This column isn’t just about trash talking seedy properties. It’s much more utilitarian. Sometimes it inspires some of our city’s lazier homeowners to get around to making repairs. It can also help to hold landlords accountable and can shine an optimistic light on upcoming local development.
That isn’t the case with this property.
Unfortunately, we’ll all be stuck with this one for months — and there’s nothing that the city of Lansing or Ingham County can do about it, according to County Treasurer Eric Schertzing.
“I’d love to tell you it’s coming down this year, but we’re probably looking at next spring,” he said.
This two-story, single-family home, built in 1915, is tucked just north of Saginaw Street and just south of Oakland Avenue in northeast Lansing near Marshall Park.
Every window is boarded up. Fire damage appears to have the home on the verge of collapse. Plant life is swallowing the porch. It’s also shedding paint like an Alaskan Malamute sheds fur.
The vacant property was foreclosed on last July for failing to pay taxes and has since been deemed as an “unsafe” structure by the Fire Marshal’s Office at the Lansing Fire Department. And for more than a year, it has been awaiting demolition under ownership of the County Land Bank’s Fast Track Authority — and “fast track” here is apparently a highly relative term.
Schertzing has cleared up some trees, shrubs and other “odds and ends” from the property, but neighbors will have to wait until the spring to actually see the eyesore bulldozed to the ground.
A city spokeswoman said Lansing hasn’t had authority over the property in more than a year. Service staff can’t even be bothered to remove the recycling bins from the side of the house.
As for the neighbors? Next spring can’t come quickly enough. A man asked why I was taking a picture of the place last week: “Good. Fuck that place,” he said as he strolled away with his dog.
Support City Pulse - Donate Today!
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here