Daytona Beach City Commissioner Ruth Trager and her husband, Warren, have been slapped with dozens of code violation citations over the past decade, but most have not been for major problems.
DAYTONA BEACH — In the late 1950s, Warren Trager bought out a family bar that his father had purchased 25 years earlier, a small neighborhood tavern on what was then Second Avenue.
Trager didn't stop with that purchase along the main business corridor running through the middle of the predominantly African American Midtown neighborhood, one of the only places black people could shop or go to church for decades.
In the 60 years since he bought the bar, he and his wife, City Commissioner Ruth Trager, have strategically acquired one property after another on the historic thoroughfare now called Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard, which bisects the Bethune-Cookman University campus and stretches from the Halifax River to the rear of Daytona State College.
They've amassed 10 holdings in the block just west of Ridgewood Avenue, buying up buildings constructed just before and after World War I. They've also purchased a few vacant lots just north of that section of Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard.
The Tragers have also amassed dozens of code violation citations over the years, including 43 since 2006, according to city records. Ruth Trager is up for re-election this year, and her political foes are wielding that statistic like a weapon.
One of her opponents in the Zone 1 City Commission race, Fred Zieglar, also helped the Tragers' code citation tally climb. Zieglar is listed as the complainant of three code cases brought against the Tragers' properties this month and last month.
The city has records of 11,885 code violation cases from January 2016 through May 16 of this year. But it's the few dozen complaints the Tragers have racked up over more than a decade that has the attention of some as election season is about to heat up.
"I think it's disappointing when we have City Commission members who vote on important issues about the direction the city is going, and they don't take care of their own code violations," said Ponce Inlet resident Stephanie Ruta, who owns rental homes in Daytona Beach and has been battling the city over short-term rental rules.
A thorough review of the Tragers' code violation citations shows several of them turned out to be unfounded, and most are for relatively minor issues including overgrown grass, not covering windows in vacant buildings and allowing dirt and grime to build up on the exterior of the structures they own.
The Tragers — who also own four beachside properties, none of which are rentals — do have some more serious charges for issues including a dilapidated roof, loose wires and plumbing problems. Some took a year or more to remedy, but the majority of their cases were rapidly resolved, usually within a couple weeks or months. And because they moved quickly, or showed steady progress, records show they have never been fined for any of the 43 cases that go back 12 years.
The Tragers say they haven't been notified about some of the newer violations, and they don't recall some of the older ones. They say some cases turned out to be misunderstandings with things such as address mix-ups and city officials misplacing their licenses. They question the accuracy of city records, and say they work hard to take care of their properties.
"When the city told us to do something, we'd do it," said Ruth Trager, 80. "It's nothing but maintenance that periodically has to be done."
Grand vision fades
The nearly inseparable couple, who've been married for 60 years, say they've always done most of the work on their properties themselves, including some demolition and construction. They say it can be tough to keep up with everything, and they have an extra challenge because some of their buildings date back to the early 1900s.
"Most of them are either over 100, or getting very close to 100 years old," said Warren Trager, 82, who's a member of the city's Historic Preservation Board and president of the Halifax Historical Society. "It does take a lot of tender love and care to take care of them."
He said it also takes a constant infusion of cash, but it's hard to command high enough rent in the struggling Midtown neighborhood to keep up with expenses for maintenance and repairs, not to mention property taxes and insurance.
He said he's open to a partnership if anyone is interested in doing anything that would revive the structures that were constructed when some still used horses and buggies. When he was a child, a hitching post for horses was still in front of his parents' bar.
"The history in that area is really different than anywhere else, and that's mainly why we have kept these buildings up as long as we have," he said. "You wouldn't even hardly believe all the things that have happened between Ridgewood and the railroad tracks. We need to really keep them, but it does get to a point where you ask yourself, should I keep it up or get some of them demolished."
The Tragers bought the properties with a grand vision that doesn't seem to be coming into view.
"I figured if someday I had the whole block there it'd be worth something," Warren Trager said.
Time and the harsh coastal weather have taken their toll on most of their structures. Several are dressed in chipped paint and a layer of dirt. Rotting wood is losing its battle with the elements. Some exterior walls have cracks.
The Tragers' mainland properties are all clustered in the 300 block of the street named for the founder of Bethune-Cookman University. It's a stretch that charms with its early 20th-century architecture and bright-colored paint. But it's also eerie and desolate, with few people walking past the yesteryear front doors made of wood and old neon window signs that haven't been lit up for years.
The unsettling vibe isn't helped by burglar bars spread over windows and doors, and the homeless people who slip into alcoves to sleep some nights. A storefront church located in the middle of the Tragers' buildings gives out free food to the homeless every Thursday.
A man who runs a gift shop a few doors down from the Miracle Temple Church of God In Christ suspects he's seen heroin addicts getting high just down the block from his store.
"It's the same people every day," said Nature's Essence Gift Shop owner Muhammad Abdullah.
'Tough to get renters'
Despite a lot of challenges, Abdullah said he does have some loyal customers, and the Bethune-Cookman students who buy his soaps, oils and incense also help him stay afloat.
"We have good days and bad days," he said.
Abdullah has been a tenant of the Tragers since February, and he said they're giving him one of the lowest commercial rents he could find in the city, $900 a month. He does wish, however, they would paint the interior of his shop and install heating and air conditioning.
He also wishes there was more life on the road, which has about a 50 percent vacancy rate in his block. The old bar building Warren Trager's father bought in 1933 is rented out for parties and does open during Bike Week and Biketoberfest. But most days it sits dark and empty, with its peeled off shingles and bent metal sign support on the roof attesting to its age and battles with Mother Nature.
The Tragers still run Kressman's repair shop across the street, a building that looks like an old country store and was a Piggly Wiggly grocery store when the heartbeat of Second Avenue was strong. The Tragers also rent out a 107-year-old building at 354 Mary McLeod Bethune Blvd. for a nail salon that occupies the first floor.
The two-story building lost the canopy out front to a wind storm, the yellow paint is chipping in spots, some of the wood siding is falling apart, the two front doors don't close properly, and some windows in the back are boarded up.
"It's an old building, but he could fix it up," said Miami Nails owner Tim Mai.
The nails spa also lacks central heat and air conditioning, but there are three window air conditioners. Mai said he stays busy and can't complain about the number of customers he draws.
It's a street where only the strong survive. Across from Miami Nails is a row of vacant buildings that stand like gravestones for the businesses that didn't make it. The Tragers own five of those structures.
"It's been tough to get renters," Warren Trager said.
The buildings are in a commercial purgatory, boarded up, sprinkled with dirt and topped off with a makeshift row of corrugated metal stripped across several store fronts.
The Tragers do help attract more people to the dilapidated corridor every spring and fall when they temporarily turn their vacant lots behind the buildings on the north side of Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard into a biker campground during Bike Week and Biketoberfest.
But nothing seems to return the road to its zenith. Not even an overhaul of the sidewalks and street itself in the 1990s resuscitated the thoroughfare.
'A shame on our community'
Lifelong Daytona Beach resident Cynthia Slater has watched Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard slowly decay in her 62 years.
"To have a street named after Mary McLeod Bethune with buildings that are abandoned and could be condemned is a shame on our community," said Slater, president of the local branch of the NAACP. "The owners should be held accountable. They need to fine them and make them do something with them."
Slater said the road looks worse than it ever has.
"I'm embarrassed," she said. "We've got to do something."
Weegie Kuendig, chairman of the city's Code Enforcement Board, said even small problems with properties can have a harmful impact.
"They all contribute to blight, which we're trying to get rid of," Kuendig said.
She said it's not appropriate for her to comment on any particular property owners outside of Code Enforcement Board meetings, but noted that not every large property owner accumulates code violations.
"It has to be some sort of negligence for there to be a violation," Kuendig said.
She said the large number of old and neglected buildings in Daytona Beach can leave code enforcement officers feeling overwhelmed. She thinks a good place to start making a dent is the major thoroughfares that are seen by so many people.
Ruta, who's pushing to use her Daytona Beach properties for short-term vacation rentals, is all for a city cleanup.
"I really do care about Daytona," Ruta said. "There's very good code written. Just enforce it evenly across all properties and the market will come back. We've got to do it. It's just too important, or we'll slip into the abyss."
List of properties and complaints