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Neighbor’s rights

I feel compelled to write this after reading the opinions of landlords in response to Mayor Campana’s proposal to have landlords register their tenants. Some of the landlords feel that this will label them as “slumlords”. There is no doubt that there are several honest and highly reputable rental property owners within our community who police their properties on a regular basis and, therefore, should be commended. However, living adjacent to several properties which are not regularly policed and show evidence of felonious activity on a regular basis, it is clear that not all rental property owners have the same ethics.

Some of the issues that our neighborhood has to endure from the tenants of these above mentioned properties: loud music and partying mainly between 10 pm and 5 am, copious amounts of garbage in front of our properties that we work hard to keep looking nice, drug paraphernalia in our front yards from drug transactions taking place directly in front of our homes, and no parking in front of our properties due to a rotating shopping list of vehicles whose drivers visit these properties in 10-15 minute intervals around the clock.

You may ask, “Did you call the police or the drug task force?”. “Did you call codes or the landlord?” The answer to all these is yes. When the police or landlords finally arrive the tenants magically disappear. The drug task force assures us over-and-over that they are “building a case”. My neighbors and I are forced to endure all this because of landlords that do not take responsibility for those they rent to.

I love my home and my neighbors of many years and do not wish to relocate. We had a great neighborhood before these landlords took possession of good properties and allowed them to become “slums”. The reputable landlords within our community should not fear this proposed legislation. It can only make their reputations stronger by proving to the community that they care enough to rent to good tenants.

Allendria Robertson

Williamsport

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom

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