In fight against blight, San Jose may soon hold building owners accountable
Seeking to address blight, city leaders in San Jose are considering a plan to hold owners of empty and abandoned buildings accountable.
The boarded up First Church of Christ Scientist is one, while the burned out Lawrence Hotel building is another. And there's a row of empty and graffiti-painted storefronts on El Paseo de San Antonio.
It's a difficult business environment here, but Rosies and Posies flower shop is somehow surviving.
"When the students are not here, it's absolutely deserted," said Leyla Naderjah, who has owned Rosies and Posies on the same spot for 25 years.
"I'm hoping most of these Paseo businesses will open up and we will have some neighborhoods in here. So we will have someplace safer and be a place where people want to come downtown and enjoy," Naderjah said.
That's the idea behind a new push by Councilmember Omar Torres, who represents downtown.
"I'm walking by an eyesore, unfortunately. This building has been abandoned and blighted for three years. And so if we truly want folks to invest in San Jose, they shouldn't be seeing this," Torres said as he walked by a blighted structure on East San Fernando Street.
Torres is leading an effort to bring an anti-blight measure before the city that would hold property owners' accountable for keeping buildings in unmaintained or even unsafe condition.
"We have the fines, but they are not enough. That's why, again, we're calling for this study session because if we need to increase the fines and fine property owners, then we need to do that," Torres said.
Besides the blight, Torres added that his office has received complaints about the safety of this building.
The structure on East San Fernando been exposed since a fire in 2021, and the sidewalk has been fenced off in front of it, forcing pedestrians like Abriea Buster to walk around it on the street.
"Look at the roof up there, and that happened what? Two or three years ago? Look at it, it's ugly," Buster said.
"I wish the property owners would take more pride in their property and take care of it, so it would make the downtown more desirable," Naderjah said.
If property owners did that, Naderjah added, it would be better business for everyone.
Councilmembers will be holding a study session on blight with the goal of putting an ordinance on the council agenda later this year.
