The City of Hartford wants residents take care of their property or face the consequences and a public hearing is scheduled for tonight to discuss the anti-blight ordinance.
In parts of Hartford, there are buildings that neighbors call "eyesores."
“You want everything to look nice,” Selimar Cartagena, of Hartford, said.
Some residents said they have had enough and are planning to move out of the city to purchase a home elsewhere.
“I don’t want no property down here where I grew up because the value is nothing. So I got to get out of here to live a normal life,” Teddy Simpson, of Hartford, said.
Hartford mayor Luke Bronin has a plan.
In a letter to the city council, he proposes changes to the city’s “Anti-Blight Ordinance.”
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He wrote in part, “Our goal is to increase the quality of life in all of Hartford’s neighborhoods.”
The ordinance would make it a violation to leave windows or doors boarded over for more than a year, for grass to grow more than a foot tall and to leave trash on the property.
Fines could be $100 per violation per day.
“I’m hopeful now that things are going to happen,” Hyacinth Yennie, of Hartford, said.
Community activists said the problem has also been a lack of enforcing the regulations on the books.
But the mayor said new, stricter rules would allow the city to better use the courts, fines and liens to go after absentee property owners.
“I want to see action and that’s all I’m interested in right now. OK? People need to be held accountable,” Yennie said.
A public hearing about the “Anti-Blight Ordinance” at City Hall at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
