2 Investigators: Resident Calls City About Overgrown Property -- For Three Years
(CBS) – They were afraid to leave their Englewood home, not because of crime but because of what was growing next door.
The city ignored them, and they finally turned to 2 Investigator Pam Zekman.
"I used to walk this lot. I used to be all over this lot. I'm scared now," Shirley Hardy says.
Hardy and her daughter, Terri Keating, say they asked the city every spring for three years to clear an overgrown vacant lot next to their property.
"You can't even see the house anymore," Shirley Hardy says.
Hardy says city workers just mow the interior of the lot, leaving the trees and bushes.
The family says the lot is dangerous because someone could hide in the tree branches that are so overgrown they even block passage on the sidewalk.
"Anyone can stand up in here and you won't see them. They could knock you out, they could rob you, they could rape you," Hardy says.
The lot is also a haven for small animals and bugs. When she talked to a city worker he joked, "You've got a little forest."
Hardy says she responded: "What are you going to do about it?"
His response: "Oh, I can't do anything."
City officials say they have cited the owner of the property eight times in the past four years, for a total of $6,000 in fines.
"We try to get to lot complaints within 30 days. We have thousands of lots we're responsible for throughout the city," says Chicago Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Charles Willams.
"What we don't want is overgrown brush where you can have animals or unsavory individuals hiding in the brush," he adds. "So, it's a safety thing, but it's also an appearance issue."
The 2 investigators have learned that there are currently 630 pending requests to have vacant lots cleaned up in Chicago.
Says Terri Keating, Hardy's daughter: "We're the lost part of the 20th Ward. We never see anybody. We've got a ward superintendent, if he's out here making rounds why can't he see this?"
Williams said he had a conversation with the ward superintendent. "I'm sure that's not going to be an issue going forward," he adds.
Zekman asked if the superintendent had been chewed out. Williams chuckled and repeated things would be handled.
Two days after the 2 Investigators started asking the city about the lot in question, it was cleared by city workers during a service blitz.
"I am happy because my grandkids can play out there, I can sit on my porch again, I have my sidewalk back," says Hardy, who credited the 2 Investigators.
The Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation says anyone with a complaint about a lot should call 3-1-1. Once a citation has been issued to the owners of the lot, the city can then asses fines and clean up the property.
The owners the Englewood lot featured in this story did not respond to phone calls from CBS 2.
