Property Owner Disguised As Used Tire Man (Or Might That Be, "Illegal Dumper Posing As Property Owner"?)

A neighbor asked that I post a piece on some dumped tires to Enclave. Happy to oblige.

On Thursday someone claiming to be the owner of the property at 1618 6th Ave., North dumped loads of tires twice on the vacant lot. When confronted by two residents, he claimed that the tires would be cleared out by today. As of this morning, when I drove by, they were still there.

Old, used tires dumped at the back (alleyside) of 1618 6th Ave., North. Photograph by S-townMike.

The Tire Man told at least one resident that one local tire shop paid the Tire Man to get rid of their used tires rather than having to pay landfill fees. Why does a property owner need to unload used tires for extra money? Does this smell like a racket to anybody else but me?

Oh, and incidently, according to the Metro Planning Dept.'s online map room, if this Tire Man is the property owner, his name is Dorothy and she drives her beat-up old pick-up truck and tottering tire-filled trailer from the 37212 zip code in order to earn a few bucks making used tires disappear.

04/21/2005 Update: A clarification to the property owner info is necessary after I took a second look at the Planning Department's site. The land that lies between 1616 Ave. and 1620 6th Ave. is actually subdivided into 1618 6th Ave. and 1618 1 6th Ave. Dorothy from 37212 owns 1618. The owner of 1618 1 is actually listed as a male, so the truckdriver could have been the person I refer to as the "Tire Man" (although I cannot currently verify that).

This is a new one on me. The odd thing about these properties is that subdividing the property only makes each sliver of land 25 ft. wide, pretty much guaranteeing that each will stay vacant. The tires remain exactly where the Tire Man dumped them. Neighbors filing complaints with Metro Codes seem to be getting the bureaucratic runaround.