Discuss if you wish.Neighborhood rep says mayor, council ignoring code issues in New Albany, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune).
On a cold evening in February, Greg Roberts listened attentively while Mayor Doug England promised responses to residents’ concerns over code enforcement and safety within 30 days of a public forum held at Central Christian Church.
Now Roberts — who serves as president of the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association — wishes the administration’s stance on blighted housing and property would heat up like the weather.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Open thread: Elected officials still ignoring code enforcement?
From the Sunday paper:
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4 comments:
My thoughts are pretty well known, so I will rest on those, except...
Remember how the Council used to get an update from the previous president of the Building commission every couple of meetings or so? I have not seen this happen since Steve LaDuke was replaced. You know, by someone who lived in the city.
Well, Ms. Coyle rightly made fun of me when I stated back then that we should wait the 30 days for the mayor to respond. I thought when he made that promise at the forum that it was going to be difficult to have an answer to everything, but I took him at his word.
Indeed, the 30 day promise was a mistake but the administration has made some slow progress on code enforcement. The proof of intent, if any, will come when we start to see serial violators in court.
Expectations, though, have to be realistic. Code enforcement is a necessary but single element of revitalization strategy, not an outcome in and of itself. The process will be slow even with aggressive enforcement, should it happen. Visible, tangible relief for neighborhoods will take longer and require additional, non-code related efforts.
I have no problems with holding the administration accountable for enforcement promises made. What's more important, however, is the creation of a sustainable community development effort to accompany whatever government action occurs.
The responsibility for that endeavor falls not on local government (though they could be a partner) but rather on citizen activists. I hope that process will begin soon.
Otherwise, all the energy exerted on the enforcement issue will have little overall revitalization value and the "do nothing" criticisms will have to be shared by the critics-- and that includes a lot of us.
For its part, the current council has yet to address code enforcement/revitalization issues in any meaningful way.
"Code enforcement is a necessary but single element of revitalization strategy, not an outcome in and of itself."
No, for all the victims of slumlords, including poor people, children, the elderly, residents who are investing not extracting value, etc., you know - people, code enforcement is about as good as it gets for better living standards.
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