My girlfriend drinks milk, seemingly by the gallon. I needed to pick up my dry cleaning on Farmington, so we decided to stroll down Laurel Street for our errands Saturday afternoon. As we trudged across the snowy pavement in my back parking lot, a man sprinted up the driveway.

The man - early 30s, black, 5-9, 165, wearing a white and red winter hat and a dark jacket ö paused for a moment. He turned to look behind him, as if to make sure that no one pursued him. He spotted Liz and I, did not acknowledge us, and ran.

He deftly moved between two parked cars, jumped through the snow, and hopped a waist high chain-link fence. He then shimmied between two other chain-link fences; disappearing into the maze behind my condo; leaving an anonymous track in the snow.

"At least he didnât pull a gun on us," I said to Liz. "But I bet within the past 10 minutes, that man was up to no good."

We laughed, and I know she is more wary of Laurel Street now. The list of crimes committed in my back yard alone would scare many from buying homes in Hartford. Yet without homeownership, poverty and crime increase. We discussed this strutting down Laurel, until we hit Tom Sheltoâs sidewalk, the one I wrote about last week. It wasnât shoveled.

Yet he wasnât the only one who failed to clear their sidewalk after the snowstorm. Across the street, the sidewalk for the rear parking lot of 10 Marshall Street not only hadnât been shoveled, but a plow left a two-foot pile of snow to block the way. Too bad they donât outfit wheelchairs with plows.

The building is owned by Ten Marshall House Associates, from Horsham, Pennsylvania. One day, shrubbery will front that lot, hiding the dumpsters and cars from pedestrians. But for now, I would settle for a passable sidewalk.

We turned onto down Farmington Avenue, and other properties had hazardous sidewalks. Liz, a transplanted Floridian experiencing her first winter a decade, noted that it is much easier to navigate a shoveled path than an unshoveled one, like the snowy walk in front of 278 Farmington, (owned by A.R.D. Properties in South Norwalk, CT).

Which leads me to a conclusion: the city must act to punish absentee landlords. Whether the owner is in my condo association or is down the street, I tire of people abusing feudal ownership models to mine my street, this city, for profit without giving back. We must create a hostile environment for absentee landlordism.

We have to hold irresponsible investors accountable for the damage that they do: banking on properties, letting historic properties deteriorate until these homes are financially improbable to renovate, and then abandoning it for a write off.

Who is the worse criminal: the drug dealer or the slumlord? Oh, if we prosecuted slumlords like we do drug dealers.

Hartford must penalize absentee landowners while creating aggressive first-time home-buying programs. We must tax absentee owners at twice the rate of in-town landlords and homeowners, and use those proceeds to fund fiscal literacy and support programs for potential homeowners.

And while it sounds counterintuitive in this budget climate to talk about adding staff, the Licensing and Inspection needs more inspectors to police slumlords. We should fine them double when violations are found.

The city should write an ordinance that would force a landowner to either sell or renovate a property if it has been vacant a certain number of years. Perhaps we could talk with Kathleen Palm over in Pensions to discuss the creation of a partnership with a credit union to finance some of this home buying.

Look at the difference one committed homeowner like Brenda McCumber makes: This week, she put up a Christmas tree in Sheltoâs donated space. Her leadership asks us to do more.

Cracking down on absentee landowners might not stop crime in my driveway, but at least the sidewalks would be shoveled.

12/13/05

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Slumlords: Shovel Your Snow!

"Hartford must penalize absentee landowners..."