By Tahlia Terhune
Lakewood, and much of Tacoma, is not always recognized for being a well-kept neighborhood.
While there are undoubtedly beautiful views to be seen from the city we call home, some neighborhoods do not embrace the cleanliness.
City officials in Lakewood have begun to tear down buildings and clear lots, according to Q13 Fox News. Community members are tired of the indecency provided by some community members.
“There’s debris, there’s glass, there’s hypodermic needles, there’s actually been a lot of drug activity on the property” said Jeff Gumm from the Lakewood department of Community Development.
As part of the neighborhood abatement program, the City of Lakewood is taking steps to clean up neighborhoods by creating a process to deal with properties specifically. According to the City of Lakewood and The News Tribune:
1) If there is a complaint about a property, the owner is notified and a hearing is held.
2) If the owner doesn’t clean up, an abatement order is signed, the city does the cleanup. The property owner is then billed at 12 percent interest.
“When houses are a mess, it seems like nobody has pride in our city,” said David Tamayo, a Lakewood resident of two years.
“I think this program is a good way to motivate community members, but it is a little extreme to invade someone’s personal property.”
While it might be necessary steps to take, it does seem quite enforced. You’ll find our own community of Parkland modernizing the community in a round-about way.
PLU recently constructed Garfield Station which includes apartments and attractive housing for students. This new construction increases the attractiveness of the immediate area surrounding PLU, whether that was the original intent or not.
It provides a variety of additional housing to PLU students.
As Lutes, we take pride in our community, whether that be by character or appearance.
“It doesn’t bother me how the homes look,” junior Andrew Cheney said.
“I think it’s a good way to clean up the community, but at the same time I also don’t believe it’s the city’s responsibility and it shouldn’t be the university’s either.”
If anything is to be taken from this, I suggest we take pride in our home whether we own or rent. Let’s embrace the great character and uniqueness of our city and where we choose to call home.
