What Is Code Enforcement Waiting For?

It seems to me that enforcing the city code is critical beyond just keeping the city from looking horrible.  In my mind, keeping code violations to a minimum by enforcing the code consistently and equally can also prevent serious escalation of issues between neighbors.  No one should have to ask a neighbor to remove or to cease creating a clear code violation that is also a quality-of-life issue.  It often doesn't end well and certainly doesn't foster friendly neighbors.  Think of the City Code as protection against all sorts of things, including ugly reactions from our neighbors who we may know little about.

The last thing that City Hall would want is for a resident to knock on the door at 328 State Street to ask the property owner there to remove their shopping carts full of trash along the sidewalk, and for that request to escalate into violence and injury or death.  We all know that in America there is no shortage of people knocking on neighbors' doors (or just entering a driveway) only to be shot at, stabbed or reported to the police as "threatening."  Recently, as you may know, a father in Texas asked his neighbor to stop shooting his gun in his front yard, and the gun-crazed lunatic responded by killing most of the father's family, including his wife.

It is with this in mind that I ask:  Why the hell is Code Enforcement allowing these shopping carts full of garbage to remain on the sidewalk in front of 328 State for months, some locked to the fence?  What about the bags of waste in the yard?  Does Craig Haigh find this acceptable and not a code violation?  Is Code Enforcement waiting for a neighbor to be shot at or stabbed in the neck by a homeowner who doesn't appreciate being asked to do something that he or she doesn't consider a problem?

How would Kamal Johnson or Craig Haigh then respond to the media?  Would they claim that they didn't know that there had been a clear code violation on the sidewalk in front of 328 State for months or years?  Or, perhaps, that they knew about it but didn't care enough to do anything to prevent the violent episode?  That they were "shocked" by the escalation of events?

It is my understanding that Code Enforcement does not actively look for code violations such as the one found on the sidewalk in front of 328 State.  And even if they noticed this violation, they probably wouldn't do a thing about it.  Rather, Code Enforcement only responds to complaints from residents.  In other words, they are not proactive about enforcing certain code violations that affect us all, but just reacting should they be notified of any violations.  And so, some violations remain for months or years, affecting everyone's quality of life in Hudson and allowing for conflicts with neighbors just trying to make someone clean up their mess everyone has to see.

The shopping carts full of crap and the bags in the yard in front of 328 State should not be a matter for any resident to try to resolve.  Who wants to do that anyway, possibly risking their life?  Is Code Enforcement not willing to knock on 328 State's door for the same reason?  Isn't Code Enforcement supposed to protect us from dealing with or seeing this ugliness?

Code Enforcement's phone number is 518-828-9241