Yes, that’s right – FREE MOWING.  One great thing about Evansville is the free mowing of the beautiful green spaces.  That is, if you live in the right neighborhood or on the right street.  If you live in one of the less privileged neighborhoods, some of your green spaces are likely turning brown because no one is mowing them for free or otherwise.

Evansville has a lot of green space with the State Hospital grounds, Wesselmans, Garvin, Bayard, Aiken and many other areas, but most importantly almost every house has a yard. In many neighborhoods, there is even a green lot where a house used to set.  For most residents the green space is up close and personal. This green space with proper maintenance brings neighborhoods together with soothing aesthetics that improve the quality of life in many ways.  Without proper maintenance, the aesthetically appealing green turns brown and frightening.  Snakes, rodents, bugs and crime take over to promote fear, anxiety, and depression.

People want to live in and own property in good looking neighborhoods because they can relax and not worry about perceived criminal activity that might be going on in vacant unkempt properties.  The blighted un-groomed lawns in Evansville have a human cost in lowering the quality of life for those living around it.

If you live in the arts district around Haney’s corner that nice landscaped lot next door or across the street is likely owned by the Evansville Brownfields Corp. (EBC) and being mowed every week at the cities expense.  Most of the approximately 120, once blighted, properties owned by EBC are in the “chosen” arts district area.  In an Aug 2 2014 Courier and Press article by Mark Wilson, the Director of the Evansville Department of Metropolitan Development (DMD), Kelly Coures, indicates that the city is paying an estimated $120,000 annually to mow these properties.  The city has the money to do this.

Now if you lived in the Jacobsville area it’s a different story. The city has a different approach that I have not yet figured out. No weekly mowing with city funds here.  There is supposed to be a weed ordinance with code enforcement based on complaints but I don’t see that working.  Some properties like the one on Mary Street, were flagged in May but still have not been cut the first time.  The grass has reached its mature height, produced seed, and is now turning brown.  If we get a week without rain these yards will be ideal for a simple lit cigarette to take out a couple of homes.  The city does not have the money for code enforcement to prevent this.

Not every lot in Jacobsville is overgrown.  The code enforcement program has mowed sporadically here and there and somebody is mowing lots like the one at 210 W Maryland on a regular basis.  Who is mowing in Jacobsville? Talking with Naomi Frymire who, along with her husband, owns her home at 212 W Maryland, I learned that not only does the city not mow the vacant lot, 210, next to her for free; but, she pays the cost of mowing and also pays the city for the privilege.  To protect her green space she bought the lot next door for $1000 when the house was torn down and now pays to have the lot mowed and pays taxes on the additional property.  Now if she could just get rid of the zombie house on the other side at 214 W Maryland. Like many residents she has taken on the burden of one empty lot and willing to take another.  She would be glad to pay the taxes and mow the property if the city could just haul off the garbage first.  But the city does not have the funds to haul off the garbage in this area.

Funding on the horizon?  The Mayor and his DMD have a new initiative.  I read with interest Council Member Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley’s Sunday special to the Courier and Press titled “Brownfields initiative would improve quality of life”.  With the exception of the very confusing title and facts that it is not an “Evansville Brownfields Corp” (EBC) initiative and making the EBC a city funded Land Bank would be the continuation and expansion of something that is not working.  I agree that funding for demolition and code enforcement needs to be increased.  I don’t agree that “it is imperative that vacant lots be gathered by one entity”.  I think with the EBC’s history of secrecy and the city spending about a thousand dollars each on mowing EBC land banked lots, we certainly do not need to expand their program tenfold.

We do need some initiatives implemented, but making the EBC a tax funded land bank is the wrong priority. Residents in the neighborhoods are willing to pay to mow these lots – let’s help them do that.  In March, I attended a DMD sponsored meeting with a city hired consultant: Center for Community Progress.  The last paragraph on the handout about LAND Banking states:  “A land bank is not a panacea for all problems, or even a necessary entity in many cities”

The consultant is right.  We do not need a LAND Bank as a priority.

Please take time and vote in today’s “Readers Poll”. Don’t miss reading today’s Feature articles because they are always an interesting read. New addition to the CCO is the Cause of Death reports generated by the Vanderburgh County Health Department.

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