Mount Vernon Mayor, Residents At Odds Over Building Removal
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A decaying building is testing the patience of residents who want the abandoned wreck removed.
The building has historical status but residents told CBS 2's Steve Langford on Monday that it has become a monument to urban decay.
"It's in imminent danger of collapsing. It's bulging on one side, on the other side is a gaping hole. I don't even know what's holding it up," Deborah Viruet said.
Viruet lives next door the building. She said that the eyesore has become a veritable animal farm.
"Skunks, raccoons, feral cats, possums ... it's like the wild kingdom," she said.
Neighbors complained that they have been trying to get the building torn down for more than a decade, but Mount Vernon Mayor Ernest Davis said that it isn't his problem.
"It's not the city's responsibility to demolish the house, let's get that straight," he said.
Mayor Davis said that he is not trying to delay the demolition process but that the responsibility lies in the hands of the building's owner.
While it remains unclear who the property belongs to, the owner will eventually be stuck with a $60,000 demolition bill.
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