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Editorial Regular readers of the Norwood News are certainly aware of the disastrous conditions that led to the tragic fire at 3569 DeKalb Ave. that killed an 8-year-old boy. But what local residents and officials should know -- and many already do from personal experience -- is that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of buildings in the area that are in similarly shameful shape. Because of our DeKalb coverage, many readers have called to bring our attention to some of them. Just one is 2874 Grand Concourse. The building has 168 housing code violations and the poor conditions are in plain sight. The front door to the building does not lock, the hallways are filthy, and one of the steps in the stairwell is loose. In one apartment, the kitchen appeared as if it had not been painted in decades, two non-working stoves lay useless in the middle of the room and there is a gaping hole in the bathroom ceiling. Mold is widely reported by tenants to be a major problem. Tenant leader Judith Freeman, who is also a member of Community Board 7, spends much of her time these days in housing court and organizing her neighbors. Met Council on Housing, a citywide advocacy group, is aiding her. The building next door, 2860 Grand Concourse, is owned by the same landlord, Moshe Piller, and has 335 violations. "The ultimate goal is to have the building removed from the landlord," Freeman said. But, as she knows, that will be very difficult. The DeKalb case, where it took a child's death to get the system to act the way it should have much earlier, is proof of that. Tenants and city officials tried to convince a judge to put the building in the 7A program, where the building is placed in the hands of an outside administrator to bring the property back up to code. But almost two years littered with landlord delays and broken promises went by before a judge took that action, and that was three months too late for Jashawn Parker, the child who died. A partial solution for this crisis is to give judges more legal justification to force landlords to act quickly or lose control of their buildings. As we report in this issue, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz has introduced legislation to strengthen the 7A section of the housing law.The bill would limit endless consent decrees -- essentially second, third and fourth chances judges give landlords to make repairs -- to only one. This is legislation with citywide implications, but it faces an uphill battle without a full-court press from elected officials and housing advocates. We'll be watching the progress of this legislation closely, and we hope others will, too. The Good Red Tape Dozens of lights had been out in the park. It's no accident that they were repaired. Thecombined efforts of an ingenious local resident and a terrific activism club at MS 80 did the trick. Because the kids, who had written to city officials, couldn't visit the park at night, Sirio Guerino, a tireless advocate for the park and community in general, put red tape around each lamppost that had a light out. He then contacted park officials and told them what the tape meant. The lights were soon repaired. It shouldn't take vigilant residents to ensure that a necessity like park lighting be maintained. But it's just a fact of community life that it sometimes does. The community should be glad it has Guerino, the MS 80 students and many other residents playing that role. It also goes without saying that there's always room for more of us to be vigilant actors, too.
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