Forced Eviction

It occurred to me that if my house
was demolished I would still have
to pay the mortgage and taxes on
the property since I would still own
the property. What a scam that would
be.

Forced Eviction & Human Rights

What is forced eviction?
The practice of forced eviction
involves the involuntary removal
of persons from their homes or
land either directly or indirectly
attributable to the State. Forced
evictions can always be attributed
directly or indirectly to
specific decisions, legislation
or policies of States or the
failure of States to intervene
to halt forced evictions by
third parties.

There is an element of "force"
or coercion involved in forced
eviction. Forced eviction often
involves the irreparable demolition
of homes of affected persons, sometimes
as a form of punishment for political
or other activities.

Forced evictions can be carried out,
sanctioned, demanded, proposed,
initiated, or tolerated by a number of
actors, including national governments
local and municipal governments,
occupational authorities, developers,
planners, landlords (public and private),
property speculators and international
financial institutions and other agencies.
Importantly, the ultimate legal
responsibility for preventing forced
evictions, however, always rests
with Governments, no matter which
actors are the driving force behind
a particular eviction.

Info. from Fact Sheet NO.25, Forced
Evictions and Human Rights; from
the Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights.

http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu6/2/fs25.htm

Don't forget to read my earlier postS,
"Legal Description of Property & PIN";
"My letter to editor -Unfair Advantage"
"It's Personal" , Feb. 12, 2008

Legal Desciption of Property & PIN

The legal description of property
is the description recognized by law
that is sufficient to locate and
identify property. The legal
description is not the address of the
building. The address of a property
may change but the legal description
usually will not. The government
will always know where it will be
collecting its taxes. So it has to
know where to find our property
regardless of an address change on
the property. The legal description
ensures that an address change on a
property won't lose or hide a property
from the government.

Legal description can be found on
the deed, city tax assessment and also
the Agreement of Purchase and Sale.
The legal description of my property,
2925 Riverside Drive East is,
PT LT 99 CON 1
SANDWICH EAST
PTS 1, 3, 4
12R11736, S/T
R1459252,WINDSOR

The Property Identification
Number (PIN) is a unique
number assigned to every
parcel of land in Ontario. The
PIN will identify the owner (s)
of a property and other info.
via title search and other land
related searches. The 'active'
PIN for my property is, 01090-
0222 (LR).

The legal description for
EWCC/EWCP's property, 2929
Riverside Drive East is
PT LT 99 CON 1
SANDWICH EAST
PT 2,
12R11736; T/W
R1189505;
WINDSOR.
The'active' PIN is,
01090-0221(LR)

The legal description & PIN shows
that the semi-detached properties
are different lots.

I was told that all the properties
had been purchased by EWCC/EWCP.
But now I am not so certain of
that. My other Riverside Drive
neighbour may not have sold or have
but haven't moved yet. The family
is still there.

Enwin Utilities was by this morning
to shut off the power at the house
behind me, 220 Cadillac Street. It's
the last house on Cadillac Street to
be demolished.

Oh by the way, my property taxes are
paid weekly.

My letter to editor - Unfair Advantage

Click on image to enlarge.

My letter to the editor
was published in the
Windsor Star April 26, 2007.

Expropriation vs Demolition

If the city approved a demolition
permit for 2929 Riverside Drive
East, EWCC/EWCP's semi-detached,
then not only would the corporation
make out like a bandit because it
only had to pay for half the
building to get a demolition permit
for the demolition of the whole
building, but the city wouldn't have
to worry about any future cost of expropriating
my semi-detached property, 2925 Riverside
Drive East. I think I know how
that would work, 2925 "NO SUCH
ADDRESS IN CIS"

And to think a year ago I thought
expropriation was the worse
case senario.

Microsoft Virtual Earth - The Seagrave Building

Want to see the Seagrave
building before it's
demise? Go to Microsoft
Virtual Earth and type in
the search box, 961
Walker Road Windsor
Ontario Canada. You'll
see a satellite image of
the Seagrave building.
Although the satellite
image is old, it's still
pretty cool to see.
Try 963 Walker too. And
take look see at 2929 & 2925
Riverside Drive East.

If you want to know about the document
I've posted, see my earlier post below.
Click on image to enlarge


Microsoft Virtual Earth address
http://maps.live.com/

On February 5, 2008, I faxed a letter
of the same date to the city's Building
department manager, Mr. Bill Jean. Shortly
after I sent the fax, I received by fax
from the city's building department a
"REQUEST FOR INFORMATION" attachment,
from a city employee, that was not Mr. Jean.
The request had nothing to do with my
letter. About a minute or so later, I
received another "REQUEST FOR INFORMATION"
that was in regards to my letter.
A cover letter indicated that the wrong
attachment had been sent the first time.

After reading the contents, I decided
to keep the document rather than throw
it away. At the time, it seemed similar
to me

Until the Seagrave story, I had forgotten
all about the document. It was the address
of 933 Walker road indicated in the
earlier story about the Seagrave demolition,
that made me think of the document. When
I checked the address numbers indicated in
the document. Neither address numbers were
933. So I was really surprised today to turn
to the letters to the editor section
of the Windsor Star to see a picture of the
demolished Seagrave building,with the few bricks
still standing, with white painted on
address number of 961. Now that address
number was in the document. Click on
document to enlarge. See letter below.


City heritage at risk at
Lettert
Published: Friday, April 18, 2008

The historic Seagrave Building is lost ... perhaps it's time to save the Windsor Heritage Committee itself from "demolition."

I have served on the Windsor Heritage Committee for 10 years, most of those in the capacity of chair. I'm proud to be associated with the achievements the WHC has made toward protecting our city's heritage. This has included the recent preservation of the Holy Rosary Convent and John Campbell school buildings and multiple other property designations under the Ontario Heritage Act. We have been grateful for the strong heritage awareness and support exhibited by the current city council for these initiatives. As well, the committee has carried on a long tradition of annual local heritage celebration through community recognition awards, Heritage Highlights video clips, heritage property funding, youth colouring contests and many other projects. Indeed, the vibrancy of Windsor's heritage advocacy was recognized in 2005 as a provincial standout by the Ontario Heritage Trust.

Beyond the significant efforts by a group of volunteer members, the lifeblood of the WHC has traditionally been the dedicated and professional service of the heritage planner, a full- time city staff member who would conduct our research, guide the structure of our motions, police other city departments with respect to heritage priorities and otherwise co-ordinate all aspects of WHC activities. It is a vital and indispensable role in the heritage life of our city. Windsorites owe a debt of gratitude to Nancy Morand who served with distinction in this capacity for many years until her retirement mid last year.
REDUCED TO RUBBLE: Demolition crews dismantle an old brick building in the 900 block of Walker Road last Thursday. The building reportedly housed Seagraves Fire Engine manufacturing plant.View Larger Image View Larger Image
REDUCED TO RUBBLE: Demolition crews dismantle an old brick building in the 900 block of Walker Road last Thursday. The building reportedly housed Seagraves Fire Engine manufacturing plant.

It's with Nancy's departure that our serious problems began. We expected that her qualified replacement would be hired in advance for training and a seamless transition prior to her leaving.

Instead, without consultation with us, an arbitrary decision was made by senior administration not to replace the position, ostensibly, for reasons of cost efficiency. In the void left behind, we now have heritage chaos. Murky interdepartmental and personal agendas prevail and we've seen a silly tug-of-war over the heritage mandate between planning and cultural affairs departments.

As a result, we fail to receive adequate support from either. The careful protocols put in place by Nancy to flag heritage interests among building and planning departments applications has broken down and big things are falling through the cracks. Our modest operating budget has been cut to one-third its traditional level. Heritage Week in Windsor was effectively cancelled this year because no one could get authorization to reproduce a few hundred copies of the colouring contest form to distribute to the schools and the community heritage recognition awards were hijacked by others. Despite this, we try to carry on. I laud the efforts of our Doors Open subcommittee dedicated to bringing back this popular program notwithstanding lacklustre financial and material support from the city. But even our recent initiatives toward saving the prominent Low-Martin House have been stymied by needless procedural wrangling evident of a city administration without an appropriate structure for heritage administration.
attention of the CAO and other senior administration staff without the courtesy of a reply. We have also appealed to our councillors without effect.

It's time for council and the mayor to review this matter "in the full light of day." Without it, it's only a matter of time before another Seagrave building falls to a bulldozer and the Windsor Heritage Committee is damaged beyond repair.

GREGORY HEIL
Chair, Windsor Heritage Committee

To see picture
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/letters/story.html?id=f247f53d-9060-456a-a41a-03361fce0439&k=84698