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from the Ottawa Sun, Sunday March 7, 2004
Anger building over eyesore Neighbours want city owned house wrecked
By Nelly Elayoubi, Ottawa Sun

It's time the city took the wrecking ball to a rundown house that has been boarded up for a year, neighbours say. City Hall is landlord of the derelict two-storey house at 810 Norton Ave., which neighbours complain is nothing but a dump for shopping carts and garbage. The walls are cracked, the roof is sunken and a rotted, wooden sign posting the house number hangs crooked by the boarded front door. The house, at the corner of Carling and Norton avenues, sits opposite the Lincoln Fields Shopping Centre.
			"It's an eyesore. Especially when people visit from out of town, you want to be proud of the street you live on" said Viola Lasalle, who has lived on the street with her husband, Fred, for almost 35 years. The elderly couple lives across from No.810 and say it devalues their home. "I'd like to see it torn down and a beautiful park in its place," Fred LaSalle said. The house was acquired by the city in 1990 as part of the expansion of Carling Ave. It was rented out unti1 1999 and has been unoccupied and abandoned since. Les Nalezinski, the city's manager of real estate disposals, said the property has not been a city priority. "It has been sitting on the back burners," Nalezinski said.

He is in the midst of preparing a report for the corporate services and economic development committee recommending that the city demolish the house and sell the property, which be calls a "viable" piece of land. "We've tried to exhaust every opportunity of leaving the house as is, and that hasn't been sucessful, so now tbe recommendation is to demolish the property," Nalezinski said. He said the land would be available to non-profit organizations as well as the general public. Mike Rochford is another resident who demands action. He lives a couple of houses down and says the home is a "magnet for crime." "My big concern is it's a fire hazard. It'sjusta matter of time before someone breaks in torches it," he said. Another neighbour bluntly describes the house. "It's as ugly as hell," said Kamal Fasih, who lives in a home across the street. "I wish someone would take care of it" nelly.elayoubi@ott.sunpub.com

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