I was startled out of my daze early this morning as I passed a newsstand headline: "Mayor Asserts Authority, Fires Code Chief". It's no secret that Mayor Wiehl and others around Athens have been critical of the effectiveness of City code enforcement, but firing Steve Pierson was a bold and risky move.

Wiehl's choice of a new director will be one of the most serious he makes during his term as mayor. Pierson had 14 years experience as director of code enforcement, and was known as a pleasant public official and an expert on code matters. I happen to think that the code office is partially responsible for the current state the town is in, but the problem of widespread code violation has far deeper roots.

The reality is that barely any community stakeholders actually live in Athens anymore. According to the 2000 U.S. census, only 30% of the city’s houses were owner-occupied, and the gap has widened since then. 2006 population estimates indicate that total city population dropped in the six years intervening, while Ohio University's enrollment swelled. What this means in plain terms is that for a long time now the city has been experiencing urban flight, as townies are edged out by the growing student population. The permanent workforce of the city is clearly much larger than the census homeowner figure suggests, but my assumption is that in 2008 the people working in Athens but living outside the city limits easily outnumber those who have stayed in town.

This situation puts enormous pressure on the code office. The municipal code was drafted back when Athens was a typical residential town, and it has come under constant assault from the combined interests of landlords and undergraduate renters, many -- though by no means all -- of whom seek to ignore or bypass its provisions.

The remaining settled Athenians that want the code strictly enforced sense nightly that our city has lost a healthy balance of town and gown, but by now they are a embattled minority. It’s no surprise that few living outside the city care about code enforcement -- there’s no broken glass on their front walk. If basic city services and infrastructure continue to erode from the population imbalance, though, they too will eventually feel the burn.

If Pierson failed to fully enforce the code, it was because he caved to the pressure on him and his office too often, but any fair-minded person has to ask themselves if they could have done much better at such a thankless job. I salute Steve for his 14 rounds in the ring and wish him the best in future endeavors, and good luck to his successor: put on your reading glasses and lace up those gloves, because you’re going to need both.

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