The issue of the Aurora, Colorado, apartment buildings being taken over by Venezuelan gangs is getting more infuriating with each new revelation. Now we see that the entire mess has caused the owner of the apartment building to offer the property for sale after the city effectively accused him of allowing the infestation to take place.
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A Colorado landlord has agreed to sell a troubled apartment complex that was taken over by the violent Venezuelan migrant gang Tren de Aragua.
Landlord Zev Baumgarten has been fighting with the Denver suburb of Aurora over the Aspen Grove after the city accused him of allowed it to become a trash-ridden, gang-infested hellhole, according to records obtained by the Denver Gazette.
Baumgarten is also the owner of another apartment complex where a viral video showed a crew of gun-toting thugs breaking into a unit, according to the Gazette.
Baumgarten’s company has now agreed to sell, lease, or find some “similar disposition” for the complex — which was shuttered in August, displacing some 300 residents, the Gazette reported.
It is unclear what form a “similar disposition” may take, although a wrecking ball wouldn’t be the worst idea, given the history of these buildings to date.
Read our previous comments on this issue:
Previously on RedState: Armed Gangs of Illegal Aliens Taking Over Aurora, CO Apartment Buildings – and Nothing Is Being Done
UPDATE: The Mayor of Aurora, CO Speaks on Apartment Building Takeovers by Armed Gangs
In another development, it turns out that these and other buildings owned by Zev Baumgarten have been closed after multiple code violations.
More than 85 families living in a condemned Aurora apartment building said goodbye to their homes under city order on Tuesday morning, but one of Fitzsimons Place’s former tenants has sued the property owners and managers.
The lawsuit, filed Monday by Javier Hidalgo, sought to force the landlords to provide him and other displaced residents with housing. The suit cites conditions that made the 98-unit building “fundamentally uninhabitable,” including water leaks, pest infestations and structural damages.
Hidalgo is asking Adams County District Court to order property owner Nome Partners LLC, property management company CBZ Management and its representatives, Shmaryahu and Zev Baumgarten, to provide former residents with either apartment units similar to their old ones or hotel stays for at least 60 days.
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CBZ Management is also reportedly blaming the troubles at the Fitzsimons place properties on the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
It’s important to note that none of these actions taken by the city of Aurora or the property owner even come close to addressing the root cause of this problem, namely, the presence of a large population of people who are almost certainly in the country illegally. The unchecked, unscreened influx of unknowns into the nation across our southern border is what is allowing things like this to happen; if fingers are to be pointed at anyone, they should be pointed at the Biden/Harris administration and their utter lack of border control. None of these issues would have arisen if the border were secure.
Here’s the onion:
Though he (Baumgarten) puts the blame on gangs, prosecutors pointed out that a second Baumgarten-owned complex, Fitzsimons Place, which was also shuttered in August, had code violations dating back to 2020, according to local publication Westword.
That property, too, had been overrun by migrant gang members, as has a third site in Aurora, a suburb of Denver that opposed its neighbor’s “sanctuary city” policy that has allowed more than 42,000 migrants to enter the city.
Now, Aurora is feeling the fallout — with residents complaining of shootouts and other criminal activity tied to Tren de Aragua.
Unintended consequences? Perhaps, but the consequences are all the same, and the consequences of this lack of border enforcement and “sanctuary city” policies are never put in place by the people who have to live in areas swamped by waves of illegal immigrants or who have to find affordable housing in places where government programs to house illegal aliens have taken up entire buildings, hotels and apartment complexes. No, these policies are put in place by people who are largely insulated from the effects, insulated by wealth or by location.
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Aurora, Colorado’s residents are now feeling the pain, and are now paying the price for the stupid policies of not only local but federal elected representatives. It’s not too late for them to vote their way out of this mess – because the status quo will surely only keep making matters worse.
