In response to the video taped code enforcement discussion posted yesterday, NAC friend and local activist Lloyd "Highwayman" Wimp said:
"All that was proposed sounded like the beginnings of a solution to the problem. Now let's see some action!!
We as taxpaying property owners would much prefer that the rental industry in our city police itself.
Likewise, we'd like to see New Albany's government actually govern in the area of code enforcement as well as many other areas.
Having said that, let me assure all parties that platitudes alone will not suffice as success.
You have some time to bring in some results, but the clock is running!!"
While I agree with Lloyd as I often do, I'd further remind everyone involved, myself included, which clock is actually running and to whom the timing is directed.
As part of the new administration's much appreciated attempts to meet and communicate with neighborhood groups, I had occasion to sit in on a meeting involving several neighborhood association officers and members along with S. Ellen Jones Principal Susie Reis. It was Ms. Reis, to her credit, who reminded me what was actually at stake.
After several meeting attendees related stories of deplorable rental housing and their experiences with those who own or live in such units, Ms. Reis simply stated, "You have no idea how many times I've heard these stories from parents."
I'll be the first to admit that I very much view code enforcement and rental property improvement as a necessary part of a larger economic strategy. Better housing attracts new renters and buyers and strenuous code enforcement provides security for those who invest themselves and their money in our neighborhoods. In essence, though, that's a polite way of saying we need better people in New Albany.
The "better people" process starts with education, and our neighborhood-anchoring, publicly funded institution for providing it, S. Ellen Jones Elementary, is hampered more by irresponsible landlords than is any other plank of revitalization.
Simply put, we cannot expect to prepare children for a productive life and civic involvement when returning home from their lessons each day means facing mold, vermin, lack of heat, and faulty wiring egregious enough to kill their families on any given day. We cannot expect them to be excited about opportunities while proving to them, day in and day out, that life is about suffering and being an adult is about turning away from it unmoved and unmotivated.
Perhaps it's maudlin to say so, but code enforcement and its mechanisms aren't about property values or property taxes or having to live with decreases or increases in either. They're about children, what we as citizens are willing to let them endure in the name of business, and which excuse for doing so we'll come up with next.
There are no good ones and no good people make them.
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20 comments:
well spoken
The Highway man hit it on the head, govern. Enforce the laws and codes that are on the books. I would even support hiring an additional code enforcer because the fines and fees collected from violators would surely be sufficient income to warrant that position. Use the tools you have New Albany - be it leins or attachments or condemning and rehabbing. It has been accomplished in other areas and we can do it here.
The bleak horizon offered to tomorrow's citizens costs this city, and many other cities, today and in a big way. By ignoring it or "turning away from it unmoved and unmotivated" as bluegill said, we are laying out a roadmap for these children's futures. That roadmap does not appeal to many whom we would like to entice into "buying into" a prosperous, promising future which is only envisioned by a few.
I realize that choices must be made and priorities set. I'd say forget about paving the streets as the number one priority and instead make it upgrading the housing stock. Building a truly liveable community is one thing we can do locally to give us hope for a better future. Yesterday's offering here about strengthening the local economy is another. If we're going to hell in a handbasket, as some would have us believe, I'd hate to think our last dollars were spent on asphalt rather than aspirations.
I suppose a radical way to promote a walkable city is to let the roads deteriorate (joke).
Why isn't it possible to tackle 2 problems at the same time? Anyone for "multi-tasking"?
Already, this city is expensive to live in because of the failing below grade infrastructure; that said, if we can make ends meet now, it will be somewhat reasonable in the near future. Stay on it Lloyd!
Well said, but I would add another "food for thought." It's not just WHAT or WHERE children go home to, but WHO as well. No matter our circumstances, I believe we parents have the ultimate responsibility to guide the development of our children. Sadly, too many abdicate that responsibility to the schools. While I fortunately didn't have to grow up in dire poverty, my parents never owned a home. Most importantly, however, they worked really hard to ensure my brother and I believed in ourselves. I, in turn, strived to instill the same confidence & mindset in my kids (successfully, I think, whether you attribute it to persistence or luck). So, ultimately, it seems to me the "education" challenge has two fronts--children AND their parents. How do we tackle both?
We have an "underclass" here that has been self-perpetuating for as long as I can remember, and I'm sure longer. My sense is it's numbers have actually increased in my lifetime. The "people" and I use the term loosely, who were inhabiting my house when I bought it from the slumlord, were absolutely the scariest people I've ever had to come close to. Rehabilitating these sorts of people would require quite a commitment of resources and we haven't figured out how to get the trash picked up in the streets, much less the human garbage. How do we move forward when so much of the population is determined to move backward?
"We haven't figured out how to get the trash picked up in the streets, much less the human garbage. How do we move forward when so much of the population is determined to move backward"?
One step forward would be to treat humans..as humans. Just because someone may not be as secure in life, financially, or otherwise,as another person, it does not give anyone the right to judge those who are less fortunate, or consider them as underclass/garbage/trash.
Jphn, my statement seems cruel? I believe people who abuse children are cruel. I think all the crack heads in town are cruel. You're right, it probably doesn't help labeling people as unhuman, but by the same token, not admitting too the human toll here is not dealing with reality.
What makes a "crackhead" cruel, as such? Is it self-evident? Am I missing such? Perhaps this proposed (by gCoyle, not Jeff)exorcism of the body politic will lead us to other afflcitions, eh?
Jon,
I can see where you are headed and you do have a point--to a point.
I would think the people identified by the term "crackhead", as used by most people, would be considered anti-social. Is it cruel for someone to break into your car or home to feed their habit? Is it cruel for for a 40 year old man to run his family's business(80 years)into the ground to feed his habit? It cost his employees their jobs and cost our company several thousand $'s in AR losses, which could very well imperil our employees lives. Is it cruel to neglect their children because of the crack habit? So my answer is, yes, it should be self evident.
My opinion. Gina can certainly speak for herself and much more eloquently.
I too believe that people who abuse children in any manner are cruel, as well as the "crack-heads", however, not everyone who rents a house, or an apartment, or a duplex in New Albany, is a child abuser or a drug addict of some sort. What sort of human toll is there in the matter of the "good people" who are not abusers or drug addicts, but who rent their housing because it is all they can afford to do? How do the "good people" who are not abusers or addicts feel when they are given the impression by their neighbors that they're not one of the "better people"? Creating a better environment for the kids and for their struggling parents also involves the understanding to recognize the abusers and addicts, from those who are just trying as hard as they can to get by.
Code Enforcement, and this is just my opinion, should require that Landlords run background checks on all rental applicants including criminal records/police reports, before considering renting a property, and turn in a copy of the report to them. Also, Landlords should be required to bring all of their properties up to current standards, which means updating wiring, heating/a/c systems, exterior appearances, interior paint, landscaping..etc within 6 months or face a $100 fine for each month after 6 months, for each property in violation. Landlords should also be required to register with Code Enforcement, or the City Clerk's office every 6 months, to update their contact information as a registered Landlord to eliminate the "absentee Landlord" situation. If the Landlords know they can be reached at anytime, they're more apt to start paying more attention to their properties, making the rental industry "police itself". Landlords should also be required to provide, upon request of the tenant, a maintenance/repair person skilled in carpentry, HVAC, and if not available, the tenant should have the option to contact someone on their own and send the bill to the Landlord without reprisal from that Landlord.
While Code Enforcement and its mechanisms are all about creating a better living environment for the children, and for everyone else, and not about property values or property taxes and the decreases or increases in either, improving the external appearances, and updating the internal systems (wiring, HVAC) of rental properties would raise property values in the neighborhoods, and would more than likely the taxes too. But we'd all be "better people" for it.
I find it hard to believe that pratically anyone who comments regularly on this blog would believe that EVERYONE who lives in "lower quality" rental housing is a crackhead. I certainly do not. Why does that even need to be stated?
From what I have learned in the past few months, the majority of people living in low-rent housing in New Albany are the working poor.
There are freeloaders living off the system--although they are a minority, they are the most noticeable sometimes because they have 'issues'--substance abuse, mental illness, etc.
I can't fault landlords for not being able to discern if they are renting to someone who will disturb the peace of surrounding neighbors. It's how the landlord handles the problem when it is brought to his attention that is important.
But the real issue here is the safety of the housing stock, not the lifestyle of the occupant.
Annie is correct that a large percentage of the poverty in New Albany comes from people who are part of the working poor. Are there people in the community sponging off of others? Of course. Are there drug addicts? Of course. There will always be people who do not do their share. There are three groups, however, where hearts really need to go out.
One is the working poor. They show up at soup kitchens and clothes closets and food pantries. For some of them, when they come to a soup kitchen it is the one good meal for the day. Others uses it to supplement what they can already do. These are people who work in low paying jobs, sometimes part time, or sometimes they are stringing together 2 or 3 part time jobs at minimum or very low wages, in order to survive. They have no benefits, no health care plans, no pensions, very little. These are folks who are setting the temperature in their homes at 60 and barely turning out lights in their homes. Life is difficult for them.
There are people who are disabled because of all sorts of reasons. Again, they struggle to make ends meet on very, very little money.
There are people who are mentally ill. Some live under the bridge. Some live in places (or sleep in places) that might boggle my imagination. We have found 'sleeping spots' behind the tree in front of our building on Spring Street.
As a plug for those of us who are in the downtown churches, those of us who get branded as the 'evil liberal churches,' if we were not there a lot of people would not be eating or not be receiving clothing or blankets.
Answers? I don't have any. I just know that we have a huge problem. Some of us are busy doing first aid with our band aids and first aid kits, but the problem will still exist.
"The "better people" process starts with education" Bluegill wrote. Education is a stage of development that is three years out from birth. The critical time is birth - three. I see teen-age mothers here who dont make ANY investments in their babies other than providing basic care. Other's are neglected, abused, etc and show up for Kindergarten wholly unprepared to learn and years behind already. So at three years of age, it's game over. Join the permanent NA underclass. Pick your poison to numb out to the pain - religion or booze...Blah, blah, my point is: Education is second most important aspect of the "Better people for NEw Albany" movement, the first is better parenting.
John - I have a quote from Ezra Taft Benson that I think is appropriate here. While I don't agree with his theology, his words are true. "The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature."
Your church does a great deal with this problem at the source. We can only hope for more to join in.
John, I believe you recently delivered a sermon along the lines of Daniel's last post. See, I told you I wasn't sleeping :)
Annie, I didn't think you were sleeping!
I do mostly agree with you Daniel. It's important to note, however, that people's faith might not lead them out of poverty. Jesus offers new life, but does not promise economic prosperity. Alas, Jesus had a special love for the poor and invites followers to have that same kind of love.
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