Code Enforcement In Smaller Kansas Towns (Pittsburg: insurance, houses, unemployment)

[AnywhereElse]

Has anyone else in Kansas ran across problems with Code Enforcement? I am trying to figure out who to contact concerning this at the State level. I believe the Codes are not being enforced fairly - it depends on who you are. This does not affect me except for my outrage that they get away with it. Poverty is high here and the majority of these people are hard-working and doing the best they can yet the town by using protectionism has lower-paying jobs with limited benefits except for a couple of exceptions with companies handling insurance claims (and according to what I read yesterday, for every 1% the unemployment goes up, a million more people become uninsured - so much for that business on down the road). So, anyway, does anyone know what State agency might address this crap? Also, I used to think protectionism would be a good thing but not after seeing what it has done to this town while others towns that surround it have flourished. Thanks.

[j_k_k]

You are discovering that Kansas is much like everywhere else. Code enforcement is selective, based on who has the most resources to defend against it, and who is most mobbed up with local government. Unless, of course, a high profile situation creates public pressure to act against someone they'd normally overlook. That isn't Kansan, or even American; it's human.

[AnywhereElse]

My biggest concern at the moment is a house where the basement was dug out and one edge is sitting on a stack of cement blocks that are leaning. Very easily it could fall or a child could get under there and never come out alive as there is no safety fencing. Can everyone imagine living next to this property which has been this way for 8 months when the repairs are supposed to take place in 90 days. Everyone agrees that it is dangerous but no one will touch it - this is where the major problem lies. Might want to think twice about friendly little towns.

[thriftylefty]

Originally Posted by AnywhereElse

My biggest concern at the moment is a house where the basement was dug out and one edge is sitting on a stack of cement blocks that are leaning. Very easily it could fall or a child could get under there and never come out alive as there is no safety fencing. Can everyone imagine living next to this property which has been this way for 8 months when the repairs are supposed to take place in 90 days. Everyone agrees that it is dangerous but no one will touch it - this is where the major problem lies. Might want to think twice about friendly little towns.

in Pittsburg Kansas they recently had all the homes inspected and determined that only 1% of the houses in the city were substandard. It's a known fact that 5% of the population own around half the houses in Pittsburg, so code enforcement is a bad word there. when you drive around it sure looks like more than 1% of the home are run down