David Norman recalled a time that he would put on his coat to leave his home at the Church Street South housing complex, hear gunshots, take off his coat, and wait 15 minutes before he put his coat back on to leave.
“We don’t have that now,” said Norman (pictured in green jacket), who has lived at the complex for 26 years.
Norman was one of a handful of neighbors who attended an inaugural community meeting Monday night to talk with the neighborhood’s top cop, Lt. Holly Wasilewski, and voice their concerns about crime.
Wasilewski plans to make the meetings a regular occurrence, on the first Monday of each month, at the crime-ridden privately-owned, government-subsidized complex across the street from the train station.
Wasilewski said she often meets with community members after an incident. With the meetings, she said, she is looking to be “proactive, not [just] reactive.”
Most of the talk Monday night centered around drug dealing and people using drugs in the hallways and stairwells of the housing complex, but also about positive changes that have happened
“You don’t see the violence and fighting like you used to,” Norman said. “I don’t know, maybe they’ve locked up all of the ones who were doing it.”
Norman said that increasingly drug dealers at the complex are young kids who should be in school.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Wasilewski (pictured) said things have changed a lot around the complex from when she first started working there. She spent the first 11 of her 14 years working the complex; random gunfire was a common occurrence. She said it still happens, but not nearly as much.
Police officers who work the area try to keep the city abreast of issues with street lighting to make sure the area stays lit up and gives criminals fewer places to hide. But it is an ongoing struggle. After going through a long stretch with no homicides, Wasilewski said, homicides occurred in the complex in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
She said one of the challenges involves the police detail that works the complex four days a week. Back in the day when she first worked the complex, a dedicated group of 15 or 16 officers policed the area seven days a week and got to know most of the residents. They knew who lived there and who didn’t, which made a difference in being able to spot a troublemaker and give that person the boot. Now the officers are assigned based on who is available. That keeps the police presence in place, but it is harder for the officers to know who lives in the complex and who is there to cause trouble.
Wasilewski encouraged residents to make use of *67 to anonymously alert police when they see criminal activity.
“You’re our eyes and ears,” she said. “We need your help because you see more than we do.”
She said the city is in the process of putting up cameras at the train station that will face the housing complex. Cameras also are going up at Church Street South, Columbus Avenue and Union Avenue.
She cautioned that cameras don’t catch everything. Residents still need to help be the eyes and ears for their community.
Complex resident Sajib Mitchell said he sees the drug activity in the complex, but he’s more worried about his children seeing it. The father of six said his oldest is 9 years old, an age at which he notices that other neighborhoods are nicer and cleaner than the one they live in.
Litter is a big issue for the residents. The complex maintenance crews are busy with keeping the place picked up during the week, but Mitchell said it gets really bad over the weekend.
“I ask my son if he wants to go outside and play, and he says, ‘No, all the kids around here just want to fight,’” Mitchell said.
Mitchell, who has lived in the complex for a year and a half, said his children’s bikes have gone missing. But if he sees a child riding a bike that looks like one of theirs he doesn’t say anything because he doesn’t want to start a fight with another resident.
He said it helps to have the police come down and listen, but he’s not sure if it will change the problems.
Manuel Aldarondo (pictured talking with Lt. Wasilewski), residence coordinator for the complex, said has worked at the complex for 14 years. He said 90 percent of the 285 families who live there are composed of good hardworking people who don’t cause any problems.
He said he wanted residents to meet with Wasilewski and have a chance to speak out about the things that they see, and work together to better the community.
“My main goal is that they know they don’t have to be afraid,” he said.
Wasilewski said she hopes more neighbors will participate in future meetings.
Norman said he’s just one voice speaking up, and “one voice isn’t going to do anything. We need more voices.”