Where is code enforcement hanging out these days?
My family and I hit Chili's about a month ago and slowly have watched the old Acapulco Restaurant fall into disrepair. First it was a little singeing of the grass and that has progressed. Now a lot of the greenery around the place is dead. There is a little graffiti in a few of the parking spaces. All we need is a boarded up window, or worse a busted out one and we have the perfect poster child for urban blight.
I grabbed a quick pic with my phone last night of the dead plants as an example of how the property is starting to fall apart. It's not the greatest image but illustrates the problem there.
Who exactly is responsible for the landscaping and building maintenance? My efforts to reach out to the mall management yielded no results. Trying to figure out exactly who owns the building is tough, the info I have is that it was Real Mex Restaurants Inc. that owned Acapulco, but it's unclear if they owned or leased the property. Regardless of who owns it it will be hard to get a new business to take it seriously at market value given its deterioration. It is starting to become a real blight on Restaurant Row on Huntington.
My question is who should be responsible for making sure that property is maintained to community standards while the search for a new business to put in there goes on?
Is there a plan? Does the City have any extraordinary leverage (i.e. redevelopment financing) over the owners?
FYI, Code enforcement is complaint driven, so if you see a blight make a formal complaint. If someone complains about your dead lawn, code enforcement will go after you ,but if the lawns on both sides of you are in the same condition they will not go after them unless there is a complaint against them.