There is nothing that makes a community look more unkempt and trashy than abandoned houses and junk cars littering a driveway or street. All our communities have this problem, but the Covington City Council is taking steps to combat this blight.

The council is presently reworking ordinance 8.16.010, which will give city inspectors the power to force owners to remove junk cars from their properties and will allow the city to take matters into its own hands if the owners will not cooperate.

The ordinance will also allow inspectors to use other methods to contact the owners of unsafe or unsanitary houses, such as contacting the bank or lien holder.

We support the council's efforts to clean these distractions up.

These eyesores not only look unpleasant, but they can sour the opinions of tourists, filmmakers and other future business opportunities. More importantly, these abandoned cars and buildings can be unsafe, and the last thing we want is for a child or adult to be injured due to someone's neglect.