ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -
A group of residents fed up with unaddressed code enforcement issues in Atlanta has created a Facebook page to draw attention to blighted properties.
The page, titled "Atlanta Code Enforcement Problems," says it is "an unofficial page featuring photos and info about the ongoing code enforcement and absentee property owner problems in the city of Atlanta, GA."
Nia Knowles, one of the residents behind the page, lives and works near blighted properties in southwest Atlanta.
"It's not just happening in southwest Atlanta and not just happening in the West End," Knowles said.
Knowles said it's a problem all over the city and for years, code enforcement has done very little to eliminate the eyesores.
"If we have something as obvious as this and have been on the books for a year or two years, what do we say about those that are burnouts or are vacant and have homeless people living in them?" Knowles asked.
Knowles and other residents behind the Facebook page are asking Atlantans to expose similar problems in their neighborhoods. So CBS Atlanta News took their concerns straight to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
"My response is that's terrific. I mean, we are in the age of social media and direct community engagement and what I have to do is just respond," Reed said.
Reed said his staff has erased a 5,000-case backlog, plus he moved code enforcement into the police department to improve response time.
"I think that the move into the Atlanta Police Department was also important because it has multiplied the number of eyes that move around our city and can respond to blight," Reed said.
Meanwhile, residents believe that their call for action on Facebook is the best way to empower themselves. It's their hope that it will help clean up the community and keep their property values from plummeting.
"We as a neighborhood, we're volunteering to work with them through that process. We're not just calling and complaining," Knowles said. "I'm offering services; let me work with you freely to help you find these people because I can't live with this anymore."
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