Editorial: City remiss in allowing squalid park

Tuesday, April 13, 2004 | 8:39 a.m.

It was nice to see the city of Las Vegas respond over the weekend to the life-threatening squalor pervading the Sky-Vue Mobile Park. Deputy City Manager Betsy Fretwell and Councilman Lawrence Weekly were among the officials who spent time at the park, observing the horrendous conditions and giving residents vouchers for short-term alternative housing. Unfortunately, the city was not voluntarily responding to the needs of those who live in the more than 100 mobile homes at the park. It took a court order, issued in response to a request by the Clark County Health District, to finally generate the city's response. The court order, issued Friday, came just days after this newspaper reported the park's hazardous conditions and disclosed that the problem worsened over time as city officials failed to take strong action and failed to coordinate with other agenci es.

Responding to the situation at Sky-Vue will require far more than ordering the owners to make repairs and attending to the temporary housing needs of dislodged residents. The city needs to develop a whole new way of responding to code violations. At Sky-Vue, the city had previously issued a few citations, but had not followed up forcefully. Nor had it worked with the fire department, Health District or state Manufactured Housing Division to ensure a coordinated response to conditions that threatened the residents' lives.

Sun reporter Sito Negron reported that water to the mobile homes was being delivered via garden hoses, a clear violation of plumbing codes. And it gets a lot worse. Raw sewage from leaking sewer lines was pooling beside and under the homes -- with many of the garden hoses submerged in the pools. Even a pinhole in one of the hoses could have contaminated a family's water. Additionally, electricity to most of the units was provided by extension cords strung along bare, wet ground, setting up the potential for electrocution and fires. Any fire would have been a serious threat to life, because there are no fire hydrants. The homes themselves were standing code violations, with broken windows and holes in walls, floors and ceilings.

Weekly acknowledged while at Sky-Vue over the weekend that "... the city should never have let it get to that point." In our view, the city needs to act quickly in reforming the way it investigates code violations. And before tragedy strikes, it needs to assess how many more Sky-Vues are out there and respond immediately -- court order or no court order.