[Winona Online Democracy]
Neil K. brings up the unsung underbelly of all city planning and development efforts: enforcement. The Code Enforcement Officer is the last and most important link in the whole chain of actions in the built environment. All the grand ideas and plans of citizens, planning commissions, city councils, developers, and investors are worthless if there is little or no enforcement of the agreed upon decisions. Parking, litter, noise, snow shoveling and other nuts-and-bolts issues strike at the heart of "neighborhood character" and must be dealt with effectively.City Council: fund your enforcement division and stock it with friendly, tough, smart folks (maybe Winona already has them) and you'd be surprised at how much difference it will make in the day-to-day lives of Winona's citizenry. Look at some of the textbook cases of the rise and fall of city government. Snow plowing and garbage removal make the top ten list, many other sexier issues don't even get an honorable mention.I'm reminded of the federal investigation into one particularly tragic commercial airline crash where the crew in the cockpit were recorded having some sort of petty argument over pecking order and status, not noticing the red lights flashing to show they were within 50 feet of the ground, going down. The investigating board's conclusion and advice to pilots: You're first job is to fly the plane.Phil Carlson, Minneapolis_______________________________________________ This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy All messages must be signed by the senders actual name. No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list. To manage your subscription or view the message archives, please visit http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona Any problems or suggestions can be directed to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you want help on how to contact elected officials, go to the Contact page at http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org
