CC MINUTES 07281992 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 Regular Council Meeting 2 July 28, 1992 3 Page 12 4 5 6 7 also mentioned a St. Anthony filling station where the 8 owner evidently believes he can spread the cars he is 9 working on all over the neighborhood. All of these 10 examples Mr. Cavanaugh termed as "disasters not up to the 11 community standards of St Anthony Village" . 12 13 Mr. Cavanaugh said he saw the problems on Pahl as nothing 14 more than cases of meanness and said he believed the City 15 had plenty of laws on the books to prevent such 16 behavior. He said he thought the time had come for the 17 City to quit being "Mr. Nice Guy" and suggested if a car 18 is continually parked across the street from its own 19 residence, the City should be able to tow it. He said 20 those residents don' t like living in St. Anthony, they 21 should "just get out" . He reiterated his belief that if 22 the deterioration near Central Avenue and south of Lowry 23 isn't stopped it would spread because "crud goes to the 24 point of least resistance" . To stop this from happening, 25 Mr. Cavanaugh perceived a need for a citizens committee 26 to study what the standards of St. Anthony are and to • 27 share their findings with the Council and/or the Planning 28 Commission. 29 30 Mr. Burt stated that the Public Works Director had run 31 into many of the cases Mr. Cavanaugh had cited and agreed 32 there was a need for specific ordinances to react to some 33 of those instances. Mr. Hamer says he used to be able to 34 work with people to clear up these kind of problems but 35 now the offenders all demand to know "where' s the law?" 36 The Manager indicated he thought that was just what the 37 City was trying to provide with the proposed parking, 38 housing maintenance code and many other issues being 39 worked on right now in response to many of those same 40 problems. One problem with enforcing the desired 41 standards which the City faces is persons who say, "I 'm a 42 long time resident and shouldn't be treated the same way 43 as people who are newcomers to this community" . There is 44 also a problem with enforcing the law equally and staff 45 tries to work with everyone involved to solve 46 neighborhood problems. He also cautioned that if the 47 Council directs staff to start getting tougher, and to 48 never give anyone a second chance, those directions will 49 have to be followed for everyone because the City can't 50 be arbitrary in enforcing laws. Mr. Burt also told Mr. 51 Cavanaugh the City is working on many problems he knows 52 nothing about and in many instances staff 's efforts to 53 work with people to solve these problems are working.