We need to restore alleys, not close them
The Arizona Republic featured “Phoenix moves to close some alleys.” The discussion of closing, maintaining or continuing to neglect alleys is loaded with many causes and effects.
Is closing the alleys the way to keep crime from getting up, over and down into our backyards?
The issues of alley discussion have to do one with the other. Police officers tell us that alleys kept weed-free with no construction material and no bulk trash until the week before bulk trash is scheduled for pick-up provide no places to hide. They say that outsiders do not dump trash in clean alleys. Police can easily see from one end of the alley to the other. Residents feel safer putting their waste into the large black containers when they can see all the way left and right.
Gates at both ends of an alley decided one section at a time with keys for the residents raises questions: What about access for utility and city services? What about emergency vehicle access? And what about the cost of gates?
Consider a half-square mile section of our city three blocks wide with 15 cross-streets. It has 45 alley sections. Ninety gates and locks would cost about a quarter million dollars.
In our neighborhood we judge less than 10 percent of our alley sections to be clean and clear. Glancing over many alley fences and walls, fewer than 25 percent of our neighborhood backyards are pleasant outdoor spaces. Many are places of waste, junk and storage. What then would become of alleys if they were gated?
What do the alleys of Phoenix communicate? The drivers who frequent our alleys to remove our waste tell us their work is difficult and Phoenix alleys are hard on the trucks. Once a year we get together with the neighbors behind us to maintain the alley between us free and clear. It was work the first number of years. Now it takes less than two hours and costs less than $20 for the bagels and cream cheese to go with the coffee and juice we enjoy afterward. We’ve become acquainted, and we watch out for each other’s properties.
What if the City of Phoenix were to close all alleys? In Germany, people use spaces at the back of their properties to grow flowers, fruits and vegetables with benches for sitting to chat with neighbors. What if we were to clear all 45 alleys of our neighborhood, request the city to grade and dust-proof them, then keep them weeded and free of overgrown grasses and debris? The cost would be almost nothing. All waste would be correctly managed and crime would find itself hard to feel at home.
Instead of closing an alley, can we engage people to restore them?
Richard Staats is a retired Lutheran pastor and a 30-year resident of the Willo Historic District of Phoenix. Email him at dick@couplecare.com.
We’ve all heard the expression “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” I have many friends who stopped taking The Arizona Republic and watching local “fake” news last year because of the perception of bias.
The problem now is I can no longer discuss Arizona topics with these friends because they are not informed.
So I am aiming this opinion at those who feel The Republic is biased.
How does one put a liberal spin on the “In brief” column?
How does one spin excessive-heat
Your paper has maligned Joe Arpaio at every turn for years. He was found guilty of a misdemeanor and pardoned by the president.
His crime was that he knowingly violated a federal judge’s order to stop detaining immigrants simply because they lacked legal status. Yet you have spent nearly zero time regarding the treatment of immigrants by so-called sanctuary cities.
Sanctuary-city officials have released illegal immigrants without contacting ICE, resulting in felonies including murder, e.g. Kate Steinle.
President Trump said in his news conference with the president of Finland that he announced ex-Sheriff Arpaio’s pardon last Friday night, in the midst of Hurricane Harvey, “because I assumed the ratings would be higher than they would be normally.” So does that mean he pardoned the convicted former sheriff to draw attention to himself, or to insult the maximum number of people with his utter lack of respect for the judicial process? Or both?
— Scott Cox, Phoenix