2921, 2929 and 2933 El Camino are properties that front on El Camino at Kent or on Kent between El Camino and Jonalan. The building on the corner has been boarded up and condemned for quite a while, as you may have read in our posts back in 2016 about whether the County is up to the job of cleaning up blighted neighborhoods and 2017 about 2933 El Camino’s sorry story and a hopeful sign from over a year ago that something was on the verge of happening.

Savvy local residents know it’s not easy to get County Code Enforcement program — under-funded, spotty and politicized as it is — to do its job. In the normal flow of things, residents have become accustomed to a snail’s pace of progress. Still, it doesn’t really matter to neighbors whether that’s because law enforcement aspects cry out for meticulous caution, or because the backlog of shabby properties is immense compared to the ability of staff to deal with it, or because of some other reason. If a place looks like a dump, is full of trash and covered with graffiti, and isn’t exactly what nearby property sellers was influencing the value of their properties, well…people want it dealt with now, not later. They want to see progress.

To better understand the situation, keep in mind that the problems are happening at THREE adjacent properties, which may or not be in separate ownership. 2921 has been unoccupied for about a year. Someone has been camping in the shrubbery at the rear of the building the electrical cord and water hose strung between the health clinic at 2929 and the shrubbery at 2921 are currently not visible during daylight hours. 2929 is occupied but is going through foreclosure and evictions by the bank. 2933 has been unoccupied for at least six years. It was partially demolished (there is a demolition permit) last Spring and the rest of the building was boarded up.

Is it time to prepare to applaud the County? The latest communiqué from County Code Enforcement to the neighborhood indicates they have been rattling some cages and are urging the DA to get on with it. The property owner, who has a demolition permit, has been advised that Code Enforcement staff are losing patience due to constantly reminding the owner to take care of business. Code enforcement has shifted to monitoring the site weekly and has urged the Sheriff to do likewise {hint: send in a graffiti abatement team}. What had been a growing encampment in the ‘backyard’ of 2929 and 2933 seems to have been almost eliminated, but there is still a storage cabinet, a bicycle and some other stuff left to clear out. This is good news because the neighbors have suffered long enough. One would hope that the situation will be totally corrected very soon and won’t reoccur.