Did anyone else witness the fire yesterday evening on South Watts/Catherine St? The whole neighborhood was so smoke filled that it was hard to breath. The fire was in the already gutted/abandoned row homes at Watts & Catherine that you can see from Broad Street across the empty lot. Does anyone know who owns/is responsible for these? What can be done? Unless they're torn down, the crackheads are going to keep breaking in and setting them on fire. This was the 2nd abandoned house fire in the neighborhood in recent months. This is SUCH a disgrace for Philadelphia. It's amazing that those houses still stand. Can the owner/city (whoever) be taken to court for not providing a safe environment? I'm going to assume that no one owns them any longer, therefore the city needs to level them and get rid of the garbage. (Put my Wage Tax money to work!). I am so angry that these exist. Hawthorne is really becoming a nice neighborhood and then there's the biggest eye soar in the world facing Broad. I think that anyone owning an abandoned house needs to either develop it or sell it within 1 year. If you can't afford to develop it - get rid of it or knock it down. Simple as that. Who can I contact in the government about this? Any suggestions? Who is actually going to listen?

i saw this fire, but actually posted a thread about it, incorrectly, in the swcc group. don't quote me, but if you do some digging over there, i think the houses might be owned by universal.

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I think you're right about those houses being owned by Universal. Lat12, you might want to start by outlining your concerns to your council people either via letter or fax. You can fax through www.hallwatch.org. As you're probably aware, many people in my neighborhood have major concerns about the undeveloped/abandoned properties owned by Universal. I've written to council many times about my concerns...I'm not sure if anything specific has come from my efforts though...
You might want to give L & I a call too. If the buildlings are structurally unsafe, I think they need to get involved if they're not already.

My hope is that if Dranoff is going to build luxury condos on the property in front of those houses something will have to be done with them. I agree they need to go. What a disgrace.

Was it one of these houses?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lblanch...7594104162944/

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yes, although i don't believe the house that was on fire is captured in your photo. i think the house was second from the end, closer to catharine.

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I don't believe they are owned by Universal, I remember hearing that Universal was trying to acquire them to add them to their property on Broad, but were unsuccessful.

Strangely enough, nothing appears to be on the tax record for Watts Street until you get down to the 1800 block, which is way down in South Philly.

The only two properties on the 1300 block of Fitz are owned by the RDA and Joseph Smiles.

I checked out the photo....I think it was the last one - we walked by them after the fire fighters left - it's just such a mess there. Let's all pitch in and rent a bulldozer and get rid of EVERY abandoned property. Wouldn't that be great?
I'll see if I can dig around for more information. I'm just going to annoy the hell out of my councilman. I also checked the tax records but couldn't find anything. I guess that's around the 700 block of South Watts.
Any word on Dranoff building the condos? I haven't heard anything in a while. I think once they build HoB, the area is going to pop. Restauranteurs will see the benefit of the area and I really hope things will happen quicker when people are serious about spending money and developing. Universal has got to go!

Supposedly, the demolition of the 700 block of South Watts Street is about to start within weeks.

I noticed a fence around the houses on Catherine Street and a large piece of equipment parked in the lot nearby.

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Thanks for the heads up! I believe they break ground at 777 some time in mid June. Do you know if this also includes the abandoned hospital? Either way - that's GREAT for the neighborhood!

where is the abandoned hospital?