When a Level III sex offender moves into almost any suburban or small rural community, you can guarantee that residents will raise a ruckus. They’re rightly concerned about monitoring their new neighbor’s movements and behavior and protecting their children from harm. Why, then, is there no similar concern expressed when sex offenders settle in the most vulnerable parts of the inner city?

That’s the question Council Member Don Samuels raised last week. Samuels, who represents North Side neighborhoods such as Jordan and McKinley, was responding to a new ordinance proposed by Council Member Paul Ostrow that would place limits on where Level III sex offenders could live, and he noted with some alarm that as many as 10 offenders are residing in Jordan at any given time. “This has got to stop,” he told his colleagues.

The Ostrow motion, which is likely to ban sex offenders from living within a certain distance from playgrounds, schools, and day care centers, will require some delicate wording, since most every residence in the city lies within close proximity to a park or playground or school. But the new ordinance may also need to deal with a broader issue: landlords who Samuels claims have established a “pipeline” to the state corrections system and are inviting the most dangerous sex offenders into their North Side apartments against the wishes of the neighborhoods.

Despite these and other delicate issues, Ostrow’s initiative is a welcome opportunity to shed light on what has been a mostly invisible problem. Let’s hope the rest of the council—and the mayor—give it the attention it deserves.