Bad Neighbors

The sidewalk in front of West House
on our block.  Ugh.

If there is any semblance of justice in the afterlife, Hell is 10 degrees hotter for those people who simply refuse to shovel the snow from the sidewalk in front of their residence(s). Because the only 2 reasons for neither doing it nor having it done are 1) laziness and/or 2) a complete lack of respect for your neighbors.

On either side of our adorable and well-maintained house are neighbors who live in variant degrees of negligence when it comes to the upkeep of their premises.  Neither neighbor lives on their actual property:  The house to the east (heretofore "East House") is a rental property with two units.  It was renovated all last summer and tenants moved into it in September.  The house to the west (heretofore "West House") is in transition from being single family to being two rental units, just like East House.  Sadly, West House is about 90% completed with its renovation, and that's where it's been since we moved in three years ago.  Since March 2015, the same bottle of Windex has sat in a window in West House without moving.  No work has been done in or on the house since we moved in next door.

While admittedly it was somewhat nice NOT having neighbors, the City of Chicago is still very clear when it comes to maintaining your property, specifically mowing the lawns in the summer and removing the snow in the winter. 

For grass that need mowing:  Any person who owns or controls property within the city must cut or otherwise control all weeds on such property so that the average height of such weeds does not exceed ten inches. Any person who violates this subsection shall be subject to a fine of not less than $600 nor more than $1,200. Each day that such violation continues shall be considered a separate offense to which a separate fine shall apply.  

And for sidewalks that need shoveling, a City of Chicago ordinance makes it crystal clear that property owners are required by law to remove snow seven days a week: For daytime snowfall, sidewalks must be cleared by 10 p.m., and for nighttime snowfall, it must be removed by 10 a.m. at the latest.  Violations during both summer and winter are to be reported to your Ward Alderman.

The owner of East House has been very responsive to my requests to maintain his property once I presented my concerns.  While that house sat empty for the first two years of our living here, I mowed the grass on the parkway and kept the snow shoveled on the public sidewalk - mostly because we didn't know who actually owned the building.  The owner rents the house to tenants and now employs a service to maintain the sidewalks and lawn for the house.  But still, now and then, I need to call him because the service doesn't show up according the to regulations listed above.  But it's mostly taken care of within hours.

The neighbor for West House is a different story.  And I could easily write an entire blog about my interactions with him, and will probably do so.  We've been in a few verbal altercations.  It's a hoot.  But I digress...

Lovely, isn't it?  I am going to covertly throw
down wildflower seeds in the spring.

He's completely unresponsive when I call him to complain, so then I call the Alderman's office who then, in turn, fines him and gives him a deadline to bring his property up to snuff.  Within hours of receiving the fines and notices, he shows up.  But instead of mowing the grass in the summer, for example, he pulls it all up by the roots so that the entire yard is nothing but a giant dirt pile (see picture to the left).  In the last three winters, he's never showed up to shovel the public sidewalk or the sidewalk and stairs that lead into his house.  Looking at the property, it's glaringly obvious that no one lives there and looks, for all intents and purposes, to be abandoned.  Which it is, for the most part.

So for the 4th or 5th time this winter, it has snowed here in Chicago.  Which mean I've had to call the Alderman as many times to complain about my neighbor not doing his civic duty.  I don't know if he pays the actual fines, but according to Chester, our self-described "octogenarian pre-Stonewall 'mo" who lives on the OTHER side of West House, the neighbor is a piece of bad news who owes back taxes on more than one property in Chicago.  (Chester has lived in this neighborhood since the '60s and once operated a bookstore in the building in which he currently lives.  Chester knows.) 

The saga continues...