Alarcon neighbors want improvements

Three months ago, City Councilman Richard Alarcón stood in front of a dilapidated house devoid of any landscaping except unkempt plants and overgrown weeds and decried the neglect. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

The veteran lawmaker was grandstanding for his pet legislation that would fine banks that allowed their foreclosed homes to fall into decrepit condition.

Today, though, some of Alarcón's neighbors marvel at an incredible irony.

"He could very well have been standing in front of his own home," says businessman Jason Gustanski, who lives just a few houses up the street from Alarcón's Panorama City ranch-style home that some neighbors say stands out as a community eyesore and that is now the focal point of his legal troubles.

Burglar alarm installed in March
The city installed a burglar alarm in the Panorama City home of City Councilman Richard Alarcón in March of this year - more than three years after he claimed he began living there, according to documents obtained by the Daily News. | Related Story: Some say house Councilman Richard Alarcón claims as legal residence is in the worst shape of any in area.

Responding to a Public Records Act request, the Information Technology Agency said the city-provided alarm system was installed March 18 in Alarcón's home on Nordhoff Street. Daily News.