Some Fulton Street residents are fed up – and we really can’t blame them.

For the second time in the past few months, residents spoke before the City Council asking for something to be done to rein in unruly behavior on their street. Police are called, police respond, police de-escalate the situation and then the situation repeats itself. It’s a horrible way to live. And, for too many in Jamestown, these situations are all too common.

There is little, sometimes, that police officers can do. There aren’t many laws that deal with the sort of threats and general unpleasantness that is common in many city neighborhoods. Even if the issues rise to the level of police being able to file charges, the charges and ensuing levels of penalty don’t result in much of a deterrence.

So what, then, can be done? We’ve spent a lot of time talking about neighborhoods in Jamestown for the past 20 years. A fair amount of money has been spent trying to improve the quality of housing and neighborhoods – and while we have succeeded in some areas halting the creep of blight the city as a whole is still struggling to create livable neighborhoods where people coexist. Homes may look better, but issues like those frustrating Fulton Street residents continue.

We offer no magic solution to solve the issues on Fulton Street or on similar streets in Jamestown. It’s a societal problem that is being dumped in the council’s lap. People just struggle to get along more now than they did decades ago. Maybe a nuisance property ordinance passed last year can help. Perhaps the eventual restoration of a nuisance officer in the city police department can help tamp down issues in neighborhoods. Maybe there is something being done elsewhere that we can do here.

Members of the council’s Housing Committee should at the very least research some possible actions that fit within the state’s current criminal justice structure that could help Fulton Street residents.