BAUMAN IS RIGHT: LOITERING LAW ISN'T LONG-TERM SOLUTION

Based on experience working in two of Madison's "challenged
neighborhoods" and consulting with five public housing agencies in
four other states on drug prevention, I want to express support for
Mayor Sue Bauman's position against a permanent extension of the
loitering law. As a long-term solution the measure has both
limitations and problems. It simply moves the offenders from one
neighborhood to another.

During the early and mid-'90s the city used federal funds for a "weed
and seed" effort in six neighborhoods. The police "weeded" out the
troublemakers and a variety of organizations "seeded" the area with
preventive programs including recreational opportunities for youths.
Crime went down in all six neighborhoods. It, however, went up in the
Allied-Dunn's Marsh area. At that time at least several of the
landlords were not properly screening their tenants and the
neighborhood center had such limited resources that on some days we
had 45 children in the drop-in after-school program with one staff
member.

The loitering law will not resolve the "drug" problem nor is it the
most effective way to support neighborhood preservation and protect
the health and safety of the area's citizens. Those concerned with
neighborhood improvement need to focus on the availability of funds
for drug rehabilitation as well as recreational and other prevention
measures. They need to contact their friends throughout the state and
in other states to stop the planned reductions to funds which will
harm such efforts. Most of the neighborhood centers in the city, for
example, are funded partly from Community Development Block Grant
funds, which the Bush administration plans to cut.

The loitering law harms the city since it contributes to the illusion
that the "drug" problem is a low-income black problem. The drug use
most likely to harm most of us is the binge drinking by white
university students. Binge drinking leads to long-term alcohol abuse
and alcohol abuse leads to traffic accidents, which are the greatest
cause of deaths for everyone under 35 years old. Even in terms of the
"challenged" neighborhoods, a public health nurse informed me that
"the big drug problem is not the guys hanging on the corner, but the
woman sitting in front of her television set drinking and ignoring
her 2-year old."

The drug most likely to cause serious harm to teenagers is smoking.
Most smokers begin illegally before they are 18 and one in three will
eventually die of a smoking-related illness. Yet a neighborhood
center in one of the "challenged" neighborhoods has successfully
initiated an approach which has kept most of the youths from smoking.

Finally, the loitering law is racist in effect and perception,
although probably not in intent. Blacks and whites use drugs in about
the same amount but whites are more likely to be able to purchase
them in someone's home in a neighborhood not being watched by police.
The law adds to the numbers of blacks arrested for minor crimes,
hindering their ability to obtain housing and jobs, adds to their
perception that the police and society are racist, and harms children
who see law-abiding adults being questioned and arrested.

For those whites who think it doesn't happen, let me pass on two
comments. A prominent black professional said he did not know a black
man in the city who had not been stopped by the police. A black woman
told me she would not permit her teenage daughter to go to a shopping
mall with more than one friend for fear that a group of black girls
would be stopped as shoplifters.

Peggy Wireman is a free-lance consultant in community development,
former director of the Allied-Dunn's Marsh Neighborhood Center, and
currently is finishing a book on making neighborhoods and communities
better for families.