenants and neighbors to get this resolved.
A visit to this block during winter months often means bringing one’s own shovel. It was rare to see snow and ice removed from the sidewalk. This, and many other complaints, have been documented on SeeClickFix and through 311.
Another resident in this immediate area said she does not feel comfortable allowing her young children to play outdoors because of the activities taking place — not just at night, but mid-afternoon — along this stretch of Capitol Avenue.
Last Wednesday, these were some of the neighborhood residents joining in signing a petition demanding that John Fleming, the Boston-based landlord, take responsibility of his properties, so that they are willing to send their kids outside, so that they don’t have to “step over piles of garbage just to get into the apartment,” as one man said.
Iacobucci said that targeting this Boston-based landlord is only a starting point, as residential and commercial tenants are impacted in similar ways throughout Hartford and the nation.
A building on the same block, between Lawrence and Babcock, presented enough issues that 387 Capitol Avenue was condemned and its tenants temporarily displaced. That building has since changed hands in recent months according to the Director of the Department of Development Services, though the previous owner’s name remains on the assessor’s site and progress on improving the structure is yet to be seen.
If properties on a main street, blocks from the State Capitol, passed daily by hundreds of State employees, can fall into such visible disrepair, what does this mean for properties on out-of-the-way side streets?
Change?
Property owners have responsibilities beyond cutting checks for taxes and mortgage payments.
Adopted in 2010, One City, One Plan, Hartford’s Plan of Conservation and Development, clearly outlines the City’s goals, or as they say, it “aims to articulate the best thinking on Hartford as to its future growth and to give direction to both public and private development.”
To make this plan more accessible, the City of Hartford created a scorecard breaking down its goals. One of its goals is to “promote livable and sustainable neighborhoods.” On the checklist for this section:
- Enhance and protect the character of existing residential areas through code enforcement and rehabilitation
- Promote maintenance of housing and neighborhoods
- Promote on-site ownership to limit the impacts of absentee property management
- Ensure that the building code and blight-related ordinances are strictly enforced
Under the goal of “Expand the city’s economic base and align with future workforce readiness effort,” the checklist includes:
- Encourage family-friendly establishments
- Increase occupancy and improve appearance of existing commercial buildings
While the City has been careful to say that these are guidelines rather than rules, it seems reasonable to expect a level of follow-through on their own plan. Enforcing the Anti-Blight Ordinance is one role of the City’s Livable & Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative (LSNI). The Anti-Blight Violation Conditions described in chapter nine, article five of the City of Hartford’s Municipal Code include the following:
- exterior windows or doors that are broken, missing, or not secured
- damaged or deteriorating external walls
- graffiti that is clearly visible from the street
- premises are attracting illegal activity
- overgrown vegetation
A property can be considered blighted if at least two of the total of twelve conditions exist and have been verified by the Director of Licenses and Inspections, Fire Marshal, Director of Health and Human Services, or the Chief of Police.
LSNI has come a long way since its uninspiring start, showing progress by helping move 387 Capitol Avenue into the hands of someone potentially more interested in maintaining the property.
LSNI’s process for addressing blight is as follows: send a “Preliminary Notice Letter” to property owner. This gives property owner chance to contact the City and begin working to improve property. If the owner shows no intention of improving the property, the City is then supposed to send a “Notice of Violation.” If the owner continues to be non-compliant, he can be fined after thirty days of receiving the “Notice of Violation.” These fines are $100 per violation, per day. If the owner fails to pay for 45 days, an interest fee is attached and a lien can be placed on the property.
While signs of disrepair are largely visible to passersby, signs of progress within City Hall are less transparent, even with quarterly reports from LSNI. Faith in the system is easily lost to those without the time to make repeated calls to City employees requesting status updates.
Around the time of La Paloma Sabanera’s closure, there were attempts made to reach out to members of Connecticut’s State legislature. Some — Minnie Gonazlez, for example — never responded. Others saw this as nothing more than a “landlord dispute” and said they were unable to get involved. Weeks later, we are hearing more about the state-wide blight task force, which was signed off on by the Governor in June of this year. It is unclear if this task force has more teeth than Hartford’s own initiatives.
The petition Iacobucci has been circulating targets her former landlord, but she has indicated that the next step is getting more involved with how the City and the State handle issues presented by absentee landlords because this problem is larger than just half of one block in Hartford.