I have written in other papers that Tempe is a first class city, and a wonderful place to live, work, and raise a family.  I continue to believe that is true, however, there is still room for improvement.  I want to talk about three areas in need of improvement; graffiti, maintenance of alleys, and code enforcement.  Each may seem minor individually, but taken together, these three issues directly effect property values, quality of life, and city livability.

For those of us who have lived in Tempe for many years, we know graffiti has been on the rise.  When I first moved to Tempe in 1990, there was little to no graffiti in the city.  In fact, I do not even remember seeing graffiti until about 10 years ago.  However, bit by bit it went from being a minor occurrence, to a serious ongoing issue.

You may have heard of the “Broken Window Theory.”  This is the theory that says if a broken window is not repaired, it is much more likely that additional windows will be broken.  However, if it is fixed, the odds greatly go down that an additional window will not be broken.  The same is true of graffiti.  Leaving the first bit of graffiti, even for a few days, encourages additional graffiti, which encourages the decline of an area.

In fact, I keep the Tempe graffiti hotline in my cell phone ((480) 350-8384) and encourage others to do the same.  And yes, as nerdy as it may sound, I have for years called it whenever I see graffiti in my neighborhood.  In fact, a quick review of my phone history shows I have called the graffiti hotline 23 times since May of 2010.  (Actually, I  have been calling it for years, but May 2010 is when I switched to my new phone)  I encourage you to do the same.  However, beyond that, the city should redouble its efforts, before the “broken windows” get to the point it can no longer do cleanups fast enough.

Another area of serious concern are maintenance of alleys.  Unlike graffiti, this is an issue Tempe has recognized, and has begun to address.  However, there is still much to be done.  Alleys can set the tone for the area.  Loose trash, weeds, falling walls, and upkept areas only encourage vagrancy, lack of upkeep, and vandalism.

Tempe cannot fix the problem ad-hoc, but must keep to a schedule of cleaning the alleys, repairing walls, and repaving alleys.  This cannot be spot work, it must be a budgeted, ongoing effort, without interruption.  In fact, I have emailed the city in the past with ideas about how to use technology to improve this issue, as well as graffiti and code enforcement.

The third area of concern is code enforcement.  We all know who the neighbor is that fails to maintain their property.  The grass gets tall, the weeds grow through the rocks, cars are parked in the front yard…  And we also all know the neighbor who calls the city for the smallest code violation.

Nobody wants Tempe to take on the properties of an over-zealous HOA.  However, Tempe code enforcement sometimes waits far too long to send out “reminders.”  Not fines, but reminders, as I truly believe most of the Tempe residents, if sent a polite letter from the city about maintenance, would take corrective steps before additional measures would be necessary.

Taken together, graffiti, maintenance of alleys, and maintenance of private property, are critical areas of improvement for Tempe that will greatly enhance the quality of life in the city.  Things are good, but we can do better!

(See my email to the City talking about cost efficient ways to fix these issues.  While other candidates may talk about these issues, I am the only one who has been actively working for years to try and address it.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows

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