It’s about time! Former City Councilman Joel “Speedy” Gonzalez (who provides narration) shares a video he took on Tuesday of workers cleaning an abandoned garbage-strewn lot at 848 Maplewood Avenue, adjacent to Bryant School, near the location where a three-year-old girl was shot walking with her mother this spring.
The lot has been a scar on the West Side for years.
The Commercial Recording Division of the Connecticut Secretary of the State’s Office lists Maplewood Associates LLC, with an address in Storrs Connecticut, as the owner. Eric G. Phelps of Fairfax Station VA is listed as manager of the LLC. City land records show the limited liability company has owned the property since 2007 and did not make a tax payment in 2011 with $2,093.78 owed in back taxes including $221.76 in interest.
Persistence pays off, great job Joel!
Good job with your persistence, Joel. It’s too bad it takes a shooting to draw attention to it. The City is NOT proactive.
What were the mechanics of how it got done? Usually the City uses the excuse it can’t go on private property.
During the last couple of months I’ve noticed the City of Bridgeport was indeed stepping up its effort to force property owners to clean up their property especially the empty (except for the garbage) lots. I’ve been keeping a close watch on the other Bridgeport–the areas off the main roads–which don’t get the special attention the other parts of the city get. While there are improvements made in one section, another section in town deteriorates and the City is left playing catch-up. The Maplewood Avenue lot is clean, but give it some time before the very same property owners around this lot start throwing their trash over the fence. I suggest the City warns these property owners and let them know that if I see any one of them dumping on the lot, I will report it and videotape them if I can. I say this because I have seen them dumping on the lot and they would have been dead on the spot if my look could kill. Stay tuned for that video. The City will try to recover the taxes and the $3,000 for the cleaning of the lot. However, that’s easier said than done. Maplewood Associates LLC tells you the story. The City is very limited in collecting damages from owners of LLCs; it can’t attach other properties of the owner to collect a debt. Just ask Sal DiNardo if you don’t believe me. Good job by the Public Works Department and City Inspectors.
The City can lien an empty lot and when it eventually gets sold, the City gets paid back, per enabling legislation. They usually don’t, if ever, go onto private property though they can and should. Good work, Joel!
*** Wow, let’s make it a productive (non tax) community garden for the neighborhood, no? ***