Identifying them is another matter
With the approval of the mayor, the Code Enforcement Task Force has recently established a unit dedicated to investigating illegal apartments.
However, the only way illegal apartments can be identified and investigated meaningfully in this city filled with them is by going street to street and investigating each and every property.
There is the likelihood that if such an effort was made, and all the city’s residential properties systematically investigated for zoning improprieties, that as many as 500-1000 illegal apartments would be identified.
What would this do?
It could change the assessing process for buildings wherever illegal units are identified by hundreds of thousands of dollars each Tim one was discovered
.
Citywide, the difference could add up to millions and millions of dollars in unassisted value being captured for the tax rolls.
This new task force is dead on arrival if it is going to rely on tips and tenant complaints or if it is going to count mailboxes of electrical service boxes.
This is not the way an investigation accomplishes anything.
We urge the Code Enforcement Task Force, and the mayor, to consider a citywide investigation of every building and property on every street.
A journey of one thousand miles beings with the first step.
Check out one or two streets and go from there.