A Deficiency That Keeps Coming Back to Bite Us.

Mention of this problem was first made recently in this blog regarding traffic problems, and car accidents, on 6th Avenue.  Whether it was speed, distraction (my guess was mobile phones), or various causes of carelessness, it seemed we weren't enforcing enough.  And "enough" really has two operational indicators.  By definition, we weren't enforcing "enough" to prevent all the accidents.  But even as a Village theme, and a historical one, we weren't enforcing as much as we used to, when we told everyone, and were known for it, "Don't Even Think About Speeding."  Our ticket-writing statistics proved we meant it.  (Art Gonzalez dug up statistics to show how drastically our enforcement fell apart in recent years.). In the old enforcement days, if drivers did the next thing after thinking about speeding -- they sped -- they got ticketed.  And not only did they get a ticket, but they also got the message.

Now, we're talking about one particular issue, which is the driveways and swales Ordinance (update), and we're again noting some requirements that are not new, but also not followed.  They haven't been followed on some properties for several or many decades.  They're not followed, because we don't enforce even the Ordinance we already have.

There are some long time Village residents who will tell you that failure to follow rules, and lack of enforcement of those rules, has noteworthy consequences for how the Village looks.

What's unfortunate, and perhaps moreso now, as values/assessments and prices are climbing, is that some people chose to live in BP, because it was cheaper to buy a house here than it would have been to buy one in, let's say, Miami Shores.  And it was cheaper to buy a house here, because BP is not as nice a municipality as is the Shores, because we don't enforce enough to make it nicer.  Those people presumably didn't want to have to follow rules, and pay the cost of following them.  So, the people who are spending more now are living in a municipality that isn't as nice as it should be, because we don't bother to follow, or enforce, our own rules.  We don't do it on 6th Avenue, and we don't do it anywhere.  (It's true the speed limit on 6th Avenue isn't our own rule, but if we had had our way, the limit would be lower than it is, and we would still not be enforcing it.  At the cost of cars, physical health of drivers, and security of people who live on 6th Avenue.)

It's maybe not entirely clear whose fault this is.   In theory, it's the manager's fault, since the manager controls the police chief, and the police chief controls the police.  And the manager also controls the Code Compliance Officer.  But the Commission exerts very important control over the manager, including choosing which manager candidate to hire (and what to tell him or her is really important to us), and whether or not to retain the hired manager, so maybe it's the Commission's fault, too.

In any event, we seem to be sort of globally falling down on the job of enforcement, about most things in BP.  We still pay property taxes, though, so there's a disturbing disconnect somewhere.  To put it one way, we're not getting what we're paying for.