Residents of District C who attended a city-led community meeting Monday were quick to cheer on their peers as they voiced concern on topics like property standards, poor drainage and juvenile crime.

But what one man said had nearly everyone in the room clapping or shouting in approval.

The man, a long-time resident of District C and vocal participant at the neighborhood watch meetings, said he was tired of hearing people complain about issues when few have made efforts to solve them.

“What we need is cohesion, and we need it bad,” he said, sparking applause.

He said the city doesn’t have enough money to — nor can it possibly — fix every issue in the district. Residents need to do their part, he said, by getting involved in efforts like the Oak Park Neighborhood Alliance and neighborhood watch meetings.

Kimberly Dellafosse, founder of the neighborhood alliance and newly appointed assistant city administrator, echoed his comments.

“Do not underestimate your power as a community,” Dellafosse said.

Another topic at the meeting, the third in a series of district meetings hosted by Mayor Hunter, was property standards. One resident complained that landlords don’t keep up their property or maintain adequate standards for their tenants. He asked the city to be more proactive in addressing this. 

District C councilman Rodney Geyen said he was aware of the problem. He said the city enforces laws that hold landlords accountable for their tenants and that it has recently shut down a handful of rent houses because of poor standards.

Another resident said trash on the streets and people parking on the sidewalk in her neighborhood have devalued the area and created a negative environment.

“It has gotten so horrible, if I had the money I’d leave,” she said.

Another resident complained about “streets with four and five lights out.” She said when the city does replace the lights they hack up the trees. Others brought up uncut grass.

“If property standards were doing their job we wouldn’t have some of the issues that we have,” said one resident.  

Mayor Hunter acknowledged that uncut grass was a problem. He said there has been “a lot of internal discussion” about the tall grass issue and that the city is working to reduce the lengthy state-mandated process of approval before it can take care of someone’s yard.

Residents also requested that all their bus stops have covered benches. The city plans to add 10 new covered bus stops around town and is conducting a study of its transit system to identify where improvements can be made, officials said.

Other ideas brought up at the meeting were introducing toll roads and cutting down on nonessential spending, such as fireworks. As with each community meeting, residents weren’t short on things to say about drainage and juvenile crime.

The meeting followed others in District A and District B. The time and place for the next meeting, in District D, hasn’t been announced.

Members of Hunter’s Community Advisement and Assessment Board attended the meeting to help gather ideas. The board members are as follows: Junaid Abbasi, Dr. Robert Arango, Rev. Joseph Banks, Courtnee Brown, Sean Corcoran, Randy Fuerst, Rev. Steve James, Catherine Riggins and Sylvia Stelly.

Residents can visit the Lake Charles Police Department’s Facebook page for updates and neighborhood watch meeting times, or sign up for updates on Nixle.com or Nexdoor.com. Call Lt. Craig Wright at 337-491-1456 ext. 5251 or email cwright@cityoflc.us for more information.

For other comments, call the Mayor’s Action Line at 337-494-1346 or email mayorsactionline@cityoflc.us.

District C resident Debra Landry. (Rick Hickman/American Press)