For the love of God, do something about your damn lawn!!!

Here's hoping that Kansas City isn't just going to use "codes enforcement" to drive out the few remaining minorities near downtown. Instead, it might be more productive to go after large scale property owners who are simply doing their best to profit from and let gentrification take its course.

In a public hearing Monday night, the city’s code enforcement division explained changes it wants to make in enforcing violations such as excessive trash, abandoned vehicles and overgrown yards.

Mainly, the city wants to reduce the time it gives violators before imposing a penalty, said Dave Park, assistant director of Kansas City’s Neighborhood and Community Services Department.

If the City Council approves the changes, officials also would be able to tow a disabled vehicle within 48 hours and issue a notice for an absentee landlord to respond to violations on a property within five days. The current law allows for up to 15 days to respond.

And I guess this is good news . . . Still, in my experience I've never seen codes enforcement used on anyone other than a poor minority whose property "just happened to be" on a highly prized piece of real estate. If KC was honestly getting serious about some of these codes enforcement measures they wouldn't only concentrate of blighted property but some of the many real estate speculators throughout midtown who have let their projects stall and keep so many neighborhoods looking like construction site . . . Those kind of violations along with similar abuses are rarely tolerated in the suburbs but meet with a blind eye in KC proper where "codes enforcement" has become nearly synonymous with a low cost way to hassle poor (mostly brown) people.