METHADONE'S FEAR FACTOR

SHORELINE -- When Daniel Mann found out in 1986 that a methadone clinic
would be moving into his Shoreline neighborhood, he was nervous. He didn't
like the idea of recovering drug addicts receiving treatment 600 feet from
his front door.

"You wonder what kind of people are going to use this," he said. "It's the
NIMBY (not in my backyard) thing. You don't want things like that in your
neighborhood."

But Mann, a longtime neighborhood activist, said he has been pleasantly
surprised.

"The patients haven't proven to be a problem," he said. "They are people
trying to address issues in their lives and seek a better path."

Residents of the Port Gardner neighborhood in Everett are experiencing the
same fears that Mann and his neighbors had 17 years ago.

Therapeutic Health Services, which runs the clinic in Shoreline and another
in Seattle, is hoping to open a clinic at Grand Avenue and Wall Street in
downtown Everett. Residents' fear of increased crime and falling property
values is one reason the Everett City Council voted last week to put a
six-month moratorium on all new drug and alcohol treatment centers.

But few residents and business owners in the neighborhoods surrounding the
Shoreline and Seattle sites appear to have a problem with the clinics. And
police say the clinics haven't brought increases in crime.

"The whole time I've been here, I've never experienced anything remotely
negative," said Roberta Aleck, who has lived across the street from the
Shoreline clinic for three years.

"I think it's a good program," said Shandell Orr, who also lives across the
street from the treatment center. "People are trying to get off the stuff
that they're on."

Olga Bajaras can see inside the clinic's windows from the taco truck she
opened in November. But she was surprised when told that the clinic
dispenses methadone.

"I didn't even know that," Bajaras said. "We don't have any problems."

However, not everyone in the Shoreline neighborhood is happy with the
clinic.

Mario Chable-Felix said he has seen needles and used condoms in the clinic's
parking lot and worries about his girls, ages 1 and 4.

"My kid wants to ride her bike in the parking lot, and I don't let her," he
said. "What if she goes to pick up a needle?"

Shelby Chadwick, a hairdresser at Shear Power Salon on Aurora Avenue N. near
the clinic, said people she thinks are methadone patients sometimes loiter
in front of the salon, talking loudly and smoking cigarettes. She said she's
also seen people shoot up.

"I don't feel safe here in the morning, especially by myself," she said.

But at the stamp collector's shop next door to Shear Power, Art Van Bergeyk
wonders whether some of the people Chadwick is scared of are actually local
homeless people.

"I try not to make assumptions about people," said Van Bergeyk, owner of
Aurora Stamps. "We see all kinds on Aurora, but I can't say they

have anything to do with the clinic."

Stamp shop manager Gene Holgate leaned across the counter and added, "The
clinic people, they just get off the bus, get their stuff and get back on
the bus."

Shoreline deputy city manager Bob Olander said police recently studied
whether the clinic has increased crime in the area.

"The general impression of the police is that there is no particular or
significant problem as a result of the clinic," he said.

The East Precinct of the Seattle Police Department, which covers the First
Hill residential neighborhood in which a Therapeutic Health Services
methadone clinic is located, hasn't seen problems, either.

"They pretty much come and get their treatment and leave," said East
Precinct Sgt. Bill Herbert.

Josette Ungos said she's had a car stolen and her current car broken into
twice since she has lived across the street from the treatment center. But
the crimes happened in other parts of Seattle, far from the clinic.

"You wouldn't even know that it was a methadone clinic there," she said.
"They're just normal people."

As Ray Anderson entered the building where he and Ungos live, he pointed to
a conservatively dressed woman walking nearby who appeared to be in her 50s
and said, "It's not uncommon to see a woman like that.

"It's not the people you think would be there, and they seem to keep to
themselves," he said. "There are lots of moms with kids."

If anything, the methadone clinics reduce crime in the cities in which they
are located, said David Newman, treatment supervisor for the Shoreline
clinic. Many drug addicts break into cars, snatch purses, prostitute
themselves or commit other crimes to support their habit, he said.

Methadone also gives hope to people like Tim Smith, 31, an Everett man who
battled heroin addiction for more than a decade until he began methadone
treatment 19 months ago.

"This place has helped me 100 percent," he said. "I'd be out on the street
stealing and whatever if I weren't here."

Sidebars:

Moratorium

The Everett City Council last week enacted a six-month moratorium on new
drug and alcohol treatment centers in the city. The council's move came
after residents of the Port Gardner area assailed a plan to put a methadone
clinic in their neighborhood, at Grand Avenue and Wall Street in downtown
Everett.

What's Next?

The city has several options:

It could change the zoning for the clinic site and work with Therapeutic
Health Services, which wants to open the Everett clinic, to find an
alternative site.

It could try to convince the nonprofit group to locate the clinic outside
the city.

Or, under some interpretations of state law, it might be able extend the
moratorium and study the issue further.