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[side_show]

So look, here's the deal.  You know the abandoned house I live next too?  The one I've previously complained about that has been recognized by local users/huffers/homeless and has cause us misery due to fires, drunk/high people, general noise, vandalism to our cars, theft from our yard, used needles, drug paraphernalia and smashed glass near/on our property, etc.?  Well things progressed to a whole new level about three weeks ago, when a couple moved in to the aluminum shed behind the house.  I noticed them and the noise about three weeks ago.  Then two weeks ago, I heard crashing around and arguing - the man yelling at the woman to "just fuck*ng go to sleep," etc.  I called the police since I'm now almost constantly terrified that the house will be burnt down (it's less than six feet from my own house - we live on skinny lots).  The police couldn't have cared less, and said they "might" send a car if there's one in the area.  The cops did eventually show up and sent the couple on their way.  The next day the SO and I went to check out the condition of the area, and saw that they filled the shed with soiled couch cushions, pillows, clothes, food, etc. - they are clearly living in there.  On Saturday we were out working in our yard and the man came back again, got in the shed, but left (probably because of our noisy yardwork). This morning I was out working again, and he came back for another rest.  I basically don't know what to do.  I call the police and they don't care at all - I get a strong sense that I am somehow in the wrong for calling them - the opperators always sound annoyed and disinterested.  There have been several times when I've called and they haven't come at all.  When it came to arsons, we've put them out ourselves, and we've also cleaned up the drug paraphernalia, empty Listerine bottles, etc.  I even found the abandoned houses' garage broken into a few months back.  It had been filled with solvents and supplies that looked like they were destine to be made into meth.  The entire garage stunk of fumes very, very strongly.  I reported this to the police and to this day they've never come to investigate it.

I have a couple options I could explore:  1) Sink some of my own money and time into securing the garage and shed (possibly enraging the people using it into doing more damage to our homes/autos if they happen to spot us).   Also I have been specifically told by the police that this is illegal, but since they're not doing anything to help....  2) Go to city hall and determin the contact information for the home owner via property tax records - write her a letter she's likely to ignore (I met her once, when we first moved in, and as far as I can tell she's never been back). 3) Continue to call the police, maybe physically do down to the station to discuss the issue, write to everyone with even a speck of power, etc.

I should clarify that we are 1) poor and unable to afford home ownership elsewhere, 2) are locked into a special program that basically requires us to live where we are for 8 more years & 3) otherwise like the location because it is close to my work and most other amenities.

[Nabubrush]

Jesus.



I have no idea what you should do, but if I can help you in any way other than with knowledge (because I am empty in terms of that), let me know.

I guess I always either ignore things and stew, or well, I guess there isn't an or. I finally live somewhere that people aren't dicks now. I would probably spend a lot of time complaining to the cops and maybe elected officials (of your options that you listed).

[pmcd9]

I think you should burn down that house yourself.  It's not like anyone is going to point a finger at you.  Make sure the fire department is promtly notified and have your hose out to keep your own house from going up, but yeah, burn the problem away.  At the very least burn down that shed.

[pmcd9]

If we don't hear anymore about this subject we'll assume you did the wise thing.

[KeithHernandez]

Wow that is not actually a bad idea, as an idea, you know.  It would be an interesting solution, to say the least.

[AugustWest]

You know what problem I've been having? 

I grill a lot.  I fancy myself somewhat good at using the grill.  But I've been having problems lately with starting by charcoal. 

It's been really dry around here.  We got no rain in the month of May.  Normally things are pretty green about now, but it looks like August these days.

Anyhow, I was cooking ribs yesterday to celebrate Youngest West's 8th grade graduation (they turned out great...) and I had hella problems.

First, I oversprayed the lighter fluid.  I'll admit to being somewhat liberal with the stuff.  Mark it up to impatience and natural inborn tendencies.  But somehow I got some lighter fluid on the vinyl siding without noticing it.  WHOOOF!  Luckily, my spray bottle was sufficient to put it out post haste.

So then the coals are hot and ashed over.  I'm moving them around into a stack off to one side.  I get a gust of wind at exactly the right time and a shower of sparks is blown onto the dry grass.  WHOOOF!.  OK, maybe not WHOOF.  I stomped it out without much problem.  But disturbing nonetheless.

So finally I'm arranging the grates.  Normally I use two of the four in this situation.  The charcoal goes on one side, the grates on the other.  These are heavy cast iron grates, by the way.  But I was cooking a lot of ribs (1 rack of baby backs, 1 rack of spare) and I needed more space.  So I crowded the charcoal and used 3 grates.

Only I missed the edge with the last one and it fell onto the (precariously balanced) pile of (white hot) charcoal.

Luckily its trajectory ended in the (dry, highly flammable) grass instead of my hair, the lawn mower or anything more comically destructible.  More frantic stomping was all that was necessary to reconcile the situation.

As to your problem, are these folks home 24/7?  Had much rain lately?  Would you like my recipe for rib rub?

[linnea]

Jesus fuck. That is horrible.

Something to note... for firefighting we have 3" preconnect hoses that we pull as soon as we jump out. Truck 3 has about 500 gallons. The preconnect is an immediate response type of thing until we can connect to a hydrant. Then we do a hydrant connect, usually with 5" hose to hook up the rigs. We also have CAFF foam (I think that's what it's called) that we use for certain types of fire to help smother the flames.

My point about the shit that we do up here is that using a 1" garden hose to do firefighting until the FD gets there will probably not do much...but it's sure as fuck better than nothing.

Also as you mentioned, prompt notification of the fire department would be wise...They are likely to respond as fast as possible, unlike the worthless police department in your area. When you call 911, you should notify the dispatcher that you suspect that it's a meth lab, that you've TOLD the police department a million times in the past 6 months that it's a meth lab, and that they should send a hazmat crew.

Well...it's a double edged sword there. They might care enough to send an arson investigator, in which case he or she would probably be able to quickly deduce that it wasn't started from the meth lab. But you know...it's a rough part of town and it could have been set by rival drug dealers. The point is that you've noticed lowlife types prowling about for a damn long time, and that you've notified the police to no avail.

At any rate, the garbage has got to be cleaned up. That's fuck*ng ridiculous that they won't do anything.

[smick]

My ladyfriend works for a security company.   They've resolved some meth problems by showing up in their *GAUDY* trucks, and hanging all manner of fake cameras.

She said the job pretty much sucked, since the meth heads were all giving her the hairy eye.   

... And for a non-realistic solution, I read a few months ago about a house that was posted on Craigslist as about to be demolished, and everything was free for the scavenge.   Maybe setting a couple hundred "cheap as free" seekin' Craigslisters upon the house might remove the problem.   Hell, they might even take the shed!

Granted, there are moral issues with sending unsuspecting scavengers into a meth lab, since those locales are downright toxic, but... omlettes...eggs...Craigslisters...

[wombat]

I don't know about the police, but in a situation abstractly similar to this one, I'd make an effort to make sure the information was getting to the right person. Are you just calling the same phone number again and again?  Or have you tried to find the names of particular people who work on drug cases or whatever and speak to them directly?

And another strategy would be to involve the media - can you get a reporter interested in the story? That person may be able to get access to the right people where you can't. 

[side_show]

The media!  Wombat you are brilliant!  It's a fantastic sob story - young couple believes in downtown revitalization to the point where they build a house on an abandoned lot, only to meet with huge problems and apathetic police.  I have connections in the industry.

[wombat]

Eh, why do all that work yourself when if you can get a reporter interested, they have better means to get attention? Threatening your legislator that you won't vote for him again if he doesn't deal with the problem is nothing compared to the threat to have it all over the newspaper. Why not cut to the chase?

[Nabubrush]

Because a documented history of non-management also gives you a good opening for a solicitor, if necessary.

Is Smells tired of being poor?

Piles of documentation is always a good thing. These days in many situations it's the only way to make any progress.

[wombat]

It also makes it easy for the reporter to write the story and run the fact checking.

Well as a part-time member of the media I'm glad to hear there are people out there who think of making something easy for a reporter. I thought journalists were below used-car salesmen on the respect meter these days.

But here's the thing: In my local paper there are columns where people sometimes write in about roughly similar problems and the story often seems to be that no matter how many phone calls the regular person made, they never actually got to talk to the relevant authority.  Whereas once they told the reporter about the problem, he picked up the phone and got through to the person with very little trouble. Sure, you want to have made a few of those pointless phone calls before you call in the big guns, but it sounds like Smells has spent plenty of time talking to the wrong people already.

[jaydub]

Are you kidding?  People are so excited by journalism that everyone's got a blog.  It gives you an appreciation for how difficult it must be to actually crank out articles professionally.  Of course, most bloggers fall far short of anything that resembles true journalism (independent confirmatory sources, contrasting opinions, etc) but the same is true of many professional reporters.

[side_show]

I think maybe the way to start is to get hold of a digital camera to visually document things.  I can tell people are living in the shed next door, or I can show them a photo of the situation to document how horrible the problem is.  I can tell people there is (new development since last post!) human excrement, or I can show them a really retch worthy photo of it.

Also, I've already written to my city councilor pre-election to absolutely no response.  I have the dated email on file.  I used to be a journalist and also have close connections via the theatre's marketing dept.  This should be a no-brainer.  I don't really have time to take this on right now though.  I'll have to wait until next month when I'm laid off.

As for the am I tired of being poor question, I'm not tired of being poor, I'm tired of bull shit.  Or hobo shit.  Or both.

Hey, as I'm typing this I hear someone vomiting next door.  Lovely.