Ninety days since the July 23 fire at the northwest corner of 2nd Street South and Main Avenue South and nothing has been done to clear the site of burned out walls and a boondoggle of twisted aluminum, conduit, electric wires, piles of shattered glass and scorched kitchen tools, among ordinary trash.

To add insult to injury, two shaggy men were seen furtively carrying a huge machine part from the lot toward Jones Park just last weekend. Why not get some salvage benefit since many of the doors that were blocked with plywood on July 24 have been ripped off and cast aside and are invitingly open?

New trash is accumulating in the lot as a plastic trash container with fresh trash was dumped recently along with discarded sofa cushions.

Meanwhile the east entrance to historic downtown Renton looks like a bombed out street in the Middle East. This situation brings to mind how long it took the City to do anything about the gaping hole/weed patch left between St. Charles Place and Common Grounds for months following the 2009 fire at Wells and Third.

Other municipalities, when cleanup requests are ignored, have the enabling statutes that allow the municipality to clean up nuisance properties, especially those affecting public safety like this one after putting a contractors lien on the property for the charges. Owner can’t do much with a property until the lien has been satisfied.

Will they act now or continue to do nothing?

Karl Forister,
Renton