A Picture worth $275 an hour...
Like many of my peers, I have fallen down the dark pit of midterms over the past two weeks. That, along with the time demands of the ongoing budget process, are what I present as excuses for my extended hiatus from blogging. With that said, let’s touch on a few topics of interest to the campus area.
At the Sept. 25 council meeting, I designed and introduced a new tool to enhance tenants’ rights, which I am calling the Photo Ordinance. This new provision would “require landlords to obtain, maintain, and provide or make available, upon request, photographic evidence of damage, waste or neglect being charged against a tenant’s security deposit.” Since I took my chair as the 8th district representative, I have seen several cases in which unscrupulous landlords have charged tenants for items that don’t fit the scale of the damage or never existed in the first place. The end result is that tenants lose a portion -- or in some cases all -- of their security deposit. This ordinance ensures that some degree of accountability will be placed on these unfair charges which often fall on the backs of low-income, check-to-check students and families.
The proposal also stands to help landlords in the long run. Landlords can find themselves in court with a fraudulent tenant claiming that the charges pressed against them were false. This ordinance will make sure that landlords have the proof necessary to make sure that dishonest tenants (claiming innocence when they did, in fact, do harm to their unit) will themselves be held accountable for damage they caused. Earlier last week, the Daily Cardinal brought up the important question of the possible burden this could place on landlords with regards to the cost of cameras/storage systems. I take this point very seriously due to the large group of good operators we have in our city. I believe that the savings of court cases deterred by this ordinance will, in the long run, more than cover the costs of the tools needed for its enforcement.
To address the concern that very little time would be provided to take and document the needed pictures, I provide the case of the massive, twelve story Embassy Apartment building on University Avenue. In a recent conversation I had with Mr. Orosz, the owner of the property, he described his system of documenting damage done to his units. He is, as far as I can tell, already in full compliance with the Photo Ordinance. He also brought up a case in which the photos he took of a damaged property actually saved him from going to court. If a twelve-story apartment building can implement this procedure during the 48-hours of move-out and move-in, any landlord can.
The ordinance should appear on the Housing Committee’s agenda for November 7th. I’m planning to meet with representatives of various student, apartment, neighborhood, and landlord associations before then. I hope that any suggestions, be it from my constituents or colleagues on the council, be sent to me so we can make amendments if necessary.
Moving on. Several major 8th district construction projects have grabbed the media’s attention recently. Whether it is the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery near Union South or the Hillel redevelopment on Langdon St. (both of which are phenomenal projects),
our area will see a bunch of cranes over the next three years. While these projects, once they begin construction, may provide headaches in the form of traffic and noise, both developments will be great assets for years to come.
Students may have noticed the addition of some wonderfully-bright pedestrian scale lighting in Concrete Park (the space between Statesider and Towers). I hope that the dramatically increased visibility afforded by the lights will help residents get home safely and deter street-level crime. If you know of an area that you think could benefit from increased lighting, please let me know! My advocating for our lighting to alders and traffic engineering will only be effective if I know where you think it needs to be aimed!
That’s it for now. As usual, feel free to stop by my “Alder Hours” (every Monday from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and every first Thursday from 5 to 6:15 p.m. at Lakefront on Langdon), e-mail at district8@cityofmadison.com, or call (608) 322-6358 (use area code) to have a chat.
