After watching the rental property next door deteriorate for 20 years, Cloquet resident Mark Vandervort turned to the Cloquet city council on Tuesday.

At his wits' end, Vandervort asked the council to create a better path for holding landlords accountable for hazardous conditions or nuisance issues at their properties. He talked about garbage piling up outside the rental home on Prospect Avenue until he paid to have it removed himself, and plenty of police visits over the years. A renter told him the sheetrock in the back bedroom fell down on their child's bed, and another resident has brea...