City of Oakland Public Works Agency addressed this issue on 04/18/2012, service request # 404835.

NOT FIXED.

This blighted property continues to grow more blighted. Can public works please update the community on what the city is doing to hold the property owner responsible?

The property was cleaned by the city earlier this year but within three days was again covered by graffiti.

This property continues to deteriorate. there are numerous broken windows, the building is covered by graffiti, and there is lawn furniture on the roof.

Public records indicate the property owner is David M. Greenberg. This location is listed as his residence as well. The property was sold to Mr. Greenberg on March 11, 2011 (City document number 85742, parcel ID 003 -0043-001).

The owner was apparently given a $40,00 facade improvement grant, payment was to have been made by the City in June 2012. This information per the First Amended and Restated Enforceable Obligation Payment Schedule (A&R EOPS). Adopted by the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Oakland on January 25, 2012. It restates, amends and supplements that Enforceable Obligation Payment Schedule (EOPS) approved by the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Oakland on August 25, 2011 that provided estimated payments through December 2011. This amended EOPS is for January 1 through June 30, 2012.

Despite this grant, the owner has not made any improvements. I am concerned he was given money to improve the building which was not spent for the intended purpose.

Please force the owner, David Greenberg, to clean up this building.

Edit - in the comment above the amount given to Mr. Greenberg by the city for repairs was $40,000.

This property is an eye sore. I've driven by it for years and it seems to attract more broken windows and graffiti with each passing year. Please force the building owner to clean this property up and keep it clean.

This property has greatly deteriorated over time and especially within the last six months. It is covered in graffiti and it littered with trash and overgrown weeds.

I have reached out to the city many times in an attempt to try and have the graffiti removed and with little success. I have been told that notices have been sent, an inspector has visited, and in fact the building was painted over- for one day, before it was again covered in different colors of graffiti.

As an employee of a very respectable company close to the property, I urge you to consider reinvestigating the cleanup of this property! Graffiti breeds crime and violence and combined with the illegal activity that already occurs on a regular basis at the Greyhound Station located across from this building, this makes for a safety issue for each of my employees and potentially clients who visit our location.

Our building has already been vandalized with graffiti, our windows have been broken and littered with trash and yet we have worked hard to care for the exterior of our building in an attempt to do our part and clean up the streets of Oakland. Why has this building been allowed to deteriorate so badly, especially given public records that reveal he has been given funds to improve the property?

For safety reasons alone, I urge the city to pressure the building owner to remove the graffiti and keep the building maintained.

Area has the usual grafiti, garbage, and urine stench. Please clean up.

I work next door to this building and it is a real eye sore. It seems like every week it gets worse and worse. Honestly, I'm also concerned that if this property doesn't get cleaned up soon, who ever is vandalizing this building will think it is ok to start vandalizing the rest of the buildings on the block!

I work next door to this building and it is a building that is a major eyesore in our community. This building is continually falling apart and I am afraid there will soon be additional vandalism, crime and possibly squatters moving into the building!

OK here's the real on this location. People are squating in it. They hang out and BBQ on the roof. It is only a matter of time before this liability comes to fruition and the city and landlord are paying the cost. This area of Oakland is really starting to come together. With the new Uptown apartments and the new Gov. building across from the Grey Hound station. However, this building is a constant reminder that the city has a long ways to go and that the community cares more than the city government. Please make this a priority. It not only is dangerous, as many have mentioned before, it serves as a reminder that, as there may be a process of reporting such plights, there is very little action to correcting it.

Here is a photo from November 13th. The blight attracted a homeless person who had set up camp across the street. Please take action here.

Another photo from Nov 13 showing the view from castro street

And lastly the view from 20th Street on Nov 13, 2012.

For those following this - I called the City's code enforcement division at 238-3381. The owner was given notice on October 26th to clean the property. A re-inspection is due Nov 16th. At that time (assuming no action has been taken) the code enforcement division will issue a second notice to the owner and the clean up job will be put out to bid, the city will pay and charge back the owner. The person I spoke with at code enforcement division says that with luck this will be addressed by Christmas. The case number with code enforcement is 1203650.

I've seen someone living on the top floor of this establishment who owns a dog. I've even seen the dog using the roof as a back yard.

Once I also notice someone tagging the garage door who actually turned out to be the tenant.

The city should have conducted a follow-up inspection Nov 16. The building is in as bad a shape as ever. Although the city should have posted a notice to fix on the building, there is none to see, perhaps the residents took it down. Time to follow-up with the city.

I'm really impressed with everyone's efforts to bring this property into compliance. Council person Nancy Nadel is spearheading a city ordinance to make tagging/graffiti a misdemeanor instead of an infraction. Please contact her office to show support: nnadel@oaklandnet.com, 510-238-7003

There is no progress here, the building continues to deteriorate. There is garbage on the walk out side the building and there is virtually no area not covered by graffiti.

A partial, unprofessional and unsatisfactory job, of painting over some of the graffiti has been done. The building is still a total eyesore.

Another photo showing the current, deteriorated state of this property. Graffiti, broken windows, furniture on the roof are all visible here.

I called this morning to follow up since there has been no progress by the city. I called to follow up on case #1203650 and spoke with the inspector assigned to the case. I was told that it had been sitting on his supervisor's desk since Dec 5th and that he would investigate and let me know more once he has investigated.

Received a message from Inspector Robert Pili that the file had been lost. the case is being resubmitted and should be cleaned up in two weeks.

The city inspector drove by today and met the owner face-to-face. The owner was outside of the building painting over it when the inspector drove by. In talking with him, he found out that the owner has applied for permits (electrical, plumbing, etc). The owner has also got zoning clearance to put a 24 coffee window. He’s in process of painting over entire building.

The owner did not provide the inspector with a timeframe of when he plans to open the 24 hour coffee shop but the inspector will follow back up in a month. In addition, the inspector did inform him that the owner is responsible from the building to the edge of the sidewalk which the owner did not know so he will be cutting the grass too.

Called and spoke to the inspector today. Inspector Robert said that he gave the owner two weeks to clean up the property when he last visited on Jan 24th. He went again on Wed, Feb 6th and didn’t see any changes and has now submitted a cleanup package to the city. That means that the city will cut the grass, clean up the trash, paint over graffiti. This will be processed next Monday or Tuesday (Feb 11th or 12th) and will be submitted next Friday (Feb 15th) for bid process. That means that it will be cleaned up in about 2.5 weeks total.

651 20th st has now been hit with taggings three times in the last two weeks. This last time, attached, has been the worst.

Graffiti was painted over and the grass was cut on about Feb 28 - thanks to those who got this done.

However, the building has been tagged again on the Castro side and additional cleanup is required. Please stay after the owner's and lets see if we can get this done in less than the nine months it took to effect this last clean up - only by diligently following up within a few days of the vandalism will the taggers be discouraged and made to go away.

talked to inspector and ticket on this is now closed since trash and grass have been cleaned up and cut. will have to open a new ticket since it has been graffitied again. I called the City's code enforcement division at 238-3381. The new case number with code enforcement is 1301233. i was told that they would send out a notice of violation giving the owner 3 weeks to remove the graffiti.

Hey so actually come good news here. The owner has contracted for substantial seismic retrofits and a general upgrade of the building is currently in progress. There will still be a period of having to stay on top of the graffiti to the point where taggers get discouraged but at least we are seeing signs that the owner is actively improving the property. Hooray!

There's new large scale tagging on the Castro St side.