SR TARGETS DRUG HOUSES, CODE VIOLATORS

City Posts Big Warning Sign In Front Of Home In Effort To Improve
Deteriorating Area

In a first in its fight against blight and illegal drugs, the city of
Santa Rosa has erected a Scarlet Letter-style sign in the front yard of
a suspected drug dealer's house.

The black-on-white, 4-foot-by-8-foot plywood sign at 216 Carrington St.
says:

"No illegal drugs will be sold or given to any person entering or
leaving these premises. A violation of this order could subject the
occupants and owner of the property to criminal and civil penalties.
This property is being watched by the Santa Rosa Police Department to
assure compliance with this order."

The drastic action is the result of the Neighborhood Revitalization
Program, a year-old city effort to improve deteriorating neighborhoods.

Learning from progress made in the troubled Apple Valley-Papago Court
area in the mid-1990s, Santa Rosa formed a task force of six city
departments with the goal of attacking neighborhood problems at their
roots, rather than through repeated police responses. The task force,
funded with $750,000 in city money, includes the police, fire, housing,
planning and parks departments and city attorney's office.

After a year of quietly laying legal groundwork, the program burst into
visibility last week when the city planted the sign in the front yard of
the suspected drug house in the Corby Avenue-Olive Street neighborhood.

The sign went up after Judge Lawrence Antolini granted a temporary
restraining order against the owner, Thomas Phillips, and a former
tenant, Shelvy Lane, whom police arrested twice at the house on
suspicion of selling drugs.

A companion suit accuses Phillips of allowing a public nuisance and of
violating health and safety codes for the alleged drug sales.

Phillips was out of town this week and unavailable for comment.

Lawsuits have become the most powerful city weapon to force compliance
with safety codes designed to protect tenants from run-down, unhealthy
living conditions and general blight.

Since the revitalization program began last year, Santa Rosa has filed
seven lawsuits accusing property owners or managers of allowing
substandard living conditions or letting their properties deteriorate
into dilapidated, unsafe public nuisances.

"It's a real proactive role the city is taking to help neighbors take
back control," Councilwoman Sharon Wright said.

Four of the city's lawsuits involve property in the Corby and Olive
area.

Corby-Olive, as neighbors call it, was chosen as one of three focus
areas for the revitalization project. The other areas in the project are
Aston Avenue-Aston Way in South Park and the Apple Valley-Papago Court
area.

The Corby-Olive area is a neighborhood on the edge, residents say.

With a nudge in either direction, it could rebound into a safe,
well-tended community or continue its descent toward becoming an ugly
stepsister among Santa Rosa neighborhoods.

"We're teetering," said Patti Cisco, president of the Corby-Olive Action
Committee. "If we go to discouragement, well, it's over. But if we can
go to encouragement, amazing things can happen."

In Corby-Olive, residents with pride of ownership live next to run-down
apartments or rental houses whose upkeep has been neglected. Graffiti
scars walls and fences. Abandoned cars and shopping carts litter streets
and sidewalks.

For years, concerned residents tried to convince landlords of the
negative effects their neglected properties had on the neighborhood.
Mostly they were ignored or feared reprisals against innocent tenants,
Cisco said.

"We had a lot of issues with absentee landlords, decay, junk, landlords
not taking care of their properties, drug houses, some gang activity,
lots of graffiti, tons of abandoned cars," said Cisco, who has lived on
Boyd Street for 10 years.

"As a group, we'd try to put together our plan and make calls to get the
city to notice there were issues here. It was very discouraging."

But since the revitalization program started, she said: "We know we have
backup."

The program aims to teach residents how their diligence can rescue their
foundering neighborhoods.

Plus, they have the power of the city attorney behind them.

As a result of one of the suits in the three focus areas, a long-vacant
house frequented by vagrants was razed, another one was sold and fixed
up by the new owner and another was bought by the adjoining property
owner.

Sometimes lawsuits, court orders and fines are the only way to get a
landlord's attention, Deputy City Attorney Michael Casey said.

"For most slumlords, the only thing they understand is a powerful kick
in the stomach," he said.

After a suit was filed against John and Dorothy Halloran in December
because 20 of their tenants were living without heaters at 106
Sebastopol Road, the couple's son took over the property and has made
$100,000 in improvements, Casey said. All tenants have moved back in.

Sherman Campbell, who Casey said owns or manages hundreds of rental
units in the county, is the target of two suits filed last month. The
complaints allege 14 of his properties are in violation of dozens of
city and state fire, safety, building and health codes.

He declined to comment on the specifics of the suits, other than to say
he has been delayed in the city permitting process. Two of the
properties are in Corby-Olive, and the other 12 are in a two-block
stretch of Aston Avenue.

Percy Malone lives in the same Theresa Street home her parents bought 40
years ago, and she's watched the neighborhood deteriorate over time.
She's ready for change.

"The neighbors are fed up and want to take the neighborhood back and
make it a better place," she said.

The revitalization program has not only inspired residents to care about
their own blocks, but even more, Cisco said.

"I'm very proud of my neighborhood. We take pride in trying to look at
what the deeper issues are," she said. "We want to be a part of shaping
the future here. I see such an opportunity for other neighborhoods worse
than ours, and even better than ours, to work with the program when
they're done with us."