City of Chicago Landlords, Take Note
Kudos to Nobugsonme at Bedbugger.com (and adviser to our humble organization, I might add) for catching this one.
According to the Minneapolis-St. Paul StarTribune.com, Minneapolis landlords are taking bed bug infestations seriously:
“More than 140 landlords recently attended the first meeting of a bedbug task force, and all but five said they’d had problems with the pests.”
Sounds like an excellent idea to me. City of Chicago landlords, you might want to consider following suit. Our friends in Minneapolis are on the right track, at least as far as I can tell. And although I don’t know exactly how official this task force of theirs really is, I do know one thing for sure: Engaging in open dialogue about bed bugs– especially among the people who are most affected by bed bug infestations, financially or otherwise– is good.
Bed bugs aren’t going away, you know. They’re multiplying, they’re spreading, and they are in our city. We’re all going to have to face the music at some point, and this includes you, landlords. So what’s the solution? Well, that’s going to take work, and it’s going to take a strategic plan that’s developed and funded (gasp!) and enforced by the City of Chicago (probably a strategic plan that looks a lot like this one and this one).
In the meantime, though, there is something Chicago landlords can do to help themselves, their residents, and the city itself. And that’s talk about bed bugs. Exchange information. Ask questions. Contact experts. Read up. Do the math. CYA, if you know what I mean. Talk about it! It couldn’t possibly be any worse than pretending you won’t have to deal with the problem eventually, could it?
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For some time I’ve been intrigued by this landlord association in Minnesota, the Minnesota Multi Housing Association, that seems to regularly schedule events for members with industry and entomologist panelists to learn about bed bugs. Here’s one from September (PDF). I wonder if it’s them? If it is, super smart! And something that should be encouraged elsewhere.
Yes — MHA did organize this. See update to this post:
http://bedbugger.com/2008/12/01/minneapolis-has-a-bed-bug-task-force/
Wow, you two. There is an absolute wealth of information in these two comments alone. Thank you!
Readers, I encourage you to follow the links Renee and Nobugs included in their comments.
Nobugs, your Bedbugger post (linked above) is perfect. I will be linking to it in a post of my own shortly. And Renee, you’re right, events that focus on exchanging good information about bed bugs– especially between industry professionals and landlords/property managers is REALLY smart.
We intend to encourage it here in Chicago!
