City must take action against slumlords

City must take action against slumlords
EDITOR:
Thank you for the front page article on the terrible blight in our area. A lot of this blight is the fault of the city's not putting laws on the books in regard to slumlords. You can go down our street and point their houses out by the condition they are in. They buy them and rent them to anyone who can come up with the deposit. They never do repairs, paint, make sure the grass is cut, etc.
The city should fine these people regularly, and add the law that before they rent the house they must pay the city to inspect it. When the inspectors get a complaint from a resident of the neighborhood about problems, they should come out and give the slumlords 10 days to fix it and follow though with fines and evictions.
Also, the point made about residents/homeowners having no pride needs to be addressed. Twenty years ago, before the & quot;special & quot; programs that & quot;give & quot; people homes or financing, people worked for a living and saved for a down payment for their dream. It was not handed to them, so they took pride in their homes and neighborhoods.
Get after the slumlords. Take the complaints of the real homeowners to heart. Because of one slumlord, I now have rats on the property next door to me. I want out of Youngstown like all my neighbors, but the only one who would buy my home now is a slumlord.
Maybe we should have a another special investigator come in to see why our elected officials allow this. You can bring in all the convocation centers and jobs in the world. People may visit or work in Youngstown, but will not want to live in its neighborhoods unless the city starts to do something instead of talking about the blight.
BONNIE M. JACOBS
Youngstown
Merchant Marine served nation with pride, honor
EDITOR:
On Memorial Day, I attended the Veteran's Day Parade in Austintown where I was highly insulted by one of the main speakers at the gathering in front of Fitch High School.
Toward the end of his brief presentation, he asked people to stand if family members represented one or more of the following branches of services during the wars: the Army, the Navy, the Coast Guard or the Nurses.
I am a Merchant Marine veteran of World War II, and we served our country proudly and made our sacrifices. On the D-Day landing, our merchant ships were there on duty.
During World War II, the percentage of merchant seamen killed from enemy action was higher than most of the other services.
In 1967, I went to Vietnam as an officer aboard the Merchant Ship SS Golden State. We carried supplies and munitions for the troops and the other military people on duty.
I hope he wasn't paid for that speech.
ANTHONY E. CRISH
Youngstown
Nurses are only human
EDITOR:
I write in response to a recent letter regarding the nurses strike.
Apparently, the writer believes that becoming a professional nurse also means becoming a superhuman automaton who can work nonstop around the clock. His scathing remarks about hangnails and soccer practice were more evidence that he thinks we are superhuman and cannot possibly have a valid reason for not reporting to work as scheduled.
I wish that we were the superheroes that that the writer believes us to be, but unfortunately we are mere mortals, afflicted with the same diseases, aches and pains as our patients. We become ill sometimes and we have children who become ill.
Yes, we all entered the nursing field knowing about working shifts, long hours and holidays. We will care for the sick and dying to the best of our abilities. We are professionals, but we are human first.
DEBRA L. BARAN
Youngstown