On the Trail

Like I said before, the “campaign trail” is made up of sidewalks leading to the doors of homes where people are raising their families.

I’ve heard more than once that people want Pflugerville to remain a great place to live. A lot of people want Pflugerville to grow in a responsible way, where leadership is grounded in common sense, and is mindful of the people we serve.

I also heard people’s concerns amount unwelcome changes coming to Pflugerville. Primarily that vandalism and petty crime are increasing, and people not taking pride in the care and maintenance of their homes. During the Pflugerville Justice Center Open House, I was surprised to learn that marijuana is being grown in our neighborhoods.

These seemingly simple problems are part of a series of interrelated, complex issues that the City has to address. H. L. Mencken’s quote, “for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong” is apropos. The simple answer is to add more police and more code enforcement, but these actions only address the symptoms not the cause of the problem.

We have a growing community with relatively affordable housing and limited resources. The challenge is to identify all of the tools that we can use to effectively tackle these problems. The best solutions are seldom the obvious ones. Some of the things that we can do are:

• Maintain trees and shrubs to improve line of sight

• Improve lighting

• Work together to keep our neighborhoods looking good

• Participate in our neighborhood watch programs

• Talk to your neighbors

• Modification of the development code

• Create and enforce nuisance ordinances

• Report suspicious activities, better safe than sorry

It truly comes down to if we are looking out for each other. Isn’t that what friends and neighbors are for?