City Council

We have been watching the city council meeting for the last hour and a half, had I not had Stake stuff tonight, I would have been down there in the fray causing trouble.

They were debating a parking permit ordinance for our neighborhood. Portions of our neighborhood east of us have been overrun by students living in violation of the housing code. (Too many in a place, not enough parking for them, that kind of thing.) Drew spends plenty of time in the neighborhood giving out speeding tickets, but it doesn't help. some of these knuckleheads don't care. Some of the streets in our neighborhood have problems with parking, people parking all over the place, on the lawns, blocking driveways, where ever they want.

They debated the thing for more than 2 hours, at one point I was on my way down there to say something. (I'm not sure what it would have been exactly, but it would have at least been a stab at ending the discussion and going forward with a vote. Something like "The mayor & city council are well aware of the problems. This is not new, it's been around for a while and is getting worse. Our Stake has written letters, individuals have written letters, law enforcement is constantly called. This isn't a solution, the solution is enforcement, which I'm sure is hard. We have a hard time figuring out who lives where when dealing with church membership records. In the meantime, please do something to help us long time residents who are being impacted by the short timers." Anyway, they called for 2 remaining speakers as I was about to go down there, so I stayed home.

They eventually closed the public portion of the hearing, and they gave the mayor some time to speak. I said "The mayor is finally talking some sense!" Several of the city council were commenting, the one lady who represents us started talking, and the city channel went dead and never came back. I don't know what happened, to the channel or in the city council vote. (They could be still talking about it, for all I know.)

Anyway, parking permit or not, Drew's still going to have to still be sitting right around the corner nailing the speeders and the crazy drivers. There will still be a motorcycle problem in the neighborhood late at night on the weekends.

One thing that might be significant: A couple of people talked about the anger that was bubbling up in the neighborhood about traffic and parking. The mayor talked about how anger about the issue has been building over a long period of time. I wonder if there is something to be said about that. Can something be done about the anger people have over the issue? Would it even help? If the full timers gave up their anger towards the other segment of the population, and found a way to show it, would it make a difference? Or would those who are currently the target of the anger just walk all over them? (We don't have a problem with parking on our particular street right now.)

Or are there other methods? Back in the day when Adam lived with us, we would have people park in front of our house all the time. Usually is was during parties, some were loud. I would park my car behind the car in question, fairly close, Adam would park his Bronco in front of the people, very close, and we'd leave our cars there. It was great fun. We really enjoyed it.

We could also start posting signs on the main streets right here. Something like "The city has a housing code. Are you in violation of the housing code? Are you living illegally right now? Are you violating the honor code? Think about it." Maybe some will move. Maybe not. Maybe we can put up some kind of bounty for people who turn in enough evidence to the housing enforcement office to fix one dwelling.

I figure the enforcement people need someone meaner. I'm plenty mean. I can also be plenty meticulous, when I have to be...