Our City's Mission - A Return to Civility

The street life in some of Huntington's neighborhoods has given way to social and physical incivilities. The result? Additional rapidly deteriorating areas of the city.

Social incivilities include public drinking or drunkenness, rowdy and unsupervised teen groups, sexual harassment on the street, arguing or fighting among neighbors, open prostitution, and—since the mid-1980s—public drug sales and the presence of crack addicts.

Physical incivilities include abandoned buildings, graffiti, litter, vacant and trash-filled lots, unkempt yards and housing exteriors, abandoned cars, and—again, since the mid-1980s—the conversion of houses and apartments to drug-selling locations. Until we eliminate the social and physical incivilities of our declining neighborhoods, we will retain the reputation of being an "unlivable" city.

Candidates for Mayor of Huntington must discuss this issue and outline their plans for bringing civility back to all of our neighborhoods. What evidence do you see that incivilities exist in your neighborhood? What could be done to make your neighborhood more livable?

(Note: the photo is that of the interior of an abandoned house on 13th Street in Fairfield West. There are scores of houses like this in various neighborhoods citywide.)