At the Tuesday, October 27 City Council Meeting, Matt Holden—currently running for a seat on City Council—criticized the City’s handling of neighborhood resident concerns. Holden began, “While going through different neighborhoods discussing the issues of Lancaster City with residents, I frequently hear people refer to their neighborhood as a ‘forgotten’ part of the city.” Holden said he has heard this complaint from residents of Cabbage Hill, the 6th and 7th wards, and annexed neighborhoods along the Conestoga

To demonstrate his point, Holden cataloged a number of resident complaints, including:

• Parking problems on a two-way section of Lime Street
• The need for four-way stops in the northeast
• Complaints of crime in Cabbage Hill
• Increased drug trafficking in the West End

Holden recommended that Council appoint neighborhood liaisons to solicit local input and report back to the Council with concerns and potential solutions. “We need to stop fooling ourselves into thinking that we know what is best for a neighborhood that we don’t even live in,” Holden said, “We need ears and eyes in every neighborhood.”

In response, Randolph Carney, a city resident who has regularly attended City Council as well as committee meetings for nearly five years, noted that “most of the issues that [Holden] talked about have been addressed in the last couple of years.” Carney concluded his remarks with a broad commendation for the current City Government: “I’ve been watching this City Council, and I’ve been watching this Mayor, and I know from my personal experience that you are doing the best job that any human being possibly could in your position.”

Mayor Rick Gray’s report to Council responded to the claim that the City has not done enough to serve its neighborhood residents. Gray proceeded to recount several quality of life related initiatives brought about in the last four years, prefacing that many of these issues were first raised through nearly 30 neighborhood meetings. According to Gray,

• After single hauler trash collection was sponsored in 2006, litter has been reduced by 25%, and recycling has increased by 40%;
• 287 additional trash receptacles have been installed, primarily within the city’s neighborhoods;
• A 2002 rental unit inspection ordinance was belatedly enforced in 2007, resulting in more than 6,000 inspections, and more than 1,000 rental units being registered for the first time.
• Nearly 500 property use violations were issued in city neighborhoods, addressing overgrown grass and weeds, excessive trash, abandoned vehicles, etc.
• For “the most serious offenses,” police response time has improved by 25%; response time for all calls has been improved by 18%.

Gray: Attack ads hurt the community

Following the Council Meeting, NewsLanc asked Gray for his response to the provocative campaign mailers released this week by the Friends of Charlie Smithgall. “I think it’s sad to play to fear that way,” Gray said. The ads, in a gritty typeface, declare, “Mayor Gray’s Lancaster / More Crime Than Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Reading”

Gray asserted that the FBI statistics from which this ranking is derived must be interpreted cautiously: “If you check the FBI website, it says, don’t use these rankings, because it would be misleading and over simplistic.” A visit to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report website confirms Gray’s assertion. Before allowing access to the report’s homepage, the site presents the following caveat:

“Caution Against Ranking

“These rough rankings provide no insight into the numerous variables that mold crime in a particular town, city, county, state, or region. Consequently, they lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents. Valid assessments are possible only with careful study and analysis of the range of unique conditions affecting each local law enforcement jurisdiction…

Gray said that the mailer takes the report’s findings “out of context,” adding that “If you say Lancaster has more crime than Philadelphia, our Chief of Police would fall on the floor laughing. He spent 29 years [there].”

According to Gray, the political ad’s message “hurts the city because it plays on stereotypes of the city being a very dangerous, dangerous place….To just play on that the way that mailer did, and the way [Smithgall’s] campaign has, I think is very detrimental to the city and basically…puts his election above the interests of the city.”