Developers Disrespecting Temple Area

[annie]

A reporter's battle with North Philadelphia contractor continues

City officials finally responded in a big way after Channel 29's Claudia Gomez saw Lizz's account and did the piece above about the problem.
The city's department of licenses and inspections issued several violations notices against the contractor, KDM Construction. When the violations weren't abated, the city posted a "stop work" order at the site Wednesday morning where KDM was renovating a building.
Fiedler reports to me that yesterday, within hours of the cease work order's 10 a.m. posting, work had resumed at the site. She says she called 311 to complain, and they suggested she call 911 to get a more prompt response.
Police responded to Fiedler's call and work stopped, but only until the officers left. Fiedler went to the site to see if the Cease Work Order was still posted. It had been removed.
Fiedler says the contractor, Kevin Mathiesen, approached her to within a foot or two, told her to stay away from his property and workers, asked which house she lived in, asked if she didn't have anything better to do than interrupt his work, and said she was annoying.
Fiedler reports that when she asked him to back up, he replied, "why, are you afraid of me?"
Fiedler contacted 311 and L&I again to tell them work continued at the site. They assured her that the Cease Work Order was still in place, even though it had been removed. Fiedler called 911 as advised by Councilman Darrell Clarke's Office and a 311 operator to report the contractor's conduct.
Officers came to her home and saw work was still going on. An officer called 311 to confirm the Cease Work Order was still in effect, and said 311 had no record of such an order. As a result, the officer said she couldn't halt construction and left.
Fiedler called 311 and L&I to confirm that the Cease Work Order was still in effect and was assured that it was. When Fiedler went to look for herself, she saw the order had been removed.
Fiedler says an L&I Manager came out last night with the police, spoke with the contractor, and posted a new Stop Work Order.

[MariusPontmercy]

#drugs and violence harming quality of life in North Philly

Oh wait, that's wrong, it should be: #construction debris harming quality of life in North Philly.

Yes, that's much more accurate...

[annie]

#drugs and violence harming quality of life in North Philly

Oh wait, that's wrong, it should be: #construction debris harming quality of life in North Philly.

Yes, that's much more accurate...

Congrats on taking exactly the same stance as the dirtbag contractor. Gross.













I cannot believe anyone is actually taking the opinion that this working, taxpaying woman deserves to live among all this illegal construction dumping and work in violation because of the neighborhood her house is in.

[billy ross]

I've been in construction for very, very many years and I've never known anyone to blatantly ignore a stop work order. How does this guy plan to get a certificate of occupancy? I know that L & I has changed and is supposed to be unemotional now, but I'm going to guess that he'll regret removing the stop work order and contining to work on the jobsite. This property will now have all kinds of violations against it, and no bank will provide a mortgage on a property without a C.O. (called oddly a city cert in Philly). He shouldn't be able to get a rental license without a C.O. either, so I'm guessing that this guy is a real amateur and he's about to learn a very hard lesson, involving all kinds of fines. He's building a useless, unmarketable, uninsurable house unless he decides to make nice with the city. The city has him over a barrel, and he's too stupid to realize it.

If I were L & I, I'd cancel out his permits for continuing work during the stop work order period and make him take out new permits, with new permit fees, to teach him a lesson about my enforcement powers. People respond to financial incentives.

I have over the years spent alot of time removing violations from my properties, since I buy places subject to existing violations (which very few buyers are willing to do), and I would never volunteer for further violations. You're at the mercy of an inspector and his interpretation of the rules, and you're smart if you keep everything squared away so that you can keep your certs clean and he's got nothing to issue a violation about. Then everything sails along.

[MariusPontmercy]

Property-Holding Nonprofits | Philadelphia Daily News



I've heard activists say that local universities are building student housing on residential blocks and then as the housing is owned by a non-profit it doesn't pay property taxes. And so families have this additional grudge against students, who don't always treat their housing or blocks well, that they're not paying their "fair share" of property taxes. I assumed the people were talking about Temple because I think Penn has all of its off-campus student housing holdings in a for-profit shell company.

But from this map, I'm not really seeing much that would fall into that category. Am I missing something? Also, this proposal does not sound that cumbersome for a legit, properly run non-profit unless I'm mistaken.

You're not missing anything because Temple is not the one building off-campus student housing. It's private developers. Maybe some of the developers are independent non-profits, but that would be news to me. I'm not sure where that rumor came from but it makes no sense. The landlords are paying taxes, hopefully, and given the value of the houses they're probably paying more than most of their neighbors. As for properties like the International House, I'm not sure what category they fall under. I also believe Templetown Realty and apartment buildings like Oxford Village are privately run as well, but I'm not 100% on that.

[thoth]

#drugs and violence harming quality of life in North Philly

Oh wait, that's wrong, it should be: #construction debris harming quality of life in North Philly.

Yes, that's much more accurate...

The law doesn't change just because you're in a rough neighborhood.

[green77]

Templetown is definitely private as are most of the infills. International House was built by Beech Corporation, a non-profit that also developed the charter school/daycare building at 16th and Cecil B Moore and the beech Interplex Building at 15th and Cecil B Moore-

[MariusPontmercy]

The law doesn't change just because you're in a rough neighborhood.

I know, and I don't condone illegal dumping and building practices by any means. However, I feel like the story is being taken up by the anti-gentrification crowd as another justification for opposing development. It's why I'm pointing out that in that neighborhood I would hardly call illegal dumping by housing contractors as the biggest contributor to their quality of life issues, but it's going to be made out that way because various parties in this city like to frame things in an anti-gentrification manner.