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KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2010 / NEWS
LOCAL
3A
Landlord clashes with student and city over homes
At the address of 1736 Louisiana is the home of Brian Markowitz and five other KU seniors. Markowitz is heading a law suit against the landlord serena Heams who owns Rainbow Works, LLC.
BY STEPHEN
MONTEMAYOR
smontemayor@kansas.com
Serina Hearn is smoking again.
She nights up after an hour of exploring her conflict with the city over its zoning laws and allegations made by a former tenant and current KU student.
Hearn and her husband, Tony Backus, live in what was once known as Briar Manor, an expansive Victorian-style home similar to the 25 houses the two have restored and now lease.
Their dining room table is blanketed by zoning maps, copies of KU student directory listings from half a century ago and books with pages she wants to show you.
The scene better befits a war room than a place for dining. Hearn has already said she feels like she's at war.
"This is the tip of the iceberg about the city undermining pre-existing uses of property that they would like us to have amnesia about." Hearn said.
She then flips to a page in a history book about Lawrence and points out a handbill from 1860.
Hearn said she has spent hours looking through old directories and making copies of selections from long ago. She is trying to provide evidence that her homes historically have been used by multiple families at a time.
THE CITY
Many of Hearn's properties, like 1736 Louisiana St., are zoned single-family, meaning no more than three unrelated people can live in the home. However, Hearn said that property has two dwellings with a kitchen in each and that six people should be allowed to live in it.
Brian Jimenez, codes enforcement supervisor for the city, previously told The Kansan that 1736 Louisiana St. is zoned as a single-dwelling residence. He said the city has given Hearn the opportunity to prove her actions (housing more
than three unrelated residents in the home) were not unlawful and that she has yet to do that. When contacted Monday, Jimenez said he had nothing to add on the matter.
THE INSPECTION
Brian Markowitz, a senior from Leawood, did not leave 1736 Louisiana St. in a happy mood. That's been clear — and at present, that's about where the clarity ends.
takes about where the clarity ends.
Markowitz said he and his roommates received an e-mail from the office of Rainbow Works LLC, Hearn's property management company, a few days before the city was to perform a safety inspection.
The March 2009 e-mail reads:
"Could you please not be at the house between 1:30 pm and 3:00 pm during the inspection?" It goes on to say the air conditioning units from the attic bedrooms will be removed. That's not all Markowitz said was done to the house prior to inspection. In an Oct. 12 University Daily Kansan article, Markowitz said steps were taken to conceal the house's second dwelling.
"What the city does is they say they're coming to do a safety inspection, but what they're really coming to do is count heads," Hearn said.
Both Hearn and Backus refused to go into detail about those allegations, citing an ongoing dialogue with the city, but said they did anticipate Jimenez finding a second dwelling.
Added Backus, "We feel like they are making up the rules as they go along and we're afraid. We don't know what their motives are or where they're going so we're treading very carefully now."
The dispute between Markowitz and Hearn began when Markowitz's security deposit was not refunded. He said he and his roommates worked with family for three days to clean the home. Hearn said it was found to be filth upon the final walkthrough.
Trenda Reschke performed the walkthrough and said the tenants and some of their parents were
confrontational as she attempted to take notes.
She said she had to address their aggressiveness on more than one occasion. When they eventually went to sit on the porch, she overheard a furious Markowitz.
"I'm going to destroy her," Reschke remembers Markowitz saying in reference to Hearn. "If I don't get my deposit back, I'm going after her."
Markowitz said he wasn't even there that day.
THE BATTLE
"I showed you this because all you have to do is" replace the word 'student' in there, "Hearn said."
The handbill Hearn pointed to was handed out when a United States deputy marshal was going around Lawrence "negr hunting" in houses around the city.
The handbill ends with, "Know your rights and stand to them. He has no right to invade your castles."
The allusions don't end in the Civil War era.
"You've heard of ethnic cleansing urban renewal as ethnic cleansing," Hearn said. "Well, students aren't black or Hispanic but they're students."
Hearn said the city and organizations like the Oread Neighborhood Association — which will elect its members Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church
that they should be doing is saying we will support you restoring these houses," Hearn said. "Instead, all they do is beat us up. I'm right now the poster girl for this."
are trying to push students out in hopes that the properties zoned single family eventually give way to modern apartment complexes.
ODD NEWS
Edited by David Cawthon
Sleepwalking man shoots self in knee
BOULDER, Colo. — Police say a Colorado man who told police he woke up to a "bang" and realized he suffered a gunshot wound to his knee likely shot himself while sleepwalking.
The Daily Camera reports that 63-year-old Sanford Rothman of Boulder told investigators he had no clear recollection of the incident early Tuesday. No one else was in Rothman's home at the time.
Boulder police Sgt. Paul Reichenback says Rothman keeps a 9mm handgun near his bed and takes prescription medication for pain. Police say no alcohol or illegal drugs played a role in the incident.
Rothman was treated at a hospital and released.
Longest captive snake dies at zoo
COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio zoo says the longest snake living in captivity has died.
The snake was named Fluffy. It held the Guinness World Record as the longest snake living in captivity. It was about as long as a moving van and as thick as a telephone pole. It weighed 300 pounds.
The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium says workers found the 24-foot python Wednesday morning dead from an apparent tumor.
The 18-year-old reticulated python had drawn large crowds since the zoo got it in 2007.
Reticulated pythons are named for the cross-hatching patterns on their skin and average 10 to 20 feet long. The largest recorded one was 32 feet, 9 1/2 inches long when it was killed in 1912 in Indonesia.
ODD NEWS
Campaign ad slams U.S. representative
SANTA ANA, Calif.
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Something stinks in a Southern California congressional race.
Associated Press
It's a scratch-and-sniff attack
ad that portrays Democratic U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez as an insider politician. The ad was mailed by Republican state Assemblyman Van Tran, who is challenging Sanchez for her seat in Orange County.
Tran's campaign manager George Andrews tells the Orange County Register the mailer looks like a perfume ad and features a scratch-and-sniff patch that's supposed to smell like trash.
The ad says: "It's the stench of Washington."
Associated Press
Suspect blames halloween mix-up
The man cut a hole in the wall. Officers found a bike and a backpack, but they didn't find the suspect until a police dog bit what appeared to be the ground. It was Liascos in the camo outfit.
HILLSBORO, Ore. — A burglary suspect dubbed "Moss Man" because he was found in a full-body camouflage outfit says his arrest outside an Oregon museum was a Halloween mix-up.