A West Bloomfield Township home owned by Detroit high school hoops and U-M legend and current NBA baller Robert “Tractor” Traylor has become a neighborhood nuisance.
Traylor, who plays for the New Orleans Hornets, has been sent a notice of code violation by West Bloomfield’s Code Enforcement Division. The reason? Soil erosion. His house has no grass. So when it rains, soil pours, straight into a wetlands behind the joint. That’s a no-no.
“There’s a law regarding soil erosion that does require him to stabilize the property,” says code enforcement officer Steve Burns.
He says the Tractor’s been sent a notice of violation via certified mail but the township has heard no response from the big man.
“We’re still trying to get ahold of him,” Burns says. “At West Bloomfield, we always seek compliance first. We use the courts as a last measure. If he was just blowing me off, I would go right with a ticket. But I haven’t spoken to him. No one at this department has spoken to him. I don’t even know if he’s aware of it. I want to have a conversation with him, make him fully aware of the problem.”
Maybe the hoopster doesn’t know, but do his homies? We called West Bloomfield police to check on rumors that, while the Tractor’s hitting the boards in the Big Easy, some of his buddies are hitting his boards in West Bloomfield. The authorities say they know nothing about it — the department’s merely been summoned to the Tractor’s on three occasions to answer alarms, all false.
Traylor might be guilty of landscaping lassitude, but since the homes on either side of his place are still under construction, there are no next-door neighbors to offend, Burns says. And if his boys are giggin’ there, they’re apparently discreet about it. But damn, Tractor, can we get some sod in the spring?
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