City Finally Dismantles Boarded Up Frankford Home
4712 Worth Street (center)
Photo credit: Google Street View.
It’s not even city-owned blight, which begs the question…if it had it been, how much longer would it have taken? After almost a year of neighborhood meeting complaints and 311 calls to the city, the boarded up charred remains of this Frankford home are finally being removed. And at a heavier penny than usual, too.
John Loftus of the Northeast Times reports that after 4712 Worth Street burned down last July, the city stamped it with the ever ubiquitous “imminently dangerous” label and barred its entry. (Although a neighbor says possums and raccoons still managed to settle in.)
Loftus says L&I’s online records revealed the property had a partially “collapsed wall, floor and ceiling,” as well as a “fire-damaged roof,” and that the owner–a Florida man named Ronald Williams–owed over $1,100 in back taxes, according to the Revenue Department’s website.
The home is attached to another property, which ups the price given the difficulty in tearing it down, an increase which Councilwoman Maria D. Quiñones-Sánchez says can “go up to $30,000.” As it is, the demo on this home will be $34,000, a bill the owner is expected to foot.
• City begins to tear down Frankford home damaged in ‘13 fire [Northeast Times]
