HAL GREER CAN'T THRIVE IF IT IS A DRUG EPICENTER

Slowly, Hal Greer Boulevard in Huntington is changing. From
KineticPark at the south end to the Marshall University campus at the
north end, the street is becoming the region's center for medical
education and research.

The Edwards Comprehensive Cancer Center is under construction. Cabell
Huntington Hospital could soon break ground on a new wing. Physicians
offices are popping up along the street.

But there's a down side. When physicians and researchers are recruited
for all those new developments on Hal Greer, they will soon learn they
are close to the region's biggest open-air crack market.

For a while last summer, it looked like some of the drug activity of
Fairfield West was moving to other neighborhoods, but now it seems to
be back to normal. Unless things change dramatically, there will
always be a market for crack and other illegal drugs. And, sad to say,
Fairfield West has become the neighborhood of first choice for dealers
and buyers.

Hal Greer Boulevard is changing for the better. The new look of Hal
Greer could make it the preferred entry and exit route for Huntington.
Too many people avoid the area, particularly at night, when they enter
or leave the city. Those three conditions can't continue to co-exist
if Hal Greer is to be the street it should be.

But that brings up other questions that no one really wants to answer:
Will the city more or less allow Hal Greer to continue to be the
center of the local drug trade, or will the city try to move it
elsewhere? And if so, where?