A new survey of vacant, blighted buildings tallies up scores of structures in neighborhoods throughout the city. The most dense concentration is in Hartford’s northside neighborhoods. In the North End’s Upper Albany, homeowner Marzorita Donaldson sees one of the 240 vacant buildings outlined in the new study every time she steps out of her house on Oakland Terrace.
“Something’s got to be done,” Donaldson said. “We’re complaining about it all the time.” Donaldson has lived on the street since 1979 and has watched the slow, steady deterioration of the home at 22 Oakland Terrace, particularly in recent years.
Some of her neighbors worry about the effect on their property values of the boarded-up structure, with rotting porch columns, holes in the roof and a crumbling foundation. There have been times when people have been spotted sleeping on the front porch. “That was a beautiful house,” Donaldson said.
“It was all fixed up inside. Now, it’s a junk.” The Oakland Terrace property is part of the survey completed earlier this year covering virtually all neighborhoods.
The most properties were in the Upper Albany, Northeast neighborhoods, both in northern half of Hartford, followed by Frog Hollow. Together, the three neighborhoods accounted for 50% of all residential and commercial properties collected in the survey. The Oakland Terrace property was on the city’s radar even before the survey.
The property has racked up $58,000 in blight violation fines, a.