It's disappointing to hear a resident express that their own "quality of life crime" issues are important and mine are not. The JC resident should be heartened that a quality of life discussion has actually made it to the attention of our officials. The issues brought up by the writer are totally valid and deserve equal scrutiny, however city wide lease and feces pickup laws are already on the books and deserves enforcement.
The common issue we agree on here is encouraging the enforcement of the laws already on the books in our city. It's been well documented by urban studies how negligence of minor crimes by authorities leads to more of the crimes that cross the threshold of what the police choose to enforce. This is called the "broken windows" theory. When our laws are inconsistently or not at all enforced it leads to disrespect for them. What is one to think when you follow a police car unstopping down Newark Street from Jersey to Grove, where the south side is clearly marked no standing or stopping and is filled with stopped vehicles that force you into oncoming traffic? It makes me think they don't give a damn about the risk to my life on a bike that this poses. The writer's concern for noise is well taken, I once stood next to a motionless officer while a mufflerless Harley fired up next to him. When the bike had departed (and a voice could be heard) I asked him why he didn't cite the rider while he was stationary, as opposed to the usual roaring flyby. I received a lame explanation of the difficulty of proving he had no muffler! Perhaps if he had ticketed him he might have found an outstanding warrant for his arrest. This is the theory of quality of life enforcement. I find it ludicrous that the NID gives $100 tickets for weeds over six inches, while the patrons from the bar on my corner can wake and trash the block with impunity. Supporters of Restaurant Row should realize this is what the neighborhood fears from later hours, and a shrug from the police is not going to gain their confidence.
At a neighborhood meeting opponents of dog control threatened that if the dog laws started being enforced, then in retaliation they would insist on enforcement of a "wheeled vehicle ban law" in the parks, i.e., no bikes. This argument highlights the ridiculous of having unenforced laws so ubiquitous. I say enforce them, or repeal them if they are unacceptable. Unenforcement validates scofflaws.
Jon Gellman
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