Local Government TV

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Bethlehem' Dirty Underwear

Copper brewery signs peeling from Miller building
Chief Housing Inspector Mike Palos gave Bethlehem's Planning Commissioners a virtual tour at their May 10 meeting. But instead of showing them the stately homes commonly associated with the Christmas City, Palos gave planners a peek at the City's dirty underwear - its eyesores.

Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Tony Hanna, who accompanied Palos, explained that this is all part of a procedure to encourage corrective actions from "recalcitrant property owners who refuse to deal with code violations." First, a blighted property review certifies the home. If nothing is done, the next step is a certification of blight from the Planning Commission. After that, the City can take the property under its eminent domain powers. "We're either going to get their attention or we're going to take the property," observed Hanna.

But that's a rare event. Last year, Bethlehem's Planning Commission certified six properties as blighted. In all but one case, corrective action has been taken, according to Palos. He added that the City really hates to condemn a structure, because the orange tag is "like a neon light, saying come on in and take it."

Palos told planners that Bethlehem's blight is the result of foreclosures, not absentee landlords. He explained that it's often difficult to determine which bank actually owns an abandoned property because they sell the mortgages.

After the virtual tour, planners certified the following five properties as blighted.

803 Main Street 
1. 810 Monocacy Street. - Owned by Christmas City Bottling Co., this is the old Miller Building, and is located behind the Old Brewery Tavern (OBT). Once a brewery, remnants of a tunnel to the OBT still exist. Vacant and boarded up, falling bricks present a danger to pedestrians. Palos told planners there might be actually be a pool on the third floor, but the owner has denied access. "It could be developed into something nice," Palos claims.

2. 1418 Stanford Road. - According to Palos, this foreclosed property looks like a Better Homes & Garden model from the outside. But inside, the pipes burst, the kitchen collapsed and mold is so extensive that a mask is needed.

3. 803 Main Street. - At this foreclosed row home, the new tenants are cockroaches. The inside is "trashed," according to Palos, and has become a police issue with three break-ins.

4. 816 E. Fifth Street. - Vacant since 2005, the row home is owned by Mary Whitesell, from Coopersburg, and has been the subject of numerous notices over the years. An entire section of the back roof is missing, and the ceiling has collapsed. There have also been numerous break-ins. "I need the extra squeeze here," stated Palos, hopeful he can spur remedial action.

5. 1422 Wood Street. - This homes owner died three years ago, and the City has been doing all maintenance since that time. The inside, according to Palos, is "trashed."

13 comments:

  1. Their dirty underwear are their fiscal books. They will never show you them, willingly.

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  2. This nothing! Bethlehem looks like Beverly Hills from Allentown.

    Scott Armstrong

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  3. This is truly shocking. Glad I don't live in that city.

    Allentown Democrat Voter

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  4. anon 9:33

    you think this is shocking, allentown does this to hundreds of buildings.

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  5. Really... those are blight? As compared to Allentown and the rest of this area, agree with Armstrong that the COB is Beverly Hills!

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  6. No. I don't think these are hopeless properties. Nor do I wish to do a comparison to Allentown. Nicole R did a piece on that for the MC about a year ago, and it was excellent.

    Bethlehem has an annual process that identifies problem properties. First there is the blight review committee. Then Planning commission. Then eminent domain. All along, the point is to correct the problem, not take the property. The process works. Last year, 6 properties were declared blighted, but only one remains that way.

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  7. They missed one. It's not empty. Could be two dozen, could be three dozen, living in a four-bedroom house with two bathrooms. Could be using beds in shifts. Efficient, yes, but a bit of a public health no-no? Shades of Jacob Riis and the tenements of the early 20th century. Unbelievable filth piled in front of garage at head of driveway -- must be four cubic yards of trash/bags piled willy nilly, many torn by animals. Huges area covered in cigarette butts. They clean it up when it gets to be about six cubic yards of trash. Then they start growing a new mess. Hedge row of adjoining property scattered with trash from torn bags. On windy days, trash blows all over the neighborhood. Chinese newspaper arrived on our porch one day....Six-foot tall fence installed w/o permit, ditto for "tea house of the August moon," ditto for deck. Fallen tree blocks one of two entrance/exits. Report to police met with a certain ho-hum attitude, but the next day we found a rather odd "gift" propped up on our lamp post. Never a dull moment, and it is important to keep the prices down in these buffet/grilles -- the public's gotta eat. One might expect the locals and feds to object, though, to being fleeced out of payroll taxes....

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  8. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't that property in Bethlehem Township?

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  9. Those home's look like castles compared to the the property on the 1800 block of West North St. It has been in disarray for years' Code inspecters were there twice yet nobody has done anything about it.

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  10. To: Anon 11:16 PM

    Are you referring to 1740 Butztown Road, in the City of Bethlehem?

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  11. No, Bernie, that property is in Bethlehem. Anon 9:17am seems to have his radar well-tuned. Yep, that's the place, I do believe. It's in that block of Butztown Rd, anyway. And probably not the only place similarly maintained by the outfit who owns the fleet of vehicles that service the transportation, laundry, and trash-hauling for the business. BTW, the restaurant recently had a citation from the inspectors for the same stupid, negligent handling of waste.

    Maybe the local Chamber of Commerce would care to weigh in? I hardly think this sort of corporate set-up is good for local business and restaurant owners.

    BTW, the people who live in these places are not the problem; their best interests as human beings are not being served.They are probably illegals, have no rights, nobody to look out for them. Do we have to fight the settlement wars of 100 years ago all over again? The property is an affront and a danger to the neighborhood, but the people being exploited are not.

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  12. Well palos is a cut from every house he shuts down. And then Dominic valannie comes in and buys the houses for nothing. Oh yeah did I mention a lot of these homes only needed so TLC and didn't have to be condemned. Bow that is airing Bethlehem dirty laundry

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  13. Palos is no longer employed by Bethlehem. But I always had a high opinion of him.

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