Midvale Park residents bend city manager's ear, following spike in crime

CREATED Mar. 7, 2013 - UPDATED: Mar. 8, 2013

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  • In the fight against graffiti, abandoned shopping carts, and other crimes, Midvale Park residents have proved successful. Now they worry, their past success is hindering their future prospects. Video by kgun9.com

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Reporter: Maggie Vespa

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - In the face of graffiti gone wild, a stockpile of stolen shopping carts, and what residents call a 'rising threat from crime', people in Midvale Park told the Tucson city manager they have had enough.

"There's been graffiti, there's been potholes there's been shopping cart issues," said Joe Miller. 

And in the fight against these problems, he knows Midvale Park has proved successful.

But now Miller worries they may have been too successful.

"We talked to transportation, and we got lights on Midvale Park Road, but quite honestly we've waited seven years to get lights on Oak Tree. You go to Sunnyside, there's lights on every little road there is," he said.

Miller worries, Midvale's past  success is hurting its future prospects, when compared against rougher neighborhoods.

So Thursday night he invited Tucson city manager Richard Miranda, as well as representatives from the city's police and fire departments, to weigh on how Midvale can get its fair piece of the city's budgetary pie.

"Some of the new normals are out there in terms of response times and what's available because the economics of the situation with government and the police dept being somewhat short of staff and how we respond to situations is somewhat different," said Miranda.

His advice, is essentially, keep doing what you're doing.

That means reporting crime, communicating with police, and watching out for each other.

Still Miller hopes those in power keep their visit in mind.

"The sign enforcement isn't happening. Code enforcement isn't happening," he said.  "You can't rely on us to tell you every little thing.  You have to see it yourself."

Miranda also reminded residents here of how much progress they've made. 

Thanks in part to their efforts, the city of Tucson recently formed a 'shopping cart task force' to tackle that problem on a larger scale.