Needed: a partnership
The good news on Schenectady’s Lincoln Avenue is that the city and the residents both want the same thing: to see their neighborhood become safer, tidier, more livable. The challenge is getting the city and residents to trust one another a little more, and getting them to act like partners.
City inspectors recently issued code enforcement citations to 23 houses along a stretch of Lincoln, noting things like property upkeep, illegal fencing and weathered facades. The residents, many of them West Indian, feel targeted, as if the city is singling out their neighborhood. The inspectors say they’re just systematically moving through the city, looking for problems and potential hazards. With both sides on the defensive, it’s a case study in communication and relationship building — or a lack thereof.
To begin with, it’s important to note this stretch of Lincoln was once a violent, drug-afflicted street. Now it’s a family neighborhood — and much of the credit goes to the new residents, who bought houses there, moved in with multigenerational
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families and started fixing the old places up. Owner-occupied housing creates stable, healthy neighborhoods, and the owners deserve credit for breathing life back into a block that once seemed almost beyond saving.
On the city’s side, Chief Building Inspector Chris Lunn is absolutely right that vigorous code enforcement is essential. Without it, houses sag, buildings crumble, apathy spreads like mold. Investment dries up, residents flee. “This is the beginning of how a city will decline if these things are not taken care of in short order,” Mr. Lunn said.
That’s true. But considering what the block was like when the current owners started improving it, it’s no surprise things aren’t perfect — and part of that is on the city.
Years of inattention and underinvestment contributed to the neighborhood’s problems. That can’t be solved quickly, or all at once, by current residents. And it’s understandable that residents who feel Schenectady has neglected their block for years would be resentful if the most visible action they see from the city is inspectors telling them to step it up.
A gentler touch could have been more appropriate here, with an emphasis on educating residents and assisting them with compliance. A case in point is landlord registration: Even if both units in a two-family house are occupied by members of the same family, the owner is supposed to register as a landlord. Officials say about 95 percent of these homes aren’t in compliance. Let’s be clear, Schenectady: If 95 percent of people aren’t following your law right, the problem starts with you — either you aren’t getting the word out, or the process is too convoluted. You need to help people comply.
Similarly, until recent years, building a carport did not require city approval. That rule is now changed, and residents with existing carports are supposed to apply to have the structures grandfathered in. Though it’s understandable the city wants to inspect the structures for safety, that’s a clunky way to do it. How can that process be simplified?
It augurs good things for Schenectady that inspectors are holding the city to higher standards than in years past. But the city must pair it with clear communication and guide homeowners to the resources they need. Residents, too, should assume good faith on city’s part, and see code enforcement as working with and for them. They’re on the same team.