Responsiveness The Need Is Now

The relentless vote counting in Florida makes it hard for many Americans to focus on the mundane but profound governance challenges that will still be standing when the political tremors cease.

But it’s harder yet not to focus on them - not when they show up throughout the region, from Spokane’s core to rural Bonner County, as the violence and lawlessness that accompany drug dealing.

That was the climate in the 500 block of East Ermina for the past six years, during which Logan Neighborhood residents suffered through criminal activities that ultimately included a shooting.

That neighborhood may get some relief following a raid in October and the arrest of the house’s owner. State law says authorities can board up the home for up to a year. However, even after receiving some 75 calls about the residence and staging three raids, authorities moved slowly because the city attorney’s office was understaffed and uncertain about the statute’s constitutional foundation.

Local officials for whom the campaigning is over and the governing is about to begin should reflect thoughtfully on how much work, study and deliberation has gone into shutting down just one alleged drug house for just one year.

They should then travel about their jurisdictions in Eastern Washington and North Idaho and find out from their constituents how common this problem is - how often the safety of children, the peace of mind of families, the value of property and the overall decency of neighborhoods is eroded by drug dealing.

At about the same time as the house on Ermina was being raided, residents of Spokane’s West Central Neighborhood were telling writers and editors of The Spokesman-Review about the drug houses that torment their own lives.

Usually, the besieged residents said, those dwellings are owned by absentee landlords who care zip about the character of the neighborhood so long as the prospective tenant has enough cash to cover the rent.

If it takes six years of repeated complaints and occasional raids and arrests to shut down one drug house, how long will it take to deal with dozens?

Last week, after seizing a significant quantity of methamphetamine, federal investigators estimated that “staggering amounts” of the drug are in the Spokane region.

That is alarming news, especially to residents in neighborhoods where drugs are likely to be trafficked. Those citizens are entitled to an assurance from their public officials that the problems can be dealt with swiftly and effectively. The process shouldn’t take six years.