Scranton City Council passed an ordinance that they claim is meant to combat blight in Scranton. Problems arise once you extend the list of offenses beyond the violations that have been reported thus far. We are correctly told that penalties range from $50 to $1,000. Obviously, that does not sound like a small chunk of change. So, what is covered under this “quality of life” ordinance and inevitable ticketing?
First of all, until I met a “zoning officer,” I didn’t even know what one was. To be frank, despite the fact that I am Dave, I am still unaware if I met one. Thus my personal story begins. It was 8:00 in the morning and I had just returned home from my third-ish shift job. I heard a knock at the door. Confused, I answered the door. I wouldn’t typically answer the door, as it is my parent’s house and it would be a rarity for anyone to come there for me, but, alas, I answered anyway. I opened the door to a short-haired (nearly bald) man with a blank T-shirt and jeans who immediately started barking in my face. He didn’t actually bark, to be honest, but he might as well have.
City resident Ted Priestash had planned to be out of town on a recent Tuesday and Wednesday, the latter day when his trash was scheduled to be picked up. Before leaving for work that Monday, he took his cans to the curb, but when he returned home he found a notice taped to his door notifying him of what the city called his “Final Warning.”