In the good old days, abusive bureaucrats like this would have been tarred and feathered.
,_The_Bostonians_Paying_the_Excise-man,_or_Tarring_and_Feathering_(1774)_-_02.jpg)
Posted on 09/19/2012 7:22:52 PM PDT by grundle
A business developer in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Point Breeze is facing legal action after voluntarily cleaning up more than 40 tons of trash from a vacant lot neighboring his local business.
As the old adage goes, no good deed goes unpunished. Ori Feibush says he visited the local offices of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority four times, sent in seven written requests and made 24 phone calls to the agency asking them to take care of a major eyesore: an empty lot next to his coffee shop was home to more than 40 tons of debris.
Not only did the agency fail to act but it also denied Feibush's offer to clean up the mess himself.
But the Daily News reports that Feibush went ahead with his plans anyway, reportedly spending more than $20,000 of his own money not only to remove the trash but also to level the soil; add cherry trees, fencing and park benches; and repave the sidewalk.
"This was a lot of garbage," local resident Elaine McGrath told the paper. "Now it's gorgeous. I'm excited."
However, the city agency was less excited, demanding that Feibush return the vacant lot to its previous condition and saying it is considering legal action against him.
"Like any property owner, [the authority] does not permit unauthorized access to or alteration of its property," Paul D. Chrystie, director of communications at the Office of Housing and Community Development told the paper. "This is both on principle (no property owner knowingly allows trespassing) and to limit taxpayer liability."
And the situation is not without irony. Feibush says he received a citation in August 2011 from the city for litter on the same lot that the city now points out is not his property.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
We’re living in an alternate universe ... and I don’t like it.
mind boggling.
/johnny
What an upside down world we live in. People have got to have gonads big enough to tell the governments that WE own to stuff it and shut up.
Philadelphia used to be the City of Brotherly Love. And I can remember when it was very fashionable.
Now it’s a cesspit.
Legitimacy.
Droit de seigneur.
That’s why gangsters talk about “going legit”.
Gangsters are simply free-lance governments.
/johnny
What do you expect from Philadelphia, a city long under Democrat Party domination and subjugation?
40 tons of trash! That’s a lot of Democrats and Occupy Wall Street protesters.
Feibush should dump it on the city office that wants it back. Nobody would notice it.
Yeah, if they don’t come down hard on this guy, you might have citizens cleaning up eyesores all over the city. Double facepalm.
What he did is the opening salvo to gentrification. Of course it will be attacked.
Just one of the many benefits of living in a progressive third world city.
and
“However, the city agency was less excited, demanding that Feibush return the vacant lot to its previous condition and saying it is considering legal action against him.”
The city didn’t get their cut of union graft and Obama money when a citizen did something on his own.
City officials probably also didn’t get their personal cut of the action.
Disgusting.
Paul Ryan needs to do an ad with this guy TOMORROW.
And here’s a true story that is on the same lines.
When hubby and I first move to Jersey City we moved (stupidly, ignorantly, etcly) to a B.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. completely renovated duplex apt in a redone townhouse in a TERRIBLE part of that town.
Our neighbor in the duplex was a hard charging corporate lady and her two daughters.
We were all refugees from NYC and had sort of jumped into this deal head first, eyes closed, and never took in that there was an abandoned property next to the one we lived in and a vacant, trash-strewn, rat infested lot next to that.
We were too focused on the other lovely row houses on the OTHER side of our dwelling.
So, hubby and I were OK after we got our kitty in there, but this lady was still suffering from RATS. And she was calling the city and calling the city, etc.
Finally, one day, she got some city person on the line and she told that woman: I have a dead rat in my hand, if you do not send someone to clean out the lot at the end of my street, this rat will be on your desk tomorrow.
No lie, the backhoe was there the next day.
Also much more trustworthy, and much less likely to try to micromanage or be a nanny.
/johnny
The story is the same in too many other cities. It starts with white flight. Then through the ballot the inner city takes over municipal government. Crime, corruption, incompetence and bankruptcy follow. In the end it’s like Detroit.
Little more than slaves and their masters in their own private utopia financed by other people's money who then get all the blame for the demonrats' inevitable utopian failure.
And, thanks to their school systematic failure indoctrinating "the chil'ren", we don't learn enough to not keep repeating the mistakes over and over and over...and all by design.
That's more than just cleaning up some trash. When you start changing the land and adding things which are difficult to remove or have to be cared for like the trees you are well beyond just that. And on top of that he probably did the jobs of a dozen unionized city workers who would have cost well over $20,000 to do the same works.
Never under-estimate the stupidity of a democrat or Union member...
Sorry for being redundant...
Only saving grace is that Feibush was probably a democrat..
Just getting what he deserves...
And no pensions.
Going to the article, there are nearly 5500 comments, all outraged.
I’m guessing the city will be saying never mind in less than 24 hours. Especially since he is in possession of a citation for not cleaning up the lot previous. Attorneys will be lining up for this gig.
Don’t you at least get something for your money with the shakedown/protection racket?
Apparently with the government action, you pay and then they sue you for more.
My question is this:
Why do people continue to expect something different?
Simple.
You pay the Mob and it leaves you alone...
Died older than dirt, guys with suits did the funeral, and a week later the house burned down.
/johnny
/johnny
Nominate for post of the day.
“Feibush says he received a citation in August 2011 from the city for litter on the same lot that the city now points out is not his property.”
Well, maybe he’s got his legal defense right there. The city abandoned the property and told him he was liable for it.
His best bet would have been to just claim ignorance. He could have said “sure I cleaned up the trash when you gave me a ticket, but I don’t know who put those benches and trees there. People dump stuff in that lot all the time, it could have been anybody!”
Given the work and documented costs he went through, I think this guy has a shot claiming ownership via adverse possession. Owner didn’t clean it up. City wouldn’t clean it up. He cleaned it up and made it pretty, and even planted edible crops (cherries).
He ought to get the land the city didn’t care about.
Except for that MOVE firebombing, maybe. :)
The city is not collecting any taxes from that vacant lot, and by putting up those concrete barriers, they turned it into a trash collection area and a health hazard.
The Daily Mail also has a good article with some pictures.
“He ought to get the land the city didn’t care about.”
The city ought to give it to him or sell it to him at a deep discount; it can then charge him property taxes on it. In Newark NJ these abandoned lots normally turn out to be city property seized via tax liens from people who fled decades ago; any person foolish enough to accept ownership (which in NJ simply means you’re on the hook for the tax bill - don’t expect any services) should be welcomed by the cities.
Emminent domain abuse should warn off any informed buyers in these cases; if you could make a section of a city livable to yuppies, then you can bet you’ll be in the crosshairs to have the property “re-developed”.
A shake down protection racket will tell you that they are a shake down protection racket and they do not send letters in the mail to you or your lawyer.
Also a shake down protection racket understands economics and will only bleed you to the point of anemia. The government will bleed you dry.
Do that, and they'll send a hundred heavily armed bluebelly thugs to kill you, and they'll high-five afterwards, before they give themselves medals and bonuses.
...except when the local government "abates a nuisance", then bills the property owner for cutting the 1/8" "too tall" grass or removing the flowers weeds in the front yard.
“A business developer in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Point Breeze is facing legal action after voluntarily cleaning up more than 40 tons of trash from a vacant lot neighboring his local business.
...
And the situation is not without irony. Feibush says he received a citation in August 2011 from the city for litter on the same lot that the city now points out is not his property.”
It’s Philadelphia. Forget it.
Mr. Feibush, the best thing you as a developer could do, would be to take everything you have, and move to Texas or North Dakota or some other red state.
Stay where you are, and it will get worse.
“I’m in the waste management business. Everybody immediately assumes you’re mobbed up.
And shoot your dog.
Sorry...
“During collectivization, the citizens of ___________ went ahead and collectivized their farms on their own before the Soviet authorities got there. Of course they were all arrested and sent to camps”
—Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago I, paraphrased
You have that right! And so many people (including my own family) have NO idea how bad it is, I want to go Galt right now because of stuff like this.
Bump
The infection of Communism is already strong and deep, they are suing to retain fuin, desolation, hopelessness.
Because beauty of land built to reflect work and love would give the people hope for a better future, something Communists do not want, they only want a drone robot society that won’t protest.
In the good old days this man would have been giving a medal for being a good citizen
In Bizarro Obama World they want him to bring back the trash.
A job like that would have EASILY cost the city a half a million dollars
What he should do IS SEND THEM A BILL!!! - just like the City would do if they were forced to clean up your yard for you
In the good old days, abusive bureaucrats like this would have been tarred and feathered.
Pics at this link
He should just say “Fine, sue me and prove your damages.”
I meant ruin, not fuin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.