Better enforcement is necessary, although it does not exist in a policy vacuum.

First the reporter vented, and he had a point. Then he expanded the point into a full-blown editorial, one with which I cannot disagree -- a small quibble aside.

SUDDEATH: Flames spark need for better enforcement, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune)

NEW ALBANY — As I drove my parents toward our dining destination Saturday, they gazed out their windows and noticed the collection of broken down buses and cars on a hillside off Spring Street near the Clark County border.

We’re not from around here, and they don’t visit much, but they quickly pointed out what many outsiders notice when they visit.

“What’s up with the junk everywhere?” asked my mother.

Good question, and one that I’ve learned — after living here for almost seven years — has a complicated answer.

Things certainly do not appear to have become physically cleaner these past few years, and as Daniel observes, this is because the conditions of the game remain preset to encourage filth and disorder. Without an alternative to slumlordism, it will reign by default. Among the alternatives is pro-activity. But here's where my quibble enters into it. Doing something implies doing many things, not just one thing. Life isn't that simple.

I believe this is the biggest issue facing New Albany. Codes are more important than street direction discussions, business growth and infrastructure projects. If properties aren’t going to be maintained, codes enforced, and law violators arrested, few people are going to come to New Albany to live, work or play.

Yes, well ... perhaps. As we've noted time after time, all these policy facets are interconnected. To decry excessive speeding on one-way arterial streets as an enforcement issue alone ignores the plain fact that infrastructure (street direction itself) assists in urging the bad behavior we expect enforcement to curb. One cannot be addressed without the other.

Certainly several residents in my neighborhood believe the current system is failing them. Sure, the reports taken are appreciated, but where’s the prevention? Where’s the follow-up? Where’s the equal protection?

City of New Albany, what’s up with the junk everywhere?

Back in olden daze, when I was a full-time bartender, I learned that abruptly switching the music from Nirvana to Bulgarian Women's Choir at closing time immeasurably assisted the task of clearing the barroom.

Enforcement is vital, but we shouldn't discount the importance of infrastructure and influx in augmenting it.