S Sutphin at Arlington

It was mentioned that this area is one of the high crime area's but I have to say, I just don't see that. How old is this information? Where did it come from? I have a corner lot here and every house on these four corners are single family and owned by the occupants. I read the police blotter on the regular and don't ever see anything involving crime within 3 to 4 blocks in the year we've lived in this house.

Another question I have is does anyone have any pictures of this area? I've done some poking around under the aluminum siding on our house so that I'll know what to expect once we go to take it off next year. Also, we have a living space on top of our front porch and I've never seen that before. Are there any other examples of this style house in Middletown? It's very unusual.

While Supthin has changed, it is still fairly safe IF you watch yourself, your property and your belongings.

Still--keep your doors and vehicles locked at night with nothing of value in sight(common sense anywhere)

 

Doesn't matter where u r--it can happen.

Our police dept. is overwhelmed with theft and heroin at this time.

Watch your supplies and property wherever you might be working in town

 

Not trying to be negative--simply precautionary and helpful(honest!)

 

jmo

Thanks John,

We have ADT monitoring and 3 cameras are going up soon on the outside. My van has an alarm as well. We both took our CCW classes a few weeks ago and are working on our list of former residences. My wife and I have both lived in a lot of places so it's taken a while to create the list but we're well armed in the house and have a very big black lab that doesn't care for people unless they are introduced.

This city is no different than most others I've lived in (Syracuse, NY, Albany, NY, Nashville, Tn and others).

The only problem we ever had was a black guy who we've never seen before stopped and harassed my wife. He asked her a bunch of questions about who she lived with and when he said "I'll bet you husband isn't home" My dog, "Mr. Bigsley" started bouncing his head off the front window and as she backed up she pulled her 38 cal out. He hauled ass and we haven't seen him since. 

The big blue brick house with 2 story tall pillars on the front was just purchased a few months ago and has a new family living there. Mine and the two others were all purchased for less than $20k. How do you not take advantage of that???

We had originally put in an offer on a house at South Main St but after signing several extensions and finding out the house was 2 generations deep in bankruptcy we decided to move on. It eventually sold but I feel we got the better deal here. It took about $2k to get things livable and a lot of our hard work pulling carpets to discover hardwood floors on the first floor. Nice compliment to the beautiful pocket door and fireplace. You just don't get this stuff anymore!

Actually, that's not true. The property is grandfathered. The only time you'll need to bring anything up to code is if you're making changes to a certain element of the house. If you have knob and tube wiring, you don't have to invest in changing it all unless (lets say your putting in a new kitchen. In that scenario, only wiring that services the kitchen needs to be brought up to code.

If you tear off those low railings on your front porch because you're convinced they can't be saved then you have to replace them with the ugly 36" high railings (instead of the typical 28" height of the older ones). Enjoy your view of your new bulky top rail...

I think the biggest mistake of old home owners is they just start tearing things out and then discover they need to comply with new codes when they replace things. It totally destroys the balance and design of the older home and you can never go back from there. Sad really.

Bad luck, Historic Guy!!!  Saunders is correct!!!  Clowntown...oops...I mean downtown...is NOT a historic district and the Historic Council does indeed regularly enforce their will upon property owners (other than their friends) there.

 

 

 

1210.03 HISTORIC COMMISSION

(e) General Powers and Duties. The Historic Commission shall have the following powers and duties, in addition to those otherwise specified:

(1) The Historic Commission shall conduct a continuous survey of all areas, places, structures, works of art, or similar objects in the City which the Commission has reason to believe are or will be eligible for designation as historic sites, landmarks or districts.

(a) Criteria. In considering any area, place, structure, work of art or similar object in the City as a historic site or historic district, the Historic Commission shall apply the following criteria:

 (4) Its embodiment of distinguishing characteristics of an architectural style or type;

 

 

 

§ 1210.08 APPLICATIONS FOR CERTIFICATES OF APPROPRIATENESS.

(a)   Any application to the Department of Planning and Economic Development or to the Division of Inspection for a demolition or building permit shall also be deemed an application for a certificate of appropriateness, and shall be forwarded to the Council on Landmarks and Historic Districts, together with copies of all detailed plans, designs, elevations, specifications, and related documents, along with a recommendation for approval or rejection from the Historic Preservation Administrator, within seven days after receipt thereof.

 

§ 1210.13 COMPLIANCE OF OTHER CITY DEPARTMENTS.

All departments, officials and public employees of the City vested with the duty or authority to issue permits or licenses shall comply with the provisions of this chapter and shall issue no permit or license for any use, building or purpose in conflict with the provisions of this chapter. Any permit or license issued in conflict with the provisions of this chapter shall be null and void and of no effect whatever.

 

[Don't think that any permit or permission from any other department can save you from the wrath of these people!!!  Re-read the above!!!]

 

§ 1210.21 CONFLICTS OF LAW.

Where a provision of this chapter is found to be in conflict with a provision in any other law, the provision that establishes the higher standard shall prevail.

 

[HHG:  Trust me!!!  No matter what any building code or any other "provision in any other law" says, the demands of the Historic Nazis will be the higher (and more expensive) standard!!!]

 

§ 1210.99 PENALTY; EQUITABLE REMEDIES.

(a) Whoever violates or fails to comply with any of the provisions of this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree and shall be fined not more than seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00) or imprisoned not more than 90 days, or both. A separate offense shall be deemed committed each day during or on which a violation or noncompliance occurs or continues.

 

 

 

 

Sure do. Can't post pictures from my phone but you can see some of the floors on my Facebook page. My contact info is also there.