2 Children Shocked By Transformer

Musta been Optimus Prime.

Transformers: they are more than meets the eye.

They had four transformers in a police lineup and the one on the lower left was positively identified by one of the children...



Bastard transformer. I hope they fry him.

Re: 2 Children Shocked By Transformer

Yesterday, the city gave notice the apartment complex is being shut down, due to repeated violations. The residents were given something close to a week to get out.

Do the residents have responsibility for maintenance and public safety?

I guess it depends on the ownership structure but it seems harsh to throw a bunch of tenants out for breaches by an owner.

The city felt the residents will be safer away from there. I don't know if assistance was offered them, but will look to find out this evening.

Hell yes. Everybody's safer living under a bridge, and think of the new people they get to meet.

March 29, 2007, 11:53AM
Residents upset at city's lack of notice, back crackdown


By ANNE MARIE KILDAY and MATT STILES
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
MAYOR Bill White's crackdown on "slum landlords" has residents of the Carter's Grove Apartments scurrying to move out by Sunday.

"It's really hard to move in that period of time," said Denise Michelle Lott, 47, who needs an affordable three-bedroom unit for herself, her two daughters and her 12-year-old son. She has checked several complexes but has yet to find a place.

In an unprecedented action, the city revoked Carter's Grove's "certificate of occupancy" over the weekend and notified residents Tuesday that they must move out by Sunday.

"The city of Houston is cracking down on slum landlords, people who don't treat our residents with dignity and respect. They endanger the health of the whole community," White said Wednesday. "There couldn't be a better example of where this kind of action is needed than at the Carter's Grove Apartments."

Residents of the apartments said they were initially upset at the short notice but now are resigned to relocating. And they won't miss the place.

Alice Clark 39, who has lived there for eight months, said she spent the first four months in her first-floor unit mopping up the bathroom every time her upstairs neighbor showered.

"They would shower, and I would mop," Clark said.

Clark said she "suspected" the city might take action after two children were shocked and burned by an unlocked electrical transformer last month. The children survived.

"But the manager kept telling us the city couldn't do anything to close us down," Clark said.

With the help of city employees and volunteers, Clark has applied for another apartment nearby and begun taking pictures off walls and gathering moving boxes.

She just wants to be sure that her 16-year old son, a junior who is a football player and "good student," will be able to continue at Waltrip High School.

Other tenants had help from friends and family in starting their moves Wednesday afternoon. Several pickups were loaded with beds and plants. Fliers advertising other apartment "specials" were tucked under windshield wipers of vehicles in the parking lot.

Monique Bennet, who said she moved in to the complex at 3405 N. Shepherd just three months ago, complained that tenants usually get 30 days' notice when they are required to move. "It's really terrible they gave people just a few days' notice. I regret I moved here in the first place. It's not a safe place," Bennet said.

Lott said she is having trouble finding a large enough apartment near Durham Elementary, where her son attends school. He has a learning disability.

Juan Chavez, the city's site coordinator for emergency-housing-relocation services, said that the city worked out an agreement with HISD that will permit children to remain at their current schools through this school year.

Lott, who has lived at the apartments for about one year, said she hasn't had hot water for several days. She said she has experienced repeated electrical problems, including the "smell" of an electrical fire from her clothes dryer.

The mayor said problems at the complex included exposed electrical wiring, an unsecured electrical transformer, wiring from one apartment to another, failure to comply with orders to repair electrical systems, raw sewage in the parking lot draining into the city's storm sewers, an inadequate roof, termite infestation, leaking natural gas, and numerous plumbing-code violations, including a lack of hot water in many of the apartments.

"When people don't take care of properties like this, it's degrading for the people who live there, and it creates unsafe conditions that also result in there being a magnet for crime," White said.

Houston police officer David Eagan said the city notified the owners in January about all the violations, but issued no citations, to allow time for the problems to be fixed. When inspectors found the problems had not been fixed, the citations were then issued.

The city's decision to close the complex "was a culmination of factors ?- the number of citations, the owner's refusal to address repeated violations and the number of calls for police service there," said Andrew Icken, deputy director of the Public Works & Engineering Department.

Conditions at the apartments were "the worst health hazards I have ever seen," said city inspector Tony Balay.

Max Saunders, a spokesman for the owner, Sidney Pinter, of Greenfield, N.Y., said the city had acted unfairly by not allowing management sufficient time to correct problems.

"There's such thing as due process in the United States," Saunders said. "This is un-American."

Safety of residents wasn't the primary factor in the decision to close the property, he suggested.

"I'm a million percent convinced that this was spearheaded from pressure from the city, based on gentrification," Saunders said. "They want the poor people out of the neighborhood."

The city issued the property a certificate of occupancy in 2003, which meant the complex met the "life safety" portions of the city code.

"Everything was checked, apartment by apartment," Saunders said.

White said the city has cited the complex 106 times for code violations and the Police Department another 80. The Fire Department has issued 35 violation notices.

Last year, police responded to 296 calls at the apartments and 394 in 2005.

Chronicle reporter Mike Snyder contributed to this report.

City assists as residents leave unsafe apartments


By ANNE MARIE KILDAY
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
If there is anything worse than moving, it is moving in the rain.

Residents of the Carter's Grove Apartments began packing their furniture and personal belongings into pickups and U-Haul trailers Saturday, as a light rain fell on the dilapidated apartment complex shuttered by the city of Houston.

Citing more than 200 health and safety violations that ranged from unsafe electrical wiring and leaky gas lines to raw sewage draining into the parking lot, the city took the unprecedented step last week of revoking the building's certificate of occupancy.

Denise Michelle Lott was carefully spraying insecticide into her moving boxes Saturday so that she would not bring unwanted roaches from her apartment at Carter's Grove to her new three-bedroom home at the Creekwood Apartments a few miles away.

Lott said she was "exhausted and stressed out" by the short time she had to find a new apartment.


'Learned to make do'
Despite the persistent roaches, the recent lack of hot water, and a "smell" of electrical wiring problems at Carter's Grove, Lott said she had learned "to make do."

But she was clearly stressed and emotional.

"God made the world in seven days, but we have five days to move," Lott said. "I'm angry, I'm tired, and I'm frustrated."

Lott is particularly upset that her new apartment does not have a washer-dryer hook-up, so she will have to use a laundry room.

But her children ?- Robert Hall, 12, Keirre Hall, 14, and Torlena Tassain 18 ?- did not seem terribly distraught over having to give up their dog, Bandit, a mixed-terrier, as well as two cats and a tiny kitten. Lott said she does not have the money for the pet deposits.

The entire family is already arguing about who will get the first long, hot bath at their new home.

"None of us have had a hot bath for days. They just cut off the gas without telling us," Lott said.

Conditions at the complex drew the city of Houston's attention after repeated citations of municipal building codes. Houston police noticed during a disturbance call that raw sewage was draining into the parking lot. Then, two young children were shocked while playing with an unlocked electricity transformer on the grounds.

"When people don't take care of properties like this, it's degrading for the people who live there, and it creates unsafe conditions that also result in there being a magnet for crime," Mayor Bill White said.


Challenging the city
The apartments are owned by Sidney Pinter, of Greenfield, N.Y., who is seeking a temporary injunction to block the city's revocation order. A hearing on that request is scheduled for Monday.

Juan Chavez, the site coordinator for the relocation project, was at the complex early Saturday to direct the work of city employees and volunteers who helped residents find new apartments. The city brought in two large trash bins for residents to throw away unwanted items.

"There is some concern that some of the residents may have to stay here until Monday or Tuesday," Chavez said. "We are making every effort to see if we can help (other) apartment managers expedite things."

Chavez said that because "some" of the residents at Carter's Grove are illegal immigrants, they were unwilling to accept the city's offers of assistance on lease deposits or vouchers for moving trailers or trucks.

A few miles away from the complex, Lott walked through her new apartment, which has a spacious living room and a separate dining room.

"Sometimes, things happen for a reason," she said with a small smile. "It's a lot better."

they dont mean that they mean th other transformers