MARYSVILLE – “In a perfect world, we’d all live on a Street of Dreams,” Ed Bailey said as he walked around his Shoultes-area neighborhood this week. “But this is a Street of Nightmares.”

Bailey is one of five people who spoke about their problem neighborhoods to the City Council this week.

“These people would not be able to live in Mill Creek or Lake Stevens” because of their public nuisance laws and enforcement, he added.

Bailey and the others are challenging the city to pass laws that have some “bite instead of barking.”

Bailey settled in Marysville in 1975, taught and coached at Everett High School, and then was athletic director at Lake Stevens, before retiring in 2012.

He has lived in a five-bedroom house overlooking Quil Ceda Creek all of that time.

“Some of my neighbors then are still here,” he said, walking through his decorative back yard with a basketball court, fire pit, hot tub and so much more.

Some friends he went to church with lived next door. But they moved a few blocks away decades ago to upgrade, he said. They owned the house and haven’t done much of anything with it since, except store belongings.

They pay their taxes, but “it’s a blight on the neighborhood,” Bailey said.

He said he talked to them over 15 times about buying the property and fixing it up as a rental. Bailey said the admitted “hoarders” rejected each offer.

He said about seven years ago they started to put on a new roof, but quit before finishing. Rusted nails are still on the roof, and the box they were in has disintegrated.

Along with that, the house next to his has been empty for five years. A military family owned that one, and fell behind on rent “like a lot of people” during that time. They walked away from it, and the bank has not put it up for sale. The house shows it.

A tree fell onto the house during a storm months ago, and Bailey noticed limbs were being cut off. He figured out that squatters used the limbs to heat the place.

Squatters have been attracted to both of the houses because of a suspected drug house nearby. He said he’s seen bicyclists with backpacks riding in the area at night, figuring they are either stealing items and/or selling drugs. Crime, such as car prowls, has become a problem. His home has been broken into twice.

“I resent what’s happened to my neighborhood,” Bailey said.

He added that as long as there is no pressure on these people to clean up, they won’t.

“If a dog takes a crap in the neighborhood, and I don’t clean it up, I can be fined,” he said. “There’s a code for that.”

Bailey said posts he’s put online about the issue on social media have gotten a lot of traction.

“It has an effect on how people feel about their community,” Bailey said.