Troy

When Lucille Spencer looks out her back windows, she grimaces at the view: three vacant homes damaged by a suspicious January fire.

The middle building at 809 Second Ave. is especially bad. Its roof is missing entirely, and its blackened second floor is a charred ruin. The home is beyond saving, clearly.

But it and the neighboring homes stand, and stand, and stand.

"When is the city going to demolish them?" Spencer asked.

Many Lansingburgh residents are asking the same question, and not just about the houses along Second Avenue. The neighborhood has been hit by more than a dozen suspected arsons since last summer, leaving it peppered with fire-damaged buildings that the city will not raze.

"It's a disgrace," said a woman who requested anonymity and lives across from 705 Third Ave., which was badly damaged by a suspicious fire in August. "It's embarrassing to the neighborhood, to taxpayers."

The answer from Troy Mayor Lou Rosamilia echoes what residents were told recently after frozen pipes left two Lansingburgh families without running water for 10 days: Fixing the problem, the mayor says, is a property-owner responsibility, unless the homes present an immediate danger.

"I'll grant you that they're an eyesore and a nuisance," Rosamilia told me Wednesday. "But if we take them down, that's going to fall on the backs of taxpayers."

I guess we can give Rosamilia credit for consistency, at least.

The mayor said the city would rather push property owners to deal with the problem while buildings are still standing rather than try to recover demolition costs. That saves it from being stuck with demolition bills that can top $30,000.

"We're not sitting here idle and not doing anything," Rosamilia said. "We're trying to alleviate the situation."

Other cities handle fire-damaged properties differently. Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy, for example, has adopted a policy of aggressively razing homes ruined by fire, including the two Jay Street apartment buildings ravaged by a fatal blaze two weeks ago.

Albany does the same: The city demolished a house at 234 Delaware Ave. just hours after it burned Monday night.

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"Other cities are taking action," said Jim Gordon, the City Council member for Lansingburgh. "But here in Troy, we have buildings that are sitting half-burned and ready to collapse, and they're not doing anything about it."

Gordon, a Republican, this week sent Rosamilia, a Democrat, a letter urging action on the blight. He noted the council earmarked $1 million for demolitions last year and much of the money hasn't been spent.

It's another example, Gordon said, of Rosamilia sitting on his hands.

I should note that Gordon is a likely mayoral candidate. He told me a run is "under serious consideration."

I spent a few hours Tuesday driving Lansingburgh's avenues. Burned houses aren't difficult to spot. I saw five that looked to be immediate candidates for demolition, and several others that were fire-damaged but perhaps salvageable.

The houses do nothing for the neighborhood's appearance, and I can't help but wonder whether Troy officials would allow such eyesores in a wealthier area.

Not surprisingly, neighbors of badly damaged houses want them gone — and fast.

"This one seems to get worse every day," said Bob McCafferty about 809 Second Ave., as ashes from the burned house fluttered in the wind. "It's dangerous."

Here's one piece of good news: Ralph Barone, owner of the house, said he's been speaking to demolition contractors as he waits for insurance money.

He isn't sure when the building will be razed, but he promised it would be taken down.

And the two buildings adjacent to 809 Second?

Barone doesn't own those, so they could stand for awhile.

The bigger-picture concern is about property values, as lingering burned-out houses do little to impress potential home buyers. Declining values, in turn, are a long-term threat to the city's budget — meaning Rosamilia's policy is arguably penny-wise but probably pound-foolish.

Not to mention difficult for existing taxpayers.

"It's not a good sight when you wake up in the morning," Spencer said of the Second Avenue blight. "It's right outside my kitchen window."

On Wednesday, we learned that a federal grand jury is investigating the city's demolition of buildings on King Street and elsewhere. The King Street situation is complicated, but the gist is that the city quickly knocked down an historic, long-vacant and privately owned downtown building after arbitrarily declaring it a danger.

For whatever reason, a King Street eyesore couldn't stand.

I guess Lansingburgh doesn't matter as much.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5442 • @chris_churchill