BOLD DRUG DEALERS RULE NEIGHBORHOOD

Fairfield West Asks Police To Help, But Chief Says Budget Cuts Get In The Way

HUNTINGTON -- Regardless of hour, the intersection of 17th Street and
Charleston Avenue never really quiets down.

Be it 2 a.m. or 2 p.m., the cars roll around the dogleg curves of
17th Street as prostitutes and drug dealers offer their wares. They
hang out on street corners waiting for customers to drive by. They
lean into car windows hoping for a sale.

They do so with little modesty. They do so with apparently little
fear of getting caught.

And in the past few months, it's gotten worse, according to
Councilman Larry Patterson and residents who live near the
intersection in the Fairfield West neighborhood.

"It's no different than a child," he said. "If you don't say stop,
they will get more brave and test the limits. . We need to get this
dealt with."

Monday night, Patterson pleaded with Mayor David Felinton and Police
Chief Gordon Ramey II to take a serious look at the growing drug
problem in the blocks between Hal Greer Boulevard and 20th Street,
and make some changes.

"I understand it is an awesome task, but we need to prioritize what
we are doing and make some changes," Patterson said. "Maybe we need
to look at new ways to do this, new policing or new policies. I don't
know the answer, but I do know the answer isn't doing nothing."

The problems really start about two blocks in from Hal Greer
Boulevard, near the intersection of Charleston Avenue and Cypress
Street.

An old garage sits empty and dark on that corner, surrounded by the
rusting hulks of neglected cars. Patterson points to a gray house
next door to the garage and talks about how just a few months ago, it
was a hotbed of drug activity.

Neighbors complained. Police investigated. Eventually, the tenant
left the home and the landlord cleaned up the property.

On the other side of the garage sits a white two-story house covered
in vines. That house, Patterson said, is basically abandoned. But
many people use it as a crash pad and a stopover if they have no
place to go. "I call this the outer edge of no man's land," Patterson
said as he walked down the sidewalk past boarded-up homes and empty
lots strewn with garbage. "The whole area is infested."

Patterson said the neighbors all know there is a problem here. So do
people around the region who visit the neighborhood to buy crack. So
do the police.

But Patterson and others wonder if the police are doing enough to
tackle the problem.

"I can't say they really patrol the area very heavily," he said.

Ramey, who's been in office just over six months, said the police
force is working with the Huntington Violent Crimes/Drug Task Force
to investigate complaints in the neighborhood, but said building a
case takes time.

Evidence has to be gathered and presented to the U.S. attorney.
Indictments and warrants have to be issued. Then there is the trial.

"It's a long process," Ramey said. "But once a person is convicted,
they are sentenced to 10 years. It takes longer, but the benefits are
better. We could set up a jump-out where we round everyone up, but
the (dealers) would be right back out on the street."

Taking Back The Streets

Ramey said he understands residents' frustration, but the police
department can't do much more. The department is understaffed,
overtime has been cut and no new officers can be hired because of a
looming citywide general fund deficit of between $500,000 and
$600,000. The city also faces a $1.2 million shortfall in medical
insurance costs.

"Council is in a dilemma as much as the mayor is, but something has
to give," Ramey said. "They are calling for more budget cuts, but
they want more protection. I don't know what else I can do."

In a perfect situation where money wasn't an obstacle, Ramey said he
would flood the neighborhood with officers. Police would patrol the
area constantly and make it difficult for buyers to buy and sellers
to sell.

But that can't happen right now. So, Ramey said, citizens need to get
more involved.

"The neighbors have to stand up and take back the streets," he said.
"We can't do it ourselves."

Patterson said community policing is important to cleaning up the
area, but the police have to be willing to work with residents.

The councilman said he recently received a call from a resident in
the neighborhood who said she went to the police department to report
drug activity. While she was there, the woman told Patterson, an
officer told her to report the drug problems to City Council and ask
them not to cut the department's budget.

Patterson said if the story is true, it is unacceptable.

"If a citizen is willing to stand up and report the crime and a cop
says, 'See your council member,' what kind of message does that
send?" he asked. "If the police department is serious about cleaning
this up, let's get serious. The community is serious, and cooperation
has to come from both sides."

Ramey said he has talked to the officer since hearing the story. He
said the officer was just trying to explain the awkward position the
police department is in to the resident.

"It's hard to provide more service to citizens with less manpower and
a tighter budget," he said. "We're doing the best we can."

Inside The Neighborhood

The area of 17th Street, Charleston Avenue and 12th Avenue could be
considered perfect for selling drugs.

The two avenues are narrow and easy to look down, while 17th Street
has a few zig-zags in it that make it natural for people to drive
slow and stop often.

"It's a bottleneck anyhow, so people can stop and not worry about
getting beeped at," Patterson said. "This is where it all originates
and begins."

He said the layout of the neighborhood makes it easy for lookouts to
keep an eye open for police officers who patrol the area on bikes,
motorcycles and in cruisers. When an officer is spotted, the lookouts
can flag the dealers, who can casually walk away.

"It's really hard to sneak up on people here," he said.

Patterson pointed out two young men standing on a corner of 12th
Avenue shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday. They were dealing, he said. When
a police motorcycle cruised by, the two men walked across the street
and disappeared between some homes. The motorcycle reappeared a few
minutes later down the block, and the men hid again.

About 10 minutes later, a cruiser wound its way through the
neighborhood, popping up several times near the corner where the two
men stood earlier.

"There they are again," Patterson said as the cruiser drove by slowly
about 2:30 p.m. "They are doing a wonderful job today. They are
really visible."

Staying Home, Seeing Successes

There have been some successes in the neighborhood. Drug activity at
the gray house on Charleston Avenue has died down. Two other homes
down the street have been boarded up.

"We had quite a problem over there," said Perry Farrow, who lives
across the street from the gray house. "They would just stop in the
middle of the street and buy their drugs. They didn't care enough to
move out of the street. Thank God it's been cleaned up."

Farrow has lived on Charleston Avenue for about 30 years. He said the
neighborhood was really nice when he first moved in. But as people
started to move away, some of the houses started to fall into
disrepair and problems started happening.

Now, Farrow said he prays things will get better -- for the
neighborhood and the children who live there.

"I just hate to see kids going down the drain like that," he said as
he rested on his shady front porch after spending most of the day
working in his tidy yard. "It's a generation lost, and it has gotten
worse."

Farrow said he understands the tough position the police department
is in, but doesn't think they can sit back and wait for things to get
better.

"I think if you have a job to do, even if you are shorthanded, you
need to pick up the slack and move on," he said.

Even though there are problems, Farrow and Theresa Wilson, who lives
right at the dogleg, wouldn't dream of moving. This is home, they
both said.

And it is home for many other people, too. Even as cruisers prowled
the street and dealers and prostitutes lingered on corners, several
residents were out mowing their grass, trimming their hedges and
working on their houses.

The smell of fresh-cut grass permeated the air.

"It's changed a lot, but this is still home," said Wilson as she took
a break from using her weed trimmer. "There's a lot of traffic, and
drugs are a big problem. But as long as they don't bother me, I don't
bother them."