YOUNGSTOWN Readers' raze suggestions

There are three common threads in the picks: death, bankruptcy and fire.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Marguerite Allen loves her cozy, vintage 1923 home on Fairmont Avenue.
She and her husband, William, invested plenty of money into keeping their brown and beige two-story home nice, inside and out, during the 30 years they've lived on the North Side. They've recently considered remodeling and adding space for their grandchildren.
"The plan was, as long as the street stayed nice and the neighbors are good, I'd stay," she said.
The view out their side windows, however, freezes that idea.
The dilapidated house next door at 765 Fairmont is begging for demolition. The electric meter is gone. Windows and doors are missing, broken or boarded. The siding is coming off. Thieves have dumped cars in the overgrown back yard.
The city doesn't have the property on its demolition list, however.
The Allens are fed up with the blight next door. They're ready to put their remodeling money instead toward the down payment on a house in the suburbs.
"They wonder why people want to move out of Youngstown," she said. "I've about had enough."
So have many of other Vindicator readers in the city.
Chiming in
Dozens of readers like the Allens have suggested many more addresses they think should be -- but aren't -- on the city's demolition list in the eight weeks since the newspaper first published Razing Residences, an ongoing series exploring housing demolition.
In all, about 75 readers contacted the newspaper with nearly 100 suggested addresses.
There were three common threads through the calls and e-mails: death, bankruptcy and fire.
Death led to the decline of 765 Fairmont, Marguerite Allen said. The last owner who kept the property decent died a couple of years ago, she said. The house has changed hands a few times since to people who don't care about it, she said.
Now, Allen pulls down a shade to screen her view of the eyesore when she sits on her small wooden deck off the back of the house. It wouldn't be like that in the suburbs, she said.
"I don't feel I need to live like that," Allen said.
Fire, plus the earlier death of an elderly longtime resident, was the downfall of 212 E. Philadelphia Ave. on the South Side, said neighbor John Simpkins, who's lived on the street for 16 years.
The collapsing porch is barely visible through the overgrown bushes and trees. The windows are broken or boarded and the electric meter is gone. A bay window on the side of the house has scorch marks from a fire a few years ago. Soot still stains the white siding around it.
Despite that, the house isn't yet on the city's demolition list.
"It certainly doesn't make the neighborhood any better," Simpkins said.
Tried to sell
He likes his house, and it's a good thing. He may have no choice but to stay.
Simpkins put his house on the market a few years ago. Potential buyers would come to look at it but kept driving when they saw the neighboring eyesore, he said. He gave up after a year.
Even when conscientious homeowners are alive, bankruptcy often turns a home into a candidate for razing, readers say.
The stench of sewage is noticeable from 139 S. Portland Ave. on the West Side. The sewer backed up in the basement there after the owner went bankrupt and abandoned the house, said next-door neighbor John Goodall, who's lived there 47 years.
The doors and windows are unsecured, the trim is falling off and the garage is filled with trash. The inside is worse, Goodall said.
"Each room is just a horrible disgrace," he said. "It downgrades the entire neighborhood. It's an embarrassment."
Nonetheless, the house hasn't made the city's demolition list.
Goodall knew the previous owner for years and feels bad for the man's financial struggles. Still, the house has to come down, he said.
Demolition official's comments
Mike Damiano, the city's housing and demolition director, says razing homes is hard when the owner is deceased or in bankruptcy.
Damiano says he hesitates to act on homes tied up in probate and bankruptcy court because of the red tape. There are many other demolition candidates without such baggage, he said.
He admits when pressed, however, that such circumstances don't prevent demolition.
Often, relatives who live in the suburbs don't want the properties and abandon the homes when elderly residents leave or die, Damiano said.
That's part of why the demolition list is so long -- 545 on June 2, up from 490 in March. And that's after having leveled about 50 homes in the interim.
The list always grows in the spring, Damiano said. People spend more time outside and renew complaints about dilapidated homes that only get worse after another year's winter weather.
"It's like dandelions. This is what happens in the spring," Damiano said.
The Vindicator's posting of the city's demolition list on its Web site has increased calls to the housing department, too, he said.
Tough situations
Homes of people in bankruptcy are tough because such properties start out in fair condition, he said. The properties deteriorate when left vacant, and the city is powerless to force anyone to maintain them, Damiano says. Citations written are thrown out of court because bankruptcy cases essentially make them moot, he said.
"These people, you can't touch them. Our codes can't touch them," he said.
The fire department orders emergency razings when flames damage a house enough to be a safety hazard. The street department usually levels those almost immediately, when its 12-year-old excavator isn't broken down.
Damiano hesitates, however, to order demolitions on homes where fire has damaged -- but not devastated -- a house.
The owners often want to fix them. Damiano wants to give them a chance. He admits often letting those go for months before pressing the matter.
"This is America. I'm going to let them fix it up," he said.
rgsmith@vindy.com