When you drive down Orchi Street, some things are hard to ignore: Broken windows. Weeds so tall they almost hide a house. Grass so high you cannot see all the stuff illegally dumped.
"They'll just stop right here in the evening and just throw stuff out. Until it got really gown up here. There's piles of shingles and all kinds of stuff through here and it hasn't been cut in years," landlord Allen Johnson said.
Johnson rents out a house next to the shabby properties.
"I have a tenant who needs to get in and out of her car right here and she never knows if snakes or rats are going to come out of the brush," Johnson said.
Johnson's tenant invited Action News 5 to investigate who is responsible for this mess in the 3500 block of Orchi near Jackson Avenue. The acres stretch all the way back to the Wolf River!
Code enforcement has been to the property. In fact, there was a letter posted on the front door that said the house is in violation of the housing code and has a two page single spaced list of all the things that are wrong with it.
We looked up the addresses in the Shelby County Assessor's system and found the name of a man who died three years ago. There was no heir but Code Enforcement has now started a title search to see if anyone is responsible for the properties:
"If we fail to get a response once that process is complete, the city will eventually demolish that property," Johnnie McKay of code enforcement said.
But demolition could take months more. Perhaps even years. In the meantime, McKay said the neighbors on Orchi will see improvements.
"We have asked that those grounds be cut and cleaned of the overgrowth, trash, and debris and anything else that's on it. I am hopeful sometime in the next seven days, neighbors will see that take place," McKay said.
It's not everything the people of Orchi want for these neglected properties, but it's a start on Taking Back Our Neighborhoods.
Click here to e-mail Joe Birch.
