At The End Of Port Richmond Avenue Among The Decaying Docks And Chicken Guts

A Staten Island woman is the latest example of how squatters have rights:

The lot at the dead end of Port Richmond Avenue — a dilapidated industrial area with gutted buildings, decaying docks and the aroma of chicken carcasses wafting from a nearby poultry slaughterhouse — seems like no place for anyone to live.

But squatter Patricia Walsh is fighting to stay there.

For five years, Ms. Walsh has called home an abandoned office trailer, with her seven dogs, dozen cats and cartloads of recyclable cans and bottles.

The 53-year-old calls herself a community activist, an animal lover, a proud citizen of Port Richmond for the past 22 years.

The owners of the 1.2-acre property overlooking the Kill van Kull call her a pain in the butt.

Since October, brothers Robert and Rudolph Rando of Long Island have tried just about everything to get her off their land so they can sell it to an Island development company.

They’ve offered her $10,000 — she refused it.

“I don’t trust them,” she said, standing in the cluttered yard last week.

They’ve promised to foot all of her moving expenses, to pack her belongings in a truck and bring her anywhere she wanted.

“They’re rich. They have nice homes to go to. Where else can I go?” she replied.

. . .

John Z. Marangos, a Staten Island landlord attorney representing the Randos, called it the toughest eviction case he’s handled. Even serving legal notice to Ms. Walsh has been a challenge. Her trailer home is guarded by an angry Chow Chow named Mary, and Buster, a massive pit bull with a knack for sniffing out lawyers carrying notices of eviction.

Meanwhile, his client has been losing “thousands of dollars every month” — not including legal fees — while he fights Ms. Walsh in court, Marangos said.