161 Gambier - when neighbors are forced to take matters into their own hands

There's been a lot of discussion on the Portola Yahoo Group the past couple of weeks about 161 Gambier St. It is an address which, through two owners, has remained a blight on the neighborhood for, according to some who've lived on the block for some time, thirty years.  While technically outside of District 10, I'm pretty certain we'd all be able to find a house like this somewhere in our district, and this neighborhood's fight to abate one in theirs is inspiration to us all to try to do the same.

161 Gambier St

Due in part to the efforts of about 20 neighbors writing a letter and intervention from the Mayor's Office liaison, this issue went before the Building Inspection Commission (BIC) last year. There was a one-year abatement order issued; the property owner had until Dec. 16 to make significant upgrades to the property. January 11th was the first BIC Litigation Hearing since Dec 16 (they had to wait for the abatement period to end before they could make a decision).  The matter was referred to the City Attorney's office, as the BIC was able to determine that the owner has no funds for improvements.

Jana Clark in the City Attorney's office told one of the neighbors leading this effort that first they'll inform the property owner that the matter has been referred to their office, and was told that that's often enough to get the owner to improve the property or sell. If not, the City Attorney will sue the owner. Clark said that in her year in this position she's never had a case go to court, as it's resolved before that. The one big complicating factor is if the owner is incompetent.  This isn't going to be a fast process, but we're thinking more like 2 years than 20...which is an improvement over 30 years of neglect.

Apparently, the owner has turned down suggestions for help from Habitat for Humanity or any other agency.  Neighbors just want him to sell it, get what money out of it that he can, and let someone buy it who's going to be a good neighbor, either through tearing it down and putting up something nice, or by renovating it.

Although most of the neighbors in the Yahoo group cheered Lisa Campbell, who's led the effort to get the house cleaned up, one reader just didn't seem to understand the importance of, and legality of the city becoming involved in telling a homeowner they cannot allow their home to become a blight.  After referring to everyone as "busybodies" for getting involved in their neighborhood, and without any apparent knowledge of the long history of neglect at this house, the neighbor went ballistic on others whom she called, "folks like you that drag our lovely, diverse, urban neighborhood further and further toward the kind of elitist, narrow-minded suburbia atmosphere that I feared when I moved here."  After a great many respectful disagreements of her views in subsequent emails by others to the group, "spyderchyld" wrote in again to apologize, sort of, saying,

Sidewalk dumping is costly blight in San Francisco - SF Examiner

Back in November, I posted something about this that was in the SFWeekly, but am posting it again because it's important, and even some friends of mine, who know that I tweet 311 DAILY to report illegal dumping in my neighborhood, have thought nothing of leaving their own trash on the sidewalk for the city to pick up. Thankfully, in the years since I started calling 311, I've actually noticed that the amount of trash dumped near my home has been reduced.  Unfortunately, it hasn't stopped.

Especially in the Bayview, with our freeway and rail overpasses acting as protection for the scofflaws, we have a real problem with people from outside coming into our neighborhood, transients, and with local residents dumping their trash illegally. When you see trash dumped illegally, CALL 311 and report it!

DPW's Mohammed Nuru writes for the SF Examiner,

There is a misconception that if no one picks up your old stuff, there is a planned and budgeted city service that collects the items from sidewalks — things like that old busted fridge or an outdated exercise bike. There is no such service. When The City is picking up sidewalk debris, it is responding to a complaint about sidewalk dumping from nearby residents. The City receives a call and the Department of Public Works sends someone out to pick up and haul items to the transfer station.

What residents do not know is that they are already paying for this service in their monthly refuse bill. In simple math, residents are paying twice to get rid of their junk. It is included in your monthly refuse bill already and we all pay again when Public Works hauls away the items on the taxpayers’ dime.

At a time when The City is tightening its belt, it is paramount that residents take advantage of easy ways to save money, and this is one of them. Save The City $4 million by keeping junk off sidewalks, and that means $4 million more for other services.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner

Replacing Blight with Beauty - SF Examiner

One of my pet peeves is blight - neighborhoods that are safer and more livable tend to have less of it, so projects like Quesada Gardens and the Pennsylvania St project, that seek to remove blight and show that the neighborhood cares, are right up my alley. Good work, neighbors!!