Neighbors Are Left With A Mess [Tampa Bay Area]
Robert Ramirez awoke in the middle of the night to clanging metal and a rumbling moving truck in the back yard next door.
Evicted neighbors loaded their belongings and fled the two-story stucco home. They left doors and windows open, and trash and debris strewn across the lawn. It has been eight weeks, and no one has shown up to take care of it.
“This used to be a really nice, close-knit community,” Ramirez said, standing on his dark green lawn framed by lush plants. “Now, with that house here, there’s no way I could sell my house. I’m stuck, and my property value is falling.”
During the worst wave of foreclosures in U.S. history, the Riverview subdivision of Lakeside is a microcosm of the problems felt by hundreds of other Bay area communities.