After eight years on North Hoyt Street, Ian Blanton had enough.

He was tired of the drinking, the fighting, the theft and the reckless driving, he said. Something had to give. So on the second Monday in August, he decided to try something he’d never done: he walked into the basement of the Mountain View Community Center, took a seat at the back of the room, then waited for more than an hour for a chance to stand and say his piece in front of the Mountain View Community Council.

“I’ve just had enough,” Blanton said. “I now have been starting to patrol my own street; my own area.”

Things have changed “drastically” in the eight years he’s lived in the neighborhood, Blanton said. It seems like there are more homes for sale now, he said. He worries about squatters and drifters, and the people who sit and drink on the corners in the places where streets are blocked to traffic. It makes it hard to walk down to the corner gas station to pick up a soda in peace, he said.

There aren’t enough police in the neighborhood, Blanton said, and when he calls, it takes too long to get a response. He’d like to see more foot patrols, he said. He just wants things to change, he told the council. This is how it starts.

“I want to be a more active member of this community,” Blanton said. “I’m tired of just standing back and watching things happen, you know?”

The next Mountain View Community Council meeting is scheduled to take place Oct. 8 at 6 p.m. at the Mountain View Community Center.