Local Media Continue Their Cover-ups

Our local media outlets continue their long history of covering for criminals with connections to City Council. As reported by Roch Smith jr in Why does WGHP MyFox8 keep failing to identify owners of problematic apartments?

 "This is not the first time WGHP has failed to identify the Agapions as the apartment owners. In four stories following the lethal apartment fire, WGHP either failed to identify the apartment owners at all or incorrectly identified the owner as ARCO Realty. It is hard to imagine why WGHP persists in failing to accurately report who owns these problematic apartments, but it can no longer be presumed they are not doing so out of ignorance. To report Arco Realty as the owners of the property, as WGHP did, is not only demonstrably wrong, it conceals the people actually responsible for the building—the Agapions. Why would WGHP keep doing that?"

Yes, why? Why are rich people continually given free passes by the media? Why does this double standard exist? And do the rich pay the media for this privilege?

One Last Question

The following is an e-mail I sent to Greensboro City Councilwoman Sharon Hightower, Councilwoman Goldie Wells, and Greensboro City Attorney Thomas Carruthers on August 16, 2018:

"Sharon, Goldie and Tom,

Most everything I know about the Agapions is from media reports and watching the way they maintain the many homes they own in my neighborhood. Fact is: I can see no signs that any maintenance is done while the homes are occupied. Only after the tenants move out or are forced to leave via condemnation of the property or eviction does any noticeable work get done.

If you were to do public information requests for permits and somehow manage to compare the dates to occupancy you might be able to find a coloration. If the City were seeking legal action then Tom and the legal department might be able to suponea the records needed to colorate the results. (I'm sure I misspelled suppona and colorate. Probable misspelled coloration too.)

You might begin with 1309 Willard St owned by Despina Agapion. It was occupied for at least 15 years by a disabled white man named John and his black wife who worked nights for Cone Hospital. They were good neighbors, never any problems.

John worked hard despite being mentally and physically disabled. He heated the house with wood he collected on a  home made trailer he pulled behind his moped. I helped him with some of the welding on the trailer but mostly just let him use my welder himself. Another neighbor, Charles Walker, now diseased, loaned him a few tools as well. Charlie taught me to weld when I was a teenager. You should have seen the used GPD Cushman 3 wheeler Charlie Walker and I hopped up when I was about 15. You couldn't pay me to drive that thing now but back then I blasted down the streets 'til the neighbors called the cops and I had to hide it in the woods.

And the Yamaha powered go-cart we built.... You don't want to know.

Now-a-days I see the young black men on their dirt bikes waking me from my naps and I think about calling the cops.... but then I remember. When one of them crashed into my car and tried to run I caught him and made him call him momma. He wanted me to call the cops instead. I even locked his bike in the shed until his older brother could get off work and come pick it up.

By the way, he wasn't that hard to catch, he had a broken arm and a lump on his head. I'm sure his momma gave him hell all the way to Cone Hospital. Later I gave him some riding lessons.

There were a few I called the cops on-- like the one popping wheelies up and down the street with a baby in his lap. I couldn't let that pass. I still ride and love to ride fast but not stupid. Yeah, I rode my little boy on my bike... slowly around his grandpa's yard.

John and his wife took care of their grandchildren during the daytime because the family couldn't afford child care. The children were all well behaved. John had a few laying hens that I had given him when my hens hatched too many chicks. He wanted a rooster too but I explained to him that my rooster was grandfathered in. He eventually figured out how grandfather clauses work.

Over the years John maintained the house the best he could. But some things were beyond his abilities and financial means. When they complained to the city that the Agapions would not repair the house, the City condemned the house forcing John and his family to move at a time when they couldn't afford the move.

The house has been empty for almost a year while repairs are slowly being made.

Over the years I've seen this repeated many times before. All over my neighborhood. Now its happening to hundreds on Summit Ave. It's happened to hundreds, perhaps thousands before, just not so many at one time.

As I made my way home from the Renaissance Community Cooperative today I traveled past the house at 1309 Willard St where I saw men working on the outside of the house. This is very near your home, Goldie, only 1 block from Peeler Recreation Center. The photo at Google maps shows what the house looked like when John and his wife lived there: https://goo.gl/maps/gUfAhvYSoeR2 You can even see John's moped out front.

I didn't see a building permit as I drove past the house. But perhaps the weather took it away. Or not? The Agapions do have a history of not pulling permits... Didn't a plumber die because of that?

This leaves us with but one last question."

Just thought I would share.

The Other Heritage House-- Part 2

A continuation of The Other Heritage House

Heritage House Condominiums were inspected by City of Greensboro housing inspectors every year until 2014 when they were deemed unfit to live in by the Greensboro City Council. Strangely enough, Greensboro housing inspectors had deemed Heritage House Condominiums safe to live in that very same year. It was only after the residents of Heritage House Condominiums were evicted from their homes that a third party inspector was called in to deem the building structurally unsound.

And yet four years later the building still stands while City Council tries to figure out how to sell a perfectly usable building they have not yet paid the actual owners for.

Our volunteer staff here at EzGreensboro.com has requested the housing inspection records for the owners of Heritage House Apartments from the City of Greensboro so that we might compare violations between Heritage House Condominiums and Heritage House Apartments. How long will it take for the City of Greensboro to reply to our public records request?

Well allow me to put it this way. In previous attempts to get public records I successfully sued the City of Greensboro after waiting over a year and still waited months. Seems they like to give things time to blow over before they let the facts be known.

But here are the facts we know thus far:

From Fox 8 Smoke alarms not working in apartment where deadly fire happened in Greensboro:

"The Greensboro apartment where a deadly fire happened early Saturday morning had smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms but they were not working at the time of the fire, according to a press release from the N.C. Department of Insurance."

The N.C. Department of Insurance, lead by elected representative Mike Causey, is the State level agency who investigates these sorts of things. Their opinion will stand up in any court in North Carolina.

Also from Fox 8:

"They weren't getting the attention they needed as it related to home repairs," said Walker.

She said the father of the family complained about small fires around the stove three days before the fatal fire."

Now if this can be proven we have the beginning of a criminal case, possibly for negligence or 5 counts of manslaughter. Does anyone know what became of 3 year old Marissa Ayun who got lead poisoning at the hands of the Agapions in 2004?

Greensboro Fire Marshal Timothy Henshaw confirmed there were no working smoke or carbon monoxide detectors in the unit. Also, from the Winston Salem Journal:

"Henshaw said some of the fire extinguishers, which were left on hooks outside the buildings, were missing and that others had faded labels, which he attributed to damage from the weather."

And while Irene Agapion-Martinez, whose family owns the property, claims the property was up to code just 18 months ago the history of the Agapions in Greensboro tell a very different story.


From Eric Ginsburg at Triad City Beat on February 18, 2015:  

"A similar cycle occurred with 2335 Floyd, which was also continued from June, July and August before being upheld in September. It was later rescinded in December after repairs to the entire building, and Irene said all but one unit are rented.

But even though the entire building was supposed to be cleared at the same time, and the inspector’s notes in the city’s online code compliance tracking system says every unit was in compliance, both windows for Apt. F — a unit in the back corner of the building —are currently boarded up."

Were all the apartments in compliance 18 months ago? Were they all inspected? How many of the Agapion's 400 plus properties are death traps, baited and set to kill innocent children?

And then there is this:

"By the end of 2014, 11 entities or individuals each owed the city more than $1,000 under the new fine structure. Some were larger institutions like Fannie Mae, that owed $1,475, while others were limited liability corporations or individual property owners. Three owed the city far more than anyone else. With $346,775 outstanding, the Agapion family is at the top of that list, and they have no intention of paying."

The Greensboro City Council has failed to act against the rich Agapions, the owners of Heritage House Apartments and hundreds of other slum properties here in Greensboro in collecting what is now in excess of $439,000 but had no problem stealing 177 private residences at Heritage House Condominiums over a $49,000 water bill.

"The Heritage House Homeowners Association owes nearly $49,000 on its water bill."

Now do you understand the problem? It's not just the Agapions, it's a complicit Mayor and City Council who bend over backwards to help the rich steal from the working classes.

And the new law suits are soon to start rolling in with your tax dollars paying for every bit of the damage except for the pain in a mother's heart. I can tell you from personal experience, nothing will ever compensate the loss of your children.