The 600 block of North Lincoln Street is no longer a pigsty.
Credit it to the City of Manteca for keeping pressure on the property owner to remove debris they left behind when they razed several older homes and ripped out trees to eventually make way for what they hope to be a townhouse development.
The neighbors appreciated the demolition of the vacant and partially dilapidated homes as they had become a haven for homeless and drug users who started several fires in them that posed a threat to nearby homes.
But several months after the demolition was done and with large piles of debris still remaining, the property owner removed the rented fence. It was then that others started dumping their trash there — old furniture, refrigerators, and garbage. It was creating health and safety hazards as well as creating a blight situation.
The city, with its a repertoire of ordinances in place that could ultimately force the removal of the debris and then place liens against the property as well as assess fines, kept the pressure up.
It would have been nice for the parcel to be cleaned up earlier but the bottom line is the blight was gone before it could take hold and spread.
Credit it to the City of Manteca for keeping pressure on the property owner to remove debris they left behind when they razed several older homes and ripped out trees to eventually make way for what they hope to be a townhouse development.
The neighbors appreciated the demolition of the vacant and partially dilapidated homes as they had become a haven for homeless and drug users who started several fires in them that posed a threat to nearby homes.
But several months after the demolition was done and with large piles of debris still remaining, the property owner removed the rented fence. It was then that others started dumping their trash there — old furniture, refrigerators, and garbage. It was creating health and safety hazards as well as creating a blight situation.
The city, with its a repertoire of ordinances in place that could ultimately force the removal of the debris and then place liens against the property as well as assess fines, kept the pressure up.
It would have been nice for the parcel to be cleaned up earlier but the bottom line is the blight was gone before it could take hold and spread.
We hope the city will take similar measures against severely blighted property elsewhere in Manteca with the burned out and boarded over Sycamore Arms in downtown Manteca that burned 30 months ago at Yosemite and Sycamore avenues at the top of the list.
