TUCSON, Ariz. - One blighted house can drag down a whole neighborhood.
One Tucson neighborhood was so fed up with a beat-up, run-down house, they managed to get a judge to okay tearing it down.
In the Palo Verde Neighborhood, in Midtown Tucson they are pretty aggressive about keeping the area safe and clean. So you can imagine what they think of the rundown house in the 14 hundred block of North Richey. It has been aggravating neighbors for so long city records show complaints going back twenty years.
Palo Verde Neighborhood Association President Ronni Kotwica says she's lived in the neighborhood more than 40 years and has never seen anyone actually live in the house.
She says it's more than a mess, it's a menace.
“And what happens are the students walking home or this the kids around in the area. Go back in the back to play and they have tried to breach the the interior and unfortunately the ceiling and all the walls have fallen in and it's it's probably one good push and it's going to crumble."
Now the Palo Verde Neighborhood Association, and Tucson Code Enforcement have gotten a judge's permission to have the place demolished.
It's not clear exactly when that will happen, but when it does, the city will bill the owner for the cost.
But why is meaningful action happening now after so many years of complaints? Kotwica says a determined Code Enforcement Officer made all the difference.
“And he just felt it's gone on long enough and it needed to be dealt with."
Kotwica says the owner did not show up at three court hearings.
We tried to hear from the property owner. Real estate records led us to a site on the Northwest Side where we found a locked gate and no trespassing sign.
Now the Neighborhood Association hopes to turn this land into a place that helps the community. It's trying to convince Pima County Flood Control to buy the land and contour it to catch floodwaters that have plagued the neighborhood.
