TENANT'S CRIME-FIGHTING LEADING TO HER EVICTION

Landlord Claims Woman Puts House And Its Residents In Danger

Georgia NeSmith and her landlord both want the same thing for
Rochester's Marketview Heights neighborhood, including an end to
flagrant drug dealing on the corner of North Union and Weld streets.

But their disagreement on how to accomplish that goal moved to the
center of their relationship late last month when Jean Longchamps
cited NeSmith's crime-fighting efforts in a notice to terminate the lease.

"I appreciate everything you are doing to clean up the neighborhood,"
Longchamps wrote in a letter delivered May 26 to Ne-Smith.
"Unfortunately, I believe that some of your actions have put
yourself, the house and other tenants in danger."

NeSmith has vowed to fight the lease termination in court and said
Longchamps is caving in to the criminals who are bringing down the
quality of life in the neighborhood.

"We cannot let thugs frighten us into submission," she said.

But Longchamps, who is involved in several grass-roots efforts to
improve Marketview Heights and other city neighborhoods, said
NeSmith's methods attract too much attention to herself and the
four-unit house where she lives.

"I want her to succeed," Longchamps said. "But if she had taken a
more discreet approach, it would be better."

A journalism professor who has been disabled by depression, chronic
pain and chronic fatigue, NeSmith, 57, teaches online college courses
and spends much of her time in the second-floor apartment with a
direct view of the corner.

NeSmith has lived in the apartment since 1999 on a month-to-month
lease that she or Longchamps can terminate with 30 days' notice.

In recent months, NeSmith has displayed a strong desire to close the
Weld and Union drug market, which police say has operated on and off for years.

From her window, she closely observes the corner and writes about
the issue of drug dealing on her Web log. She has taken pictures of
people doing such things as handing small white bags to each other or
leaning into idling cars.

She's a frequent caller to 911 to bring police to the corner and has
built relationships with several high-ranking officers to focus more
attention on it.

Sometimes she stands on her porch with her telephone in hope of
scaring the buyers away. At other times, she simply works in her yard
for several hours at time, drawing pleasure from the knowledge that
her presence is deterring sales and putting a crimp in the market.

Police Lt. Mark Merklinger, who coordinates the crime-prevention
efforts for that part of the city, said Union and Weld has been a
challenge for many years. And the problem is not limited to drug
sales: Two of the four homicides in Marketview Heights last year were on Weld.

"Sometimes Georgia sees drug dealers where there aren't any, but
she's right in what she sees on that corner," he said. "The bottom
line is she's good for the neighborhood because she tends to be a catalyst."

The corner of Union and Weld is ideally situated for drug sales
because it has many features dealers want, Merklinger said. These
include a busy store that creates pedestrian camouflage for the
dealers; nearby alleys for quick escape when patrol cars approach;
and easy access to and from the Inner Loop for suburban buyers.

"That corner is almost geographically designed for drug trafficking,
unfortunately," Merklinger said.

Police have spent a lot of time on the corner in recent months and
say the dealers who haven't been arrested have moved.

The dispute between Longchamps and NeSmith erupted last month after
someone threw rocks through the windows of two apartments in the building.

NeSmith felt sure her activity prompted the vandalism, and Longchamps agreed.

"I don't want to see her shot up or any of my tenants shot up in the
crossfire," Longchamps said. "As the building's owner, I have to be
worried about her safety and the safety of the other tenants and the
safety of the building."

Instead of overt confrontations with dealers, Longchamps said, she
favors a cautious cooperation with police and strategic investments
in residential real estate, which attracts good people to a neighborhood.

Longchamps bought two houses on Beacon Street in the 1980s, which put
her at the front end of the transformation of the Neighborhood of the
Arts from a high-crime area to a successful urban village. And her
late father began investing in the Kenilworth Terrace section of
Marketview Heights in 1979 and is one of the reasons that part of an
otherwise-troubled neighborhood is doing well.

"I have experience in urban pioneering and neighborhood
revitalization," she said. "We've had a lot of success. But we didn't
do it by painting a bull's-eye on our head and antagonizing drug dealers."

But NeSmith said Longchamps is underestimating the negative effect of
such an entrenched drug market, and the eviction will encourage the dealers.

"If I go, she'll be telling people throwing rocks is a good way to
get rid of the people you don't like," she said.

Hanif Abdul Wahid, a member of the Marketview Heights Neighborhood
Association and a founding member of Rochesterians Against Illegal
Narcotics, said the landlord-tenant dispute underscores the
complicated nature of neighborhood revitalization.

One of Wahid's frequent complaints is that people living in poor
neighborhoods are too apathetic about conditions they live in and
tolerate such things as drug dealing. But activists working alone can
frighten other residents from joining the effort and make the problem
appear larger than it really is, he said.

"I admire Georgia for what she's doing, but you want a whole group
involved, not just one person," he said. "She's a little overzealous."

NeSmith said she doesn't know if "overzealous" is the best word to
describe her activity.

"If overzealous means I cleaned them up in a couple of months, what's
wrong with that?" she said.