The Neighborhood Advisory Council’s charge is to provide advice to City Council and key City staff about issues of concern to them and that impact neighborhoods. In providing such guidance, NAC has frequently asked for input from the City’s 18 registered neighborhoods through their various association representatives.
This input is typically combined with independent study of a given topic, which together become the basis for recommendations. I guess in some small way, we’ve tried to have our process seek truth. Perhaps St. Paul summed it up pretty well when he said, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
We as neighbors in our various neighborhoods really are members of one another, and in that sense, we impact each other and we need one another.
Over the time that I have been NAC chair, there have been a variety of questions that NAC has tackled in the way I have described, and so I thought I would outline some of the insights gained and project the same approach of truth-seeking to some other issues present to us today. Maybe as we think about them, we can better formulate ways to improve our neighborhoods and our membership one to another.
Online sales provide each of us access to a great many products and services with an ease that was unimaginable just a few years ago. It is also causing many local jobs and businesses to be lost, and our city to lose millions in sales tax revenue that we each rely on for police, fire protection and a myriad of other services. We each bear a part in those negative impacts when we make purchases that do not collect sales tax.
Here in Springfield, it is my understanding that there is a trash hauler that charged one client $68 per quarter, and an elderly widow three blocks away $112 for essentially the same weekly trash pickup. Elsewhere in town, that same company charged one customer $36 and another $66. Around the country, most major cities have consolidated systems and the rates paid are typically lower than any of these figures. That same hauler sent a postcard to its customer base recommending each contact their City Council representatives to stop studying trash consolidation. Many did. City staff was prepared to provide education about the local waste removal business to the public as a means to engender informed opinions. City Council voted 5 to 4 to shut this down and consider the matter no further. That measure to shut down was publicly posted late on a Friday and the vote was taken the following Monday.
Time and again, when asked, residents list crime and nuisance properties as the top concerns in their neighborhoods. City staff and City Council have ushered in ordinance changes and reorganized staffs to help address these matters. Ordinance changes do not improve the conditions in neighborhoods, but enforcement of them does. The new director of Building Development Services (the department responsible for much of that enforcement) says he needs many more inspectors in order to keep up with the mountain of violations that are out there. It remains to be seen if the City Council will adopt a budget that provides for the additional enforcement officers.
As of late February, there are well over 100 short-term stay rental houses operating in violation of zoning ordinances in Springfield. Most advertise under Airbnb and similar websites. At a recent City Council public hearing on the topic, over 20 individuals rose to express opinions. All of those who lived near existing short-term stay rentals told stories of noise, congested parking and fear of strangers coming and going in their neighborhoods. Many who operated these rentals lauded them.
One neighborhood association representative requested that there be an ordinance passed allowing a neighborhood to vote to allow or not allow them in their neighborhood. Another recommended the proposed ordinances be less restrictive. There is evidence elsewhere in the country that living next door to an STSR can erode property value. In contrast, STSR owners have also been credited with improving neighborhoods by cleaning up what were otherwise derelict properties. Like a lot of issues that come before City Council, they must weigh the potential for negative impacts to a neighborhood, the fair and reasonable expectations of residents who rely on the protections of zoning ordinances, and the economic value of STSRs. No doubt, a difficult challenge.
Last year, Springfield Public Schools tried and failed to get a bond issue passed. NAC’s study of the issue found that many whose neighborhoods would have been slated for a school closure or consolidation did not feel the proposed benefits of the changes would offset the impact to their neighborhoods, primarily because the proposed changes were not designed to improve learning outcomes in any demonstrable way.
In their follow-up report, school system officials have indicated that many voters felt the bond issue was “too big.” In their study, did they ask too big for what? Had they asked that question, would the answer have been different? For example, was the request too big if the proposed investments had been designed to improve learning outcomes by proven means? Would my kid have gotten a better education if the investments had been made? Was that case made? So today, we see the school system again studying neighborhood school consolidations with the closed school buildings proposed to be used for regional preschool operations and other purposes. So it follows that under the proposal, more young kids would go to school outside their neighborhoods and start doing so at earlier ages. Will this improve learning outcomes, and how will it impact the neighborhoods? How will parents of meager means be impacted?
Recently, we saw student protests calling for gun legislation. Guns are tools. They were necessary tools in creating our country, preserving our freedom, protecting us from crime, assuring our farms are not decimated by deer, and yes, are used by criminals and the deranged. They also play central roles in the products of the entertainment industry. It is easy to recommend for “reasonable” gun legislation, but not so easy to figure out exactly what that would be.
By analogy, consider the smartphone. Today, a vast number of us place them in the hands of children. They provide a vehicle for learning and communication, as well as a tool that incites bullying, reduces acquisition of social skills, exposes millions of youngsters to pornography, acts on our brains like addictive drugs, and in some cases are the catalysts for distraught students to find a gun and start shooting. Are we ready to speak truth about these issues, and engage in the hard work of figuring out what can work, or are we OK with some quick attention-grabbing sound bites and finger-pointing in a society that spurns personal responsibility?
There are certainly other issues that tear at the fabric of our neighborhoods. My home was recently burglarized. Springfield Police Officer Nicolas York came by and did a great job investigating. The total number of property crimes in Springfield (stolen vehicles, burglary, theft/larceny) rose by 5 percent in 2017. Property crime is a significant issue that affects every Springfield neighborhood.
The prevalence of domestic violence also continues to impact us in a great many ways. Obesity, health issues, isolation are but several of the other issues that impact us.
I haven’t tried to recommend future actions above, but rather to request that we each take to heart St Paul’s recommendation to put away falsehood, speak truth one neighbor to another, and from that, formulate actions that go to the heart of our challenges. Perhaps we can also encourage our City staff and City Council to always have the courage to make good decisions in light of truth.