If I had to make a choice between the prior gang, prostitution, dope dealing, and other illegal activities (violations) that Salemtown was well known for. Or this mud violation. No contest..... The cause of that violation [Steve Yokley's failure to control erosion from his construction site] will make for a better neighborhood. The others will not.
- - Commenter JM defending UP, LLC a couple of months ago
New buzz on "houses of ill repute" continue to spring up in Salemtown Neighbors' on-line discussions today. I'm also hearing a good deal of anger expressed at police for what seem to be diminishing patrols. One neighbor reports witnessing police allowing a squatter who had taken up residence in an abandoned house on 6th Avenue to get away in spite of attempts to draw their attention to him climbing out a window and trudging off down the street.
I cannot help but recall how defenders of real estate investors Steve Yokley and Taurus McCain talk about how their developments are driving away problems like prostitution and drug dealing. Mr. McCain even stood before the Metro Council last week and told them during the Public Hearing on Salem Gardens that he was proud that their developments were doing just that.
Today I'm getting word of an alleged house of prostitution and drugs believed to be on 7th Avenue. Also, ironically, a trustworthy source tells me that an alleged hooker is currently renting one of Mr. Yokley's older Salemtown properties. Making our neighborhood better, huh? The moral power of real estate investment would be staggering, I'm sure, if it had any teeth in its impotent jaws.
We are still waiting for a response from the Central Police Precinct on this issue. Heck, I'm still waiting for Central to get back to us on the drive-by shooting near 8th and Garfield the other night. You would think that we would have been advised on that yesterday, given the nature of the crime.
Good luck on getting the police to do anything. But why sit around and wait for the police to take action?
ReplyDeleteIt's time to turn words into action. Neighborhod activism in its greatest form.
If you want a clean neighborhood, get out and help clean it up. Organize and start watching the place. Openly film people coming and going from the place (from the street...I think it's legal). Make sure you have a group that does this and don't do it alone.
Once a neighborhood becomes "unfriendly" to crack houses and whore houses, they will leave.
But be safe.
Welcome back, blake.
ReplyDeleteSome of us have considered those possibilities. We also have to consider our safety.
Having little regard for my own safety and a long burning desire to deliver a fine ass kicking to violently aggressive riffraff I'll gladly attend/photograph a group stakeout.
ReplyDeleteMy husband has a ninja suit.
ReplyDeleteDid someone say "Neighborhood Ninjas??"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=m9nVENReGBY
I'm all talk and no muscles (or balls, for that matter). But, it'd sure be funny.
S-TownMike,
ReplyDeleteYou have to be honest. The streets have cleaned up tremendously over the last few years. The new development in turn has spurred the removal of abandoned houses and injected the area with a sense of renewal. So the spin you're trying to put on my comment is pretty clever. As a whole the neighborhood is a better place because of all of the development that has happened in Salemtown.
JM
Mike,
ReplyDeleteYes. There is the safety issue and I can understand that, but there are power in numbers (and maybe somebody on hand from the neighborhood with a carry permit). I'm not trying to lob any bombs here either. I think it's a great thing if a group of neighbors get together and organize and act to clean out the scum in their neighborhood.
JM: I owe no acknowledgements to someone who hasn't lived in my neighborhood. That goes for you and the absentee developers whom you support without question.
ReplyDeleteWhat has cleaned-up the streets in the last few years is the neighborhood watch started by the people who live here working with the police to investigate and to arrest. There is nothing in development that forces drug trade or prostitution out of a neighborhood. Rises in economic development can just as easily translate to high quality drugs and higher priced hookers. At one time I lived over on Blair Blvd. in the very well developed Hillsboro Rd. neighborhood. A nice house there was raided and the police broke up a prostitution ring working out the house. Hence, economics is not in itself a crime deterrent as developers would have us believe.
My experience as a resident here is that visible hooking has increased more in the past few weeks. That defies your theory about development, which is exploding. And these developers whom you defend have never taken crime seriously here to begin with. Even after I found an semi-assault rifle that gang members threw over my fence when they were being pursued by police, one of the Schoene Ansicht developers continued to insist that we didn't have a gang problem, saying that "these are just a bunch of kids." Well, this bunch of kids were carrying weapons that could easily mow down a crowd of innocent bystanders. He should have said that he didn't have a gang problem because he didn't live here.