04-07-16 Health and Public Safety

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can be viewed as criminalization of the poor. There are other ways to address dealing with dilapidated houses without paying any attention to what these demolitions will do to the neighborhood. It seems Code Enforcement is acting as the bully to push these people out of their neighborhoods and homes. Mr. Duncan asked is there some type of development coming or is someone in the City pushing for some new development for the Westside because this is classic gentrification. Hearing the things that have been proposed it looks like being poor is off - limits in South Bend or working -class is off limits in South Bend and it does disentivize people to invest in South Bend. As a young person in college, Mr. Duncan stated this makes him not want to remain here once he comes into some money. There needs to be some accountability, especially for what has happened this evening, and it seems they have tried to circumvent the Common Council. Alicia Ortiz, Portage Indiana, stated she invests in this City but she is getting out because of Code Enforcement along with several other of her investors. She stated that Code Enforcement has said if there is one house left on a block they will take that house. She stated she heard a Code Enforcement officer bragging about issuing 1,800 tickets for lawn mowing in one day for his area. People are being targeted, especially on the North Side by Code Enforcement. Ms. Ortiz gave a number of examples of Code Enforcement mistreating her and fining her way more than was necessary including a story. where they accidentally started demolishing her house when it was really another house they were supposed to demolish. Lynn Collier, a representative of Life Long Residents for the 1 St, 2nd; and 6th Districts, stated she is a lifetime resident and is not sure what the common vision is for this City going forward and other seniors seem to think the same thing. Right here in South Bend it is blatant the gentrification going on. Her number one question is what is going to happen next in the City and who is going to be accountable. Code Enforcement has just had a huge turnover and all new people and in the most distressed parts of town they have all new people. What is the City going to do now with all this vacant land in South Bend. We have many rodents and animals living in these vacant lots especially all over the 2nd District. Is anybody going to investigate any of these horrible stories. Fred Preston asked who Code Enforcement answers to. Councilmember John Voorde responded it is a City Department. Councilmember Karen White stated there are so many unanswered questions dealing with these two (2) bills. An email should go to Code Enforcement asking if they are going to withdraw the bills, what are the reasons for withdrawing, the time frame and also if they are still planning to pursue these fees. Councilmember Oliver Davis asked that the email also CC the Mayor Buttigieg, Legal Department and also James Mueller so that they would be included in the conversation. Councilmember Karen White stated the other concerns regarding Code Enforcmenet is a much broader issue that also needs to be addressed.