The Citizens' Service Bureau Works

Like many other St. Louis citizens, I filed a complaint with the Citizens' Service Bureau (CSB) this week. Mine was against a certain slumlord-style landlord whose workers had piled a Hyde Park yard waste dumpster with carpeting remnants last week. When a police officer contacted me about the complain, he mentioned another complaint against the same guy for dumping on a vacant lot -- in a far-south block of Michigan!

The good news is that my call tipped the police officer to the fact that it was the same guy -- he had yet to run a search for the property owner. I also mentioned that this particular owner had held the property in Hyde Park under a business name until the Building Division refused to grant another occupancy permit to that company. He then "sold" the building back to himself and obtained a permit earlier this year.

The officer now knows he's dealing with a serial slumlord.

If I had not complained to the CSB, the police may not have built any case against this man and his propensity for less-than-legal dumping. While not always swift, the CSB generally works. But it only works when people use it.