On The Docket

The Baltimore City Housing Department has an interesting search tool that you might not know about.  You can search for cases that have been referred to the Legal Section for court action.  You can either search by address or by neighborhood.  You can also use that page to search for outstanding violation notices, and the name and contact information for your local housing inspector. We wondered if any of the properties we’ve featured here have been the subject of legal action, or have any pending cases before the court — indeed, there are quite a few.  Here are two properties that have pending court dates associated with them:

701 Washington Boulevard:  Upcoming court date, 4/16/2009

2 N. Decker Avenue: Upcoming court date, 4/22/2009

If you want to make a difference in your community, write a “community impact statement” regarding these properties, and send them to the Housing Department, your City Councilperson, and your local housing inspector.  You can do this as an individual or as a community group.  State how these properties have negatively impacted your neighborhoods and what you would like to happen next.  Unless people get involved, the problem will only continue.  Slumlords get away with their crimes because they believe that nobody cares, nobody is looking.  Stand up for your neighborhood!

701 Washington Boulevard: Minor Changes Are Not Enough

After hearing that some minor changes were made to the property at 701 Washington Boulevard (owned by Dr. Anwar Mumtaz), we decided to see for ourselves.  While we agree it’s a slight improvement — the homeless camp is gone — we weren’t that impressed with this cleanup effort.  After speaking with a resident of the neighborhood, we learned that yes, the shrubbery in the back was removed and so was the orange fencing along the edge of the Sav-A-Lot.  However, the debris from the shrubbery was dumped at the side entrance to the parking lot, and the orange fencing was left on the sidewalk at MLK Jr. Boulevard.  We hope Dr. Mumtaz plans on removing this trash and debris immediately.

Shrubs removed from the former homeless camp on W. Barre Street, adjacent to 701 Washington Boulevard

This pile of debris, along with the orange fencing on the sidewalk at MLK needs to be removed.

757 Carroll Street and 701 Washington Boulevard, Revisited

We’re going to revisit some of the properties featured in this blog over the past month and see what’s happened recently.  So far, sad to say, most of them are in the same shape or worse than when they were featured here.  Others have been slightly improved, we suspect this is due to the city inspections and not due to a sudden attack of conscience on the part of the property owners.  Wethinks some of them doth protest too much, to badly quote Shakespeare.

First we’ll start with 757 Carroll Street.  You may remember this property as the one with the broken water pipe that was previously flooding its neighbor’s basement.  The water is gone, and the city condemned the house.  Unfortunately, that’s all.  The rear of the property is still a mess, the basement window is still unsecured, and we fail to understand why the city couldn’t board up the window properly when they tacked the condemnation sign on the front door.

See for yourselves:

unsecured basement window at 757 carroll street, 21230

rear of 757 carroll street, 21230

Unfortunately, we couldn’t take photos of 701 Washington Boulevard today, although we did walk by all sides.  The homeless camp we wrote about back in January is still there, as is the trash on the W. Barre Street side of the Sav-A-Lot.  In other words, despite Dr.Mumtaz’s protestations to the contrary, the owners have done absolutely nothing to rectify the situation, which is (unfortunately) exactly what we expected.  The property has been in disrepair for quite some time, and the owners have refused to accept any responsibility for its current state.  We hope the next time we revisit this address, things will look a little better.

Dr. Anwar Mumtaz Responds

If you live in Washington Village, then you know Dr. Mumtaz, at least indirectly.  He is the registered agent for Raj LLC, the company that owns 701 Washington Boulevard (aka “The Sav-A-Lot Property”).  After reading about himself and the property on this blog, he responded to our post:

this property was under contract up until 2 weeks ago and the buyers backed out after 3 months holding the contract. WE have contacted police and city 100’s of time to kick out the homeless and loiterers. community people and graffity hoodlums try to trash the property as soon as we clean it up. This reflects on the community also. If you see anyone dumping trash there we are willing to go after them. we have tried to get the community invloved and if the neibourhood association is willing we can prevent city drug dealers and homeless people from dumping the place. We have tried with police and city. this place is under negotiation again and will be fixed or rented again. It was because one of the previous buyers and developers who happened to be from this community who wasted our 3 precios months to delay for further development.

We responded as follows:

Mr. Mumtaz,

This situation didn’t come about in two weeks, three months, or even a year. This situation has been an ongoing problem in this neighborhood, and we have a hard time believing that you’ve done much to alleviate the problem. How exactly have you tried to get the community involved? Most of the people in that community had no idea you existed until this blog started, just a few weeks ago. The problems with this property didn’t begin “because one of the previous buyers and developers who happened to be from this community who wasted our 3 precios months to delay for further development”. It began when you purchased the property and refused to fix it up or sell it for a reasonable amount of money. You’ve owned it since 2005, and it’s been nothing short of a disgrace and an eyesore. YOU own the property, so therefore YOU are responsible for its upkeep and appearance. YOU are also responsible for the tenants, their trash, and the type of customers they attract. Shoving that responsibility onto a previous buyer or developer isn’t going to cut it. Until that property is sold, YOU are the one who is held accountable.

You can revisit the original post here and scroll down to the end for the comments.  Do we know if the comment really came from Dr. Mumtaz?  No, there’s really no way to verify it.  After careful consideration, however, we do believe the comment is from Dr. Mumtaz or at least one of his associates.  Considering the state the property is in and has been for years, it’s not surprising that he’s trying to blame everyone — the community, a developer, previous buyers, etc. — for the issues surrounding the property.  It’s been our experience that slumlords don’t like to accept responsibility for their neglect.

We wish Dr. Mumtaz and his associates luck with selling the property.  Hopefully they will sell to someone who understands that the community will not accept this kind of behavior from the new owners, and will hold the new owners to the same scrutiny.