MAY GREENE NEIGHBORHOOD RANKS CONCERNS

Equal enforcement of existing property maintenance ordinances was ranked the top concern of residents in Cape Girardeau's May Greene neighborhood.

Residents of the South Cape neighborhood met Saturday morning to voice their concerns about cleanup needs.

On Monday, City Councilman Melvin Gateley, who co-hosted Saturday's meeting, had tabulated the votes and ranked residents' comments.

The concerns which got the most votes from residents called for equal enforcement of existing codes, assigning a city staff person to regularly enforce city ordinances, putting some "real teeth" in enforcement, and setting a time limit on enforcement.

"What they're saying is, we've got the ordinances; let's use them," Gateley said.

Rounding out the top five list of concerns, in order, were holding tenants responsible for maintaining property and paying rent; condemning run-down property or requiring the owner to bring it up to code; controlling noise on the streets; and more drug enforcement.

Gateley used the same tactic with the May Greene cleanup that he used for compiling the Cape Girardeau Public Schools' master plan: List everyone's suggestion, ask folks to list their top five concerns and assign a point value to each based on how often and how high it was listed.

Gateley said he and Councilman Tom Neumeyer, who represents the south side, will meet with other groups interested in cleaning up the area, including the Downtown Merchants Association and the Haarig Area Development Association, to discuss possible solutions for residents' concerns.

Then the councilmen will call another meeting with residents to get their input, and the results will be presented to the City Council.

It's important that everybody concerned work together to improve the neighborhood, Gateley said.

"This goes through a lot of processes, but it gets results," he said. "It usually comes out pretty darn good."

A walking survey of the May Greene neighborhood done in July identified five areas of concern, including trash, overgrown yards, junk, abandoned houses and poorly maintained property.

The neighborhood is bounded by William Street on the north, the Southern Expressway on the south, the Mississippi River on the east and South West End Boulevard on the west.