A fellow attorney friend of mine forwarded a pamphlet/flyer/handout that he saw on the east side of Milwaukee. The UWM area is where the city plan’s to begin its mandatory interior inspections of rental units (a.k.a ”Landlord Licensing”) program assuming that the ordinance is passed by the common council. The handout should definitely make tenants living in that area give some thought to the city’s latest attempt to infringe upon their rights. The handout raises some good issues that I did not address in my earlier posts on this topic on September 10, 2009 and September 14, 2009.
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#1 by Dan Knauss on September 21st, 2009
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Having watched pretty much every major property owner, real estate ownership changes, violations, crime, etc. for much of the NE side for many years–in large part thanks to digital dissemination of data (CCAP, the assessor, the DNS and MPD via enotify, and the muni. court), I can tell you for a fact that flier is a bunch of racist, classist fearmongering.
Think East Side landlords don’t own property anywhere else in the city, least of all the “inner city?” Think again. The top 4 worst landlords in 2005 were/are all east side landlords, and several own property in areas East Siders might consider the “inner city.”
http://www.riverwestneighborhood.org/component/content/article/615.html?start=11
Keep in mind the mayor of Brookfield’s record as inner city slumlord who required a lot of external pressure to do the right thing:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/waukesha/52231517.html
The city is probably targetting the UWM area for its pilot program because that is where absentee slumlords are ruining a few neighborhoods, along with the assistance of the student drug market:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/43234312.html
The UWM-neighborhood resident conflict is intense and bitter; obviously there are big-picture reasons why everyone there–and the city–want to resolve these problems.
#2 by Anonymous on September 23rd, 2009
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It seems most of your gripe is with the inner city, which I agree. The factual information you have about the Eastside is 4 years old.
The builidngs in the inner city are in much worse condition than the Eastside. Nobody has answered the question directly yet (Why UWM and what are they really looking for?). Just admit it. The city is looking for students that are breaking the law. e.g. drugs, booze, illegal activity. Why not just call it that?
Can anybody give some reasonable examples of what these interior inspections are going to do except force the landlord to confirm that the smoke detectors work, there’s no dripping faucets or fire hazards.
Lets say they do find drugs. Is the landlord going to be fined because the tenant had drugs? In court, is the judge going to throw it out due to illegal seizure/inspection? Seems to be just an expensive blame game and the landlords gets stuck with the bill, and the tenants get their rights stepped on. Nice.
Well acutally… the landlord doesn’t get stuck with the bill. It’ll just be tacked onto the rent. The student’s get burned twice.