Blight fight will mean more work for Environmental Court
G.C. Woods has lived in his tidy home made of stone and brick at the end of Netherwood Avenue for more than 50 years.
It’s where Woods, who retired from ScheringPlough after 36 years, raised six children with his late wife.
The street in the Glenview neighborhood of South Memphis was different then, with well-maintained homes and pristine streets.
And although some homes are as well-kept as before, others appear neglected, with garbage carts that are always at the curb and trash that clogs storm drains.
Others may be upset that the city of Memphis plans to crack down on common code violations – like garbage carts left at the curb or littering.
But, Woods, 85, and a lover of cleanliness, is
Illegal “set outs,” for landlords who evict a tenant and leave the contents of the rental at the curb, without it being bagged or contained and for more than 72 hours
Improper materials placed in recycling carts Illegal dumping
Commercial vehicles not properly covering loads
Hauling used tires without a permit Littering by motorists
thrilled.
“I’m 100 percent behind it,” Woods said.
Last month the Memphis City Council approved $1.4 million in the city’s next budget to create an 18-member environmental enforcement team that will target the more frequent code violations as part of the city’s ongoing battle against blight.
More code enforcement will mean more citations. More citations will mean more work for the Shelby County Environmental Court.
And the court, said interim Judge Patrick Dandridge, is ready.
He doesn’t know how many of these citations were issued in the past, but they’re prepared for whatever comes.
“I know just from the compliment of employees I have here – two referees and the judge – we should be able to handle the increased capacity of additional cases,” Dandridge said.
He has spent 15 years working to eradicate blight in Memphis, with time in the city attorney’s office and a stint as the deputy of director of public works overseeing code enforcement.
“Prior to coming on the bench I was working with public works to set up the entire department over neighborhood improvement. So all of those new inspectors would have been under my watch to manage,” Dandridge said. “I think that this is exactly what Environmental Court was set up for.”
He believes the attention given to these offenders is really an opportunity to eventually change behaviors.
“Environmental Court, it’s a court not to punish. It’s really a court to try to get people into compliance,” Dandridge said.
Violators need to be educated and given an opportunity to correct before fines are issued, he said.
“After a while people will start behaving appropriately and I’m glad the court is here to help – in the tradition of Judge (Larry) Potter (the county’s first environmental court judge),” Dandridge said.
The enforcement team is new, but the ordinances they’ll be enforcing aren’t.
“They’ve been in effect for a number of years, some of them,” said Robert Knecht, city director of public works.
But until now there haven’t been enough resources to enforce codes at this level.
“We just didn’t really have anybody dedicated to these type of issues,” Knecht said.
Knecht doesn’t know how many citations were issued in the past for these types of offences. Code enforcement officers issued citations for illegal dumping and other violations, but Memphis police officers were more likely to cite someone for littering.
“I told the council this will really be a learning curve this first year,” Knecht said.
No one will be arrested and the most they can be fined under state law is $50.
So, the city won’t be using the program as a revenue source, he said.
“This is about cleaning up our city. This is about educating the public,” he said. “The city, we haven’t been doing a great job in this historically, because we haven’t been managing proactively with blight.”
That’s good news for Woods, who very recently had a tire dumped in the vacant lot across from his home.
While sitting on his porch on a recent afternoon, he recalled seeing a man in New Orleans who took it upon himself to dispose of properly a box from a chicken restaurant that had been thrown to the ground by someone else.
“He got out the car, went over there and picked the chicken box up and walked all the way across the street over there and put it in the garbage, came back and went on down the street,” Woods said. “Now he cared about the city.”
Folks in Memphis need to follow suit, he said.
“This is what it will take,” Woods said. “Because I’d love for this city to be clean.”