Achieving positive change generally requires carrots as well as sticks. In North Bend, city officials are wielding both to improve the condition of private property.

The carrot is Mayor Rick Wetherell’s personal campaign to recognize spiffy homes and yards. Since 2004, Wetherell has cruised the streets of his hometown, scouting homesteads worthy of the city’s beautification award.

If you visit a North Bend City Council meeting, you’re likely to see Wetherell extolling the charms of some homestead he spotted on his travels. You’ll hear his lush description of the property and his friendly praise of the homeowner’s green thumb. Then you’ll see him ceremoniously present a plaque to this month’s beaming winner.

Corny? You bet. But an inexpensive plaque and the mayor’s effusive praise would bring a smile to the most hardened cynic. The ceremony reminds everyone that individual efforts to spruce up our property can yield a better-looking town.

As any police officer will attest, looks matter. Pride matters. A well-kept neighborhood is a psychological barrier to mischief and hooliganism. An attractive block of homes improves everyone’s property values, while buttressing the community’s overall sense of its own value.

So kudos to Wetherell for his devotion to carrots.

Sometimes, however, sticks are necessary. Every city sometimes has to crack down on people whose property becomes a hazard or a nuisance. North Bend did that this week, setting deadlines for cleanup or demolition of a vacant house.

The house on McPherson Avenue isn’t the only structure currently under scrutiny in North Bend. Policing neighborhoods is a continuous job in every city.

City Administrator Jan Willis told us this week that North Bend is careful not to overstep its authority. It can’t intervene just because a piece of property is unsightly; it must pose a demonstrable neighborhood problem.

“We have to be careful as a government that we’re not the Ugly Building Gestapo,” she said.

So North Bend is moving deliberately on the McPherson house and a couple of others. Meanwhile, a recent story in The World about Wetherell’s beautification award has prompted some residents to suggest properties for either honors or demolition. Those suggestions may or may not lead to action.

City governments don’t have unlimited authority over private behavior -- and no one would want them to. But slowly, gently, North Bend officials are employing carrots and sticks to move the town in the right direction.