Well done

How do you like your building cooked? This charred eight-unit apartment dwelling at 3511-13 Third St. is a shell of what it used to be. It slouches on the corner of Third Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, sandwiched between vintage liquor bottles, single-serving tennis shoes and discarded doll heads. Raymond Hines, owner of the crispy compound, says he’s washed his hands of the property. “It’s been up for demolition,” he says. “I called the city and told them they could tear it down if they wanted.” Hines claims the final blow to the 9,366-square-foot structure came from the hands of a former tenant in September 2001. “It got blown up,” he says. Which, in Hines’ view, makes it the city’s problem. “I told the city they could have it … I sent them a letter saying I wanted it put on their demolition list. They can have the property. I’ve been trying to get rid of it since 1991.”