BofA At Center Of Another Public Nuisance; Burned Out, Dilapidated Pre-F'closure Brownstone Sinks Quality Of Life On One Harlem Block

In New York City, WNBC-TV Channel 4 reports:

• Neighbors who live on one Harlem block are growing angrier each day they are forced to look at a burned out, dilapidated building on their block. Residents are upset, they say, because Bank of America took over the premises at 465 W. 147th St. in foreclosure proceedings started in March 2008, and despite promises to maintain the property, it has been left to rot.



• “I’ve been here since 2000 and in the last two or three years it’s just really spiraled downhill,” said Devaughn Johnson, who lives in the neighborhood. The bank says it hasn't had the legal ability to take full ownership of the property to fix the eyesore.



• “The building remains in pre-foreclosure status,” said Rick Simon, spokesman for Bank of America. He explained that the foreclosure has not been completed and, until recently, the bank had no legal right to enter the property and remove squatters.



• NBC New York has learned that police have been called to the address 19 times in the last year. The police calls come after the city had two of the units in the building sealed off and listed as “public nuisance” in September 2010.

For more, see Harlem Neighbors Claim Foreclosed Building Left to Rot (Residents are angry at an eyesore controlled by a bank).

For story update, see Signs of Progress at Blighted Harlem Brownstone (Less than a day after NBC New York's report on the dilapidated building, city workers and bank representatives are responding).