u/RiverTrailSpirits

Good morning Lansing!

REO Town is making a concerted effort to change both how the city sees our community, and how we see each other as neighbors.

In that spirit I present to you all a zine intended to remind us of all the beauty just below our cities cracks

potholes!

Disclosure: i am loosely affiliated with the RTCA but was not paid or solicited by them. I just want to help take care of this ecosystem and the community it supports.

Over the past 6 months I have watched the property management of my rental (DPMG PRIME) replace my neighbors with mold and mildew.

Let me be clear; last fall the renters of this building had a meeting with all tenants present, and everyone felt the same: we were all being IGNORED by our property manager. Soon after that meeting, half of my neighbors were gone/ had abandoned their lease including a newborn family. I decided to stay the winter, my unit not being so affected... until Spring uncovered the giant holes in our roof.

After over a month of being ignored I finally held back on depositing my next months rent into their account. For the first time ever, my property manager texted me. His only question was 'so i hear you're ready to abandon the lease?' No, im ready for you to do you job. I told him about the water dripping into my space, and also about the squirrels fighting with cats over the birds nest in the attic over my head. So they decided to reshingle the roof, and not do anything about the animals.

Took another another redirected check to hear anything more about the animals being dealt with. Theyre still there today. Every single month is the same thing. I send updates on the maintainence as the lease specifies, and then when I hear no response I set that months rent aside. Sure as rain, I will get a series of harassing text messages from their property manager on a random number. I eventually had to tell him to stop harassing my texts, and silenced him. He reached out the next day from a new number complaining about how I had closed that channel. I told him clearly to stop harassing me. He persists.

Long story short, I came home today to this view from the sidewalk of the unit on the other side of the wall i sleep next to. This is one of the units abandoned last fall. I will say, and shall testify under any condition or oath that this photograph represents just a sampling of the sights, smells, and hostile conditions which signing a lease DPMG Prime might deliver to you door. I can say this because I have experienced it all myself.

We have slumlords chasing good families out of Lansing and literally - LITERALLY - replacing them with mold and mildew. They are a biological assault on the health and security of the State of Michigan and must be held accountable.

Thank you for coming to my river rant.

Ps code enforcement is in the loop but is bound by their red tape.