It was just announced this morning that Robert Triozzi was appointed as the new Law Director for the City of Cleveland Department of Law. Robert Triozzi recently resigned his seat as a Judge for the Cleveland Municipal Court this year to run for Mayor of the City of Cleveland. Mr. Triozzi had some interesting points during the mayorial race on blight, housing and development in Cleveland. Here's an excerpt of his statements made on the Triozzi For Mayor Blog:
"We can solve the problems of boards-up and blight in our neighborhoods . . . I applaud the initiative of Neighborhood Progress Inc. in commissioning a study on the subject, and agree with its recommendations. But we must go further.
We must have a goal of eliminating housing board-ups by getting to the causes. Not only must the mortgage companies and banks that own foreclosed properties be held accountable for their condition – as I outlined weeks ago in my neighborhoods platform – but we have to get those properties back onto our inventory of solid, affordable housing. Reselling good houses is as important as building new ones. In fact, for residents who cannot afford $100,000-and-up new homes, it’s essential.
We need to get at the root of the problem with a concerted effort to clear title to such homes so neighborhood housing groups can put them back on the market – and those houses cease being a drag on the neighborhood. My plan is to get law firms, banks, mortgage companies, realty agents and others to work with Cleveland’s Housing Court and neighborhood housing groups to speed the process. It can be done.
More important, we must prevent blight before it starts through a comprehensive code-enforcement strategy. Our current complaint-based system of getting building inspectors out to neighborhoods is ineffective and antiquated. We need to begin systematic code enforcement that concentrates on rental properties."