Ludington's Downtown Blight Still Going Strong One Week Later

[XLFD]

 I took the camera out to seek whether the City of Ludington and its downtown Ludington partners had took any steps to correct the blight problem downtown since Bill Summerfield brought it to the city council's attention at the last meeting (ludington-city-council-meeting-june-9-2014-blight-and-fright), be sure to check the video. 

The unofficial minutes condenses his comment as: 

"Bill Summerfield, City of Ludington, expressed concern for residential and commercial blight in the City and asked how the City plans to correct this problem. He mentioned that the population in the City has decreased by 4% since 2010 and the renter occupancy is now 37.8% with home ownership at 62.2%. A definition of blight was provided as well as examples of what he notes as blight throughout the city limits. There are full trash bins at the Welcome Ludington sign and at the harvest garden on Ludington Avenue. He referred to the City of Detroit’s plan to clean up blight in their city. Bill Summerfield asked that the City put enforcement into its code enforcement. His suggestion is to hire contracted code enforcement people with the right equipment and software to enforce the City’s laws with violations being recorded into the City’s database quickly and efficiently." 

I don't know if they've updated their technology and databases yet, but I went to check the downtown area and some city property to see whether they took Mr. Summerfield's call to action seriously.  Mind you, I gave the two places he mentioned located downtown a once over on the following day of the meeting.  One week later, I observed the following at the Community Harvest Garden located where the bowling alley once stood:

The garden bins themselves seem to be well-tended, but the general area seems to be in general disrepair.  The small hillock in the back (in the picture's foreground) and the weeds near the wall (to the picture's right) are all above the length where they are considered nuisances by the city (ten inches by sec. 28-33).  Most of the ground is barren of plants, so the wasteland weeds look extra 'nuisancy'.  Doesn't appear that the owner, a Muskegon LLC that was gifted the $750,000 property by the Neal's for $1 (12R07973.pdf), is paying much attention to the upkeep. 

The City of Ludington is making big bucks off the property too, doubling the taxes on the new owners making them pay $17,000 a year for this community garden, when they used to get only half that from the House of Flavors Ice Cream magnate.  The Morris Street LLC owner is not dumb, however, he has made a financial miracle in making a million dollars from a dollar in Muskegon before.  He should have enough to do some landscaping if he has some dough left over after taxes.

Another place with noticeable blight downtown is the North James Street Plaza area, above.  It is almost the first day of summer, and the grass is dead in some areas, patchy in others for this gathering spot of many city events.  The grass blight is overshadowed by the business blight in the area; The Angry Tomato and Bones and Butts, the two restaurants in the background that had fair reputations, have went out of business likely due to their remote location making them difficult to discover for the casual tourist, and even for the locals.  This follows on the early departure of previous restaurants in that area. 

The plaza area is where outdoor dining should flourish because of its distance from the bustle of foot and vehicle traffic, and perhaps it would be if the regular, more visible, restaurants on the avenue and James Street had not embraced the outdoor dining ordinance.  But now the North James Plaza has plenty of chairs and seats, but no nearby restaurants to supply those chairs with patrons.  Just a nearby shoe store and consignment shop. 

Most of the City properties I visited were fairly well-tended, I took some pictures of several on First Street that were pretty much overgrown with grass and weeds, but the lots were not developed.  I believe I was caught by a passing DPW truck while doing this, because by the time I got to the City's warehouse at 806 North Harrison, I seen two DPW guys actually at work weed-whacking the north end of the property, where a lot of bricks were left out and two foot weeds were all-around them, which were being taken care of:

The warehouse itself is a little of a mystery to me, but it is an area that the City uses to put surplus materials, here is its south side, note the open windows, faded doors, and the barrels loaded with who-knows-what organized outside the warehouse, effectively available to the general public:

This City-owned parcel scares me a lot more than some big weeds, absentee landlords, and folks that cannot afford to keep up with their neighbors, even if that stuff is downtown.  The problem of blight which Bill Summerfield addressed, however, may provide a cause celebre for our City's leaders to create stronger zoning laws and enforcement, thereby restricting everyone's property rights, and causing hardships to the ones that cannot afford the remedies.  But you'd be fooling yourself if you believe such new rules would be equally imposed on everyone.

[Willy]

X, I hope they don't use a pork barrel for you final resting place.

Aquaman, thanks for checking those barrels. I thought they would be used for trash recepticles but some, as you say, contain substances that possibly should not be stored outside. It would probably be wise for the City to secure those barrels to keep curious children from accessing them.

[XLFD]

Ludington city officials use all their pork barrels for themselves and their cronies.

[AQUAMAN]

Obvious "RED FLAG". Anyone notice that any poster starting their post with the word Sooo, is trying to be a blight on the Torch, and trying to put words in other people's mouths?  Just an observation I've seen repeated here quite often, with the same warped intent.