Rubble pile of burned Uptown apartment causing problems six months after fire, neighbors say
MINNEAPOLIS -- Six months after a fire burned down a vacant apartment building on Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis, the massive pile of rubble remains. Neighbors and businesses say the eyesore is impacting their daily lives.
It's not the smell of fresh pizza raising a stink in the neighborhood. It's the pile of rubble that sits next door to the Leaning Tower of Pizza.
"There's nobody on my patio right now because who wants to sit next to a garbage dump?" said James Groethe, who owns the Leaning Tower of Pizza restaurant.
A fire burned down the vacant apartment building in December. The property owner hired a contractor to demolish the building in April, but clean-up hasn't happened, despite the city issuing orders and citations.
"I've been cited for graffiti on my building and given 30 days to take care of it, but nobody's been taking care of this for six months now," Groethe sid.
He added that the pile attracts animals, graffiti, and trash dumping, and he's worried that it could ignite once again.
Samuel Churchill knows firsthand because he lives next door to the pile.
"We got a mice problem because that place was full of mice and when it burned down, they decided to relocate to our building," he said.
WCCO could not get ahold of the property owner Sunday, but the city says they plan to intervene and hire their own contractor to clean it up. It's a process they say will take several weeks. The city says they didn't expect the delay because the property owner had hired a contractor.
"To the landlord and people who had this place, come clean up your mess," Churchill said.
