Then I took a walk farther down the alley towards Arlington.
Garbage pick up was Tuesday yet it looks like some of this has been there longer and if you look at the backyard of the residence? Either someone moved or there was one heck of a wild couch party...
So...while getting garbage out to the front will be an interesting adventure with the way our yard is set up, if that makes pictures like the above two no longer happen it will be worth it.
8 comments:
In Detroit they closed the alleys and gave everyone their half of the strip. That way everyone got a little land, and the city didn't have to spend money cleaning them.
That would be a problem for us if that happened - our garage access is thru the alley.
:-)
I hope your alley doesn't get blocked by any of those couches. Obviously those people don't care what their yards look like.
They said that it cost $1.4 anually to maintain the alleys. It would have been nice if there was an estimate on the amount of money this would save.
"In Detroit they closed the alleys and gave everyone their half of the strip."
Sounds like a sound fiscal policy.
I don't know how the Detroit neighborhoods were set up compared to what we have here. Here many of the homes do not have driveways and the only access to their garages is alley access. Dividing the alley down the middle would be a huge problem for some of the home owners here as it would basically make their garage/parking area disappear. We supposedly have what looks like a driveway but it is on half of our property line and half of the property line of the neighbors. The incline is so steep no one would try to take a car up it anyway not to mention it looks as if parking there would cause foundation issues for both houses. Nor would most of the homes over here with the smaller lot sizes have the ability to put a front drive in even if they wanted to.
I hope Toledo doesn't do that - it would effectively make all of the houses that only have alley access to their garages property value dramatically decrease. If I had to select from having an additional six feet of backyard or the ability to use our garage? I'll take the garage. In an unoffical count of my alley alone over a third of the property on my little section of street have alley access to their garages. Unless we turn our car into Chitty Chitty Bang Bang there is no way to get from the alley to the street with the lot size.
:-)
I'm not sure if the City can take away our access, from the City Charter:
Section 52. Vacating Streets and Changing Street Names.
In vacating any street or part thereof, or in changing the name of any street, the Council may include in one ordinance the change of name or the vacation or narrowing of more than one street, avenue or alley; but before vacating any street or partthereof or narrowing any street, the Council shall first pass a resolution declaring its intention so to do. The Mayor, regardless of his or her approval of said resolution, shall cause notice of such resolution to be served, in the manner that service of summons is required to be made in civil actions, upon all persons whose property abuts upon the portion of the street affected by the proposed vacation or narrowing, and by one publication in a newspaper of general circulation in the City as to all persons who cannot be personally served. Said notice shall state the time and place at which objections to such change can be heard before the Board of Revision of Assessments. Upon the report by the Board of Revision of Assessments approving the proposed vacation or narrowing, the Council by ordinance may declare such vacation or narrowing which ordinance shall be subject to Sections 43A and 43B of this Charter. Such order of the Council vacating or narrowing a street or alley which has not been dedicated to public use by the proprietor, shall, to the extent to which it is vacated or narrowed, operate as a revocation of the acceptance thereof by the Council; but the right of way and easement therein of any lot owner shall not be impaired thereby.
If I'm reading that correctly the right of way can't be taken away and here we have clear public use of the alley.
Figures this will probably happen and then I'll be the "alley blogger".
:-)
Alley Blogger,
If I'm not mistaken, properties with alleys are assessed for alley maintenance.
Clearly, these assessments would have to cease if the City abandoned the alleys.
Except that the assessments postings and collections (like street cleaning and snow removal assessments) are likely three years behind...
(Catchy new name :-])
Post a Comment