I attended a couple different meetings last night and it was great to see so many familiar faces. The first meeting was about a new park that will be built at the corner of Arlington and Lee St., which will be great for this part of downtown. The purpose of the meeting was to get input from residents about things they’d like to see at the park. It sounds like the park will be a great place for families to take their children – not to mention that it will be one step in the right direction to improving the South Elm / Lee St. area.
Now, the second meeting of the evening was much different than the first as it was a community watch meeting for the greater MLK area. The GPD led the meeting, but from the start residents wanted to know what was being done about the convenient store located at 1202 Martin Luther King Jr Dr (Citgo). The store, which appears to sell more alcohol than anything, draws large crowds of people causing loitering and it makes residents feel downright unsafe.
From what I gathered the GPD had hoped to use nuisance abatement to alleviate the problem, but they have since found out that that is not a viable option. The officers in attendance (one was attending the meeting on his day off) stressed that they are keeping an eye on the store and that they have serviced the location about 180 times since January. The officers stated that they need the communities help to rally around the problem and be the eyes and ears for the department.
The GPD report sheet made it clear that they are putting forth an effort, but I can understand the resident’s frustration. In close proximity to the store there is a barrel that acts as a trash can, and it is continuously full of empty 40 oz beer bottles. I can assure you that folks aren’t drinking the alcohol at home and bringing the bottles with them to trash in this particular spot. They are drinking right out in the open, something residents see all the time, and they are simply tired of it.
One item that was mentioned by both the GPD and residents is that it would be helpful to have more plain clothed officers (also unmarked cars) working the area. I couldn’t agree more. When officers drive around in their marked cars they set off a network of alerts amongst drug dealers and folks that are up to no good. The same thing happens when a plain clothed officer walks down the street. One officer said, “They have sophisticated communication networks. They probably even know my work schedule.”
Alleviating the problem is going to take some work, but it’s something that I think is definitely doable. I’ll have to end this post with “to be continued.”
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your mailbox is full. Tweet me when I can resend (blitzcat)
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