NEW ORLEANS — The city of New Orleans has imposed a heavy fine on the owner of the blighted Plaza Tower in the Central Business District.
The city’s blight czar, Code Enforcement Director Thomas Mulligan told WWL-TV, said the fine was levied against businessman Joe Jaeger after an administrative hearing over falling debris in May.
“We had to close roads when pieces started falling off that building,” Mulligan said. “We had some lost parking meter revenue, and we held a hearing on Plaza Tower today and got $180,000 worth of costs essentially at a hearing imposed against that property.”
The fine comes as the city is cracking down on blighted and abandoned buildings.
“That is something the city has never done before, go after indirect costs related to blight,” Mulligan said. “But we said we think it’s important. We were going to try to do it for the first time and we were successful, today.”
The city has now come out with the “Dirty Dozen,” a list of the most egregious blighted properties in the city.
The list includes Plaza Tower, the old Lindy Boggs in Mid-City, Parc Fontaine Apartments in Algiers, and a 20-acre blighted site on Bundy Road in New Orleans East.
Kirk Haynes lives around the corner from the property.
“Between the trash and the rodents and just the other things that goes with it, it’s always been like that, and it affected the neighborhood,” Haynes said. “Obviously, you see people go in there every day, dumping and stuff.”
Aaron Jordan owns a printing business down the street from a large, blighted office building on Plaza Drive.
He’s also with the Greater New Orleans East Business Alliance.
“If we want to attract more businesses, we have to get rid of this blight and behind me, this building here is one of the buildings we’ve been trying to fight and have the owners something with,” Jordan said.
Mulligan says he’s using new stricter laws and a $10 million budget boost to take a bigger bite out of blight.
According to the city, Code Enforcement has demolished nearly 100 blighted and abandoned properties so far this year. That’s a 30-perent increase over the same time last year.
“An empty lot is not the ultimate solution; it is better and safer than a dangerous home that could fall on somebody or pose risk or be used for criminal activity,” Mulligan said.
Mulligan is asking residents to support a charter change amendment on October 14 ballot, that calls for the creation of a Department of Code Enforcement.
“There really hasn’t been and still isn’t a Department of Code Enforcement since its inception,” Mulligan said. “I’ve seen a lot of different things that will help us fight blight and improve enforcement and I think this is the single most important step we could take as a city. I would encourage them to vote yes on that charter change. Establish the Department of Code Enforcement.”
Back to Plaza Tower, another hearing will be held on October 4, to determine whether the skyscraper’s owner should pay a $500 per day fine because of the poor condition of the building.
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