Today was a very special day for Amy and me. We took the day off work, sent the kids to daycare, and watched as the property next door was completely razed.
When Amy moved in back in 2002, we thought the neighboring property was just unkempt. Yeah, it was somewhat junky, but the neighbor was quiet. But, we soon found out that the neighbor had no interest in maintaining the property, and the house was rapidly falling apart. The guy actually lived there until about two years ago, then we'd only see him once a week when he came to get his mail. In the meantime, efforts were under way to seize the property and raze it. Turns out that blighted properties in our state are reasonably easy pickings for cities, but smaller communities like ours (we live in a township) had a much more difficult time. But with patience, attitudes and laws were changed, and our township took control of the property in March. It took a little while to get everything settled, but finally, everything fell into place, and today we hung out with about 40-50 neighbors and watched gleefully as the eyesore was leveled.
We took a number of pictures and put them up on Photobucket. No password is required for the gallery, so head on over and enjoy. We took some video, but it'll take me some time to go through it and put something together. Hopefully soon.
UPDATE 5/22: Added four new pictures of the empty lot. It really is much improved!
