This time, the city needs to stand firm on code enforcement

For decades Hamtramck has been, at best, spotty about enforcing housing and building codes.
When city code enforcers cracked down, a howl of protest would go up. Predictably, the city would often back down. That was just a small part of the overall dysfunction of our city government.
In the meantime, many of our commercial buildings and houses continued to look run-down. Now, the city has beefed up its code ordinance that addresses noxious weeds from getting out of control.
Recently, our city code enforcers cited some property owners on this, and once again protests were made.
This time the city isn’t backing down (well, at least not yet).
While we like Hamtramck being funky and to a certain degree loose in some ways, our housing stock has been wearing down fast in recent years. It’s time for the city to remain tough on this issue, and keep cracking down.
There is no reason to let your property go downhill. By doing that, you are affecting the property value of your neighbor’s house or business.
There is such a thing as taking pride in your house and community. If you allow a blight problem to get past the stage of a warning letter, you have some serious responsibility issues.
And if you are a Hamtramck business owner who lives in the suburbs and manages to keep your nice, suburban home up to code but let your Hamtramck property go to weeds, maybe you are doing business in the wrong city.