Photo by Wendy Joan Biddlecombe
The long-abandoned two-family house at 3259 Decatur Ave., next to PS 56’s recess yard and considered an eyesore for nearly a decade, is once again legally reoccupied, but is far from fixed up.
Elisabeth Von Uhl, a resident in the Norwood neighborhood, has been concerned for a while that the home is an unsafe property that could put school children in harm’s way. Like other neighbors, she’s called 311, and Von Uhl said she reached out to the police and wrote letters to local officials pleading they do something to address the neglected home.
A tenant has moved in since Norwood News wrote about the house in October. Von Uhl said a portion of the front porch has been painted pink, and said that whoever is occupying the house has put insulation over the broken windows, piled up garbage in the front yard, and parked a car at the property.
“It’s better that someone’s living in there, so unsavory people can’t take kids in the house,” Von Uhl said.
Decatur Avenue neighbor Sirio Guerino said no one has lived in the home during the last 12 years he’s lived on the block…until now. He said that in the past the garbage has piled up so significantly that he’s cleaned up the property himself. “The guy’s maintaining the property [now],” Guerino said, referring to the home’s new tenant. “He told me that he’s going to fix everything.”
Several attempts to speak with the occupant, who was not identified, were unsuccessful.
City records list Luz Catano and Mercedes Galdamez as the owners of the 1920s-era home, purchased for $640,000 in 2007. The value of the home has decreased significantly since then, according to city tax records, now listed at $436,000 for the 2016-2017 tax year.
Tax bills from the New York City Department of Finance show that the home’s property taxes have been paid on a regular basis. Property records show that a foreclosure auction was scheduled in September, but there are no foreclosure proceedings listed in Bronx clerk files against Catano.
In 2014, a Bronx court granted the city access to the property to install safety equipment to protect the home from construction at PS 56. Numerous attempts to contact Catano for her permission went unanswered in the months leading up to the ruling, according to court documents. Documents also show that the home’s co-owner, Mercedes Galdamez, claims that she’s never met Catano and that she never signed a mortgage for the property.
There have been 10 complaints to the Department of Buildings since Catano purchased the home, according to city records and 27 complaints to 311 since 2010.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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It’s sad to hear this as I can relate to this story in similar situations regarding my parents house which I was raised in which is also on Decatur Ave address being 3083 Decatur Ave. We moved into that house in 1960 and my parents purchase that house in 1970 – 1999. My Father spent at least 34 yrs. in remodeling the entire 2 Family house , new floors , bathrooms, walls , ceilings . Boiler replaced new , finished basement , outside stone wall , aluliumn siding , weather proof that all new windows , concrete porch top of the line outside doors replaced and ceramic tile floors put in and top of line new appliances installed almost all this work done my father through the years. In 1996 my father passed away at home, Young of cancer at 60 yrs old and my mother that following yr and half later also passed away at home also in 1998 both from the home they worked so hard to be proud @ 3083 Decatur . Currently the latest update on that house which was sold in 1999 . Is now abandoned for quite some time and there were Squatters that were hiding in there that destroyed that house to the point that a swat team had to enter with mask from the foulsmell and destruction by these Squatters and be removed . It is sickening to see how people can destroy something that was one of the top remodeled homes on that block . I also was informed that prior to Squatters there was drug dealing out of that house from whomever resided there at that time . I recently drove by there with other old neighborhood friends that are gone from there too and decided to take a pic of front of the house and it’s was the creepiest pic I have ever seen as I and many others that sawthe pic see a woman in the middle window that is dressed in 1800’s clothing and on the size windows demonic faces can be seen . If interested I would be more then happy to share this picture .
Id be interested in seeing that picture.