The Growler has been trying to assess the ultimate meaning of Saturday’s Community Walk. Was it an eye-opener for City officials? Did the walk signal a new concern and care for Parker-Gray? Or was it just an election year ploy to impress the politically naïve? Let’s not forget that Saturday was April Fool’s Day…
All in all, the Growler must give City officials an A for effort. The turnout was good thanks to the City, which wrested responsibility for the fliers from the hands of the ICCA. The weather was warm and the walk itself gave enterprising citizens an opportunity to chat one-on-one with City officials.
There were some priceless moments. It was fun watching a rather glum Deputy Police Chief Blaine Corle hit the pavement like a beat cop of old. (Hey, blue eyes, feet were made for walking and it’s called community policing.)
But questions linger. Why did the route exclude nearly all of N. Columbus and N. Alfred Streets except for the 800 and 900 blocks near the Samuel Madden Homes public housing project? Was it an issue of time? Why weren’t ARHA residents sent the same fliers so they could participate in the walk? It was more than a little embarrassing to have a mostly white group trooping through Andrew Adkins like an invading army. The Growler suggests that no attempt to eradicate crime will work without cooperation of law-abiding residents of the ARHA – and such people do exist.
Parker-Gray residents didn’t really hear any new commitments or initiatives but police did state that at the end of the Moussaoui trial eight officers working federal security will be released back to the City.
But with the election only a month away, the Growler is withholding any grade for long-term impact.
38 comments:
Hey, Growler.... It was great exercise, good food, a good mingling experience, and good for politicians to actually visit us. But there was a lot of talk about "being on top of" problems, and whatever the issue, the answers were "we're aware of it" or "we're doing something about it" or "we're looking at it." One fine employee is intent on "holding meetings" about another issue that has already been resolved! The uniformed police looked good and recently they have delivered much.... but as you say, for how long, now that the election approaches? You're right on Growler, his PR skills are great but the jury is still out on this Mayor's administration regarding any lasting accomplishments in Parker Gray.
Thank goodness the City of Alexandria distributed flyers and provided signs to put up, or they would have been walking by themselves. Unless you count the developers (oops, I meant ICCA officer) and their lawyers.
On top of which problems?
Again, I just want to know if the mayor will be walking around this summer after we get our first shooting or carjacking....
Will the ICCA and City Councilmembers be willing to "walk the walk" and actually walk around at 11 PM at night when the "summer of love" party starts up again in Uptown?
Sure they will, right before they move on to the ongoing party at Queen and Fayette.
Uptown is the name of one of several long-gone black Alexandria neighborhoods. No part of Alexandria is now called "Uptown." Except by someone on this blog who is clearly trying to associate the term with unsavory behavior, ostensibly by people in today's housing projects. How dare anyone trash their neighbors this way.
I seriously doubt the civic association will walk the neighborhood again unless the walk has public relations value. But since opportunity has knocked, let's not waste it. Can bloggers stop bashing the ICCA long enough to tell me what problems the civic association, police and politicians are on top of? I saw someone smoking a crack pipe in a parked car today so the walk did little to slow drug use.
How does anyone trash their neighbors that way? GeeZ! I could care less whether or not I live in Uptown or Old Town so please stop the stupid history lessons. Do you really wish me to believe that crime is contained because Jim Crow once failed to object?
Walking the Beat
City leaders walk through the Inner City neighborhood.
By Michael Lee Pope
April 6, 2006
Michael Lee Pope/Gazette
Police Chief Charles Samara walks with Inner City residents.
As City Council members were preparing to walk through the Inner City last weekend, Mayor Bill Euille was presented with a surprising gift: a plastic bag with a used hypodermic needle and an empty crack packet. The present came from the troubled streets of the Inner City. An Inner City resident who was concerned about persistent drug trafficking in the community brought it to show to the mayor as evidence of an ongoing problem.
“I showed it to the city manager, and then I threw it away,” Mayor Euille said. “This is one of the reasons we came here today — to listen to people who live here and find out what they have to say.”
The city’s crime statistics are a lingering concern for residents of the neighborhood, which is sandwiched between the King Street corridor and the public-housing units clustered near the Braddock Street Metro. The area witnessed three murders last year, and police reports document a steady stream of violent crime. Since January, the area in and around the Inner City has seen two robberies, a violent attack and a shooting.
“Stray gunfire is not contained,” said Sarah Becker, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years. “It could hit anybody.”
Police Chief Charles Samarra said that crime has been drastically reduced in the past 20 years, and he said that efforts were underway to increase visibility and patrolling in the Inner City. He says that the department’s tactics are working to keep crime statistics low.
“I’ve been here 15 years, and crime reduction is greater now than at any other time in the history of Alexandria,” Chief Samarra said. “Citizens would like to see no crime. We’d like to see that too, and we’re working to keep it as low as possible.”
But some people say that the police are not doing enough. Leslie Hagen, a board member of the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority, said that she doesn’t think the police are working adequately to secure the public-housing units near the Braddock Street Metro.
“We just don’t see the police presence there that we have asked for a number of times,” Hagen said. “People who are not residents are coming in to commit crimes, and our people are becoming victims.”
DRUG PROBLEMS have been a persistent issue in the neighborhood, where abandoned paraphernalia frequently litters the streets. With the illegal market thriving in the Inner City, many public areas have become a concern for neighborhood residents. A picnic table in the park at the corner of Queen Street and Fayette Street, for example, was recently removed when police discovered it was being used to transfer drugs and money.
But removing one picnic table won’t solve all of the Inner City’s problems. City leaders say that a long-term effort must be made to combat crime. They say that all of the new development in the area — including two high-price condominium buildings and more on the way — creates an opportunity to transform the area.
“This is a neighborhood in transition,” said City Manager Jim Hartmann. “And it’s going to take all of the neighborhood to create long-term change.”
Inner City resident Leslie Zupan said that she would like to see more homeowners living in the area, taking pride in their homes and creating a sense of place that she says is currently lacking.
“One of the problems with this neighborhood is all of the rentals,” Zupan said. “One of the dirty little secrets of the Inner City is that many of the beat-up houses belong to white slumlords.”
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT could be the key to transforming the Inner City. With each new building proposal, the City Council is given the opportunity to ask for contributions. During the tour, Mayor Euille pointed out that when Eakin-Youngentob Associates built the Lofts next to the Andrew Adkins Housing Project, the development company made a contribution that paid for a series of iron fences that surround the property.
“We have a lot of development in this area,” said the mayor. “And we want to get developers working with public housing.”
Ultimately, the mayor said that he would like to see more projects like Chatham Square — a development that replaced a 60-year-old housing project that Mayor Euille grew up in. In 2004, the public housing project was demolished to build a “mixed-income community” that includes 100 units of market-rate houses and 52 units of subsidized housing.
The city manager said that another way to improve the area would be to pay careful attention to the planning documents that are now being assembled. He said that the Braddock Small Area Plan could be one way to work toward improving the area — using urban design concepts to create a safe environment for Inner City residents.
“We want to make sure that each new development compliments the others,” Hartmann said. “And developers have a role to play.”
IN THE SHORT TERM, city officials say, many things can be done to see immediate improvements. City Council members say they’d like to see new streetlights, better public landscaping and more trashcans.
“An effort to bring in new trashcans was stalled by the city’s recent spending reductions,” said Councilman Ludwig Gaines. “But we are going to find a way to put that initiative back in the budget.”
During Saturday’s walk through the neighborhood, City Council members were constantly picking up trash that littered the streets. They would often hold the debris for quite a while they searched fruitlessly for a trash can.
“This place is disgusting,” said Mayor Bill Euille as he examined the Untied States Post Office in the 1100 block of Wythe Street. “Can we get the postmaster to do something about this?”
Working toward change in the Inner City will take a concerted effort, with neighbors working together with police and developers to transform the area. As construction moves forward on several new high-price developments, City Council members rededicated themselves last weekend to working toward changing the neighborhood — one trashcan and streetlight at a time.
Anonymous said...
Uptown is the name of one of several long-gone black Alexandria neighborhoods. No part of Alexandria is now called "Uptown." Except by someone on this blog who is clearly trying to associate the term with unsavory behavior, ostensibly by people in today's housing projects. How dare anyone trash their neighbors this way.
Wed Apr 05, 03:24:44 PM EDT
You can always count on one commenter on this blog to pull out the "race card", rather than looking at facts.
The term Uptown is frequently cited by the City government, and most recently by the Gazette Packet, to refer to the northern districts of Parkey Gray and Census Tract 13.
Go send them a letter if you are so cranky about the use of the term.
Furthermore, its always the same spiel about how the public housing residents are completely innocent. Isn't it a little suspicious that there is a large amount of crime around the housing projects, and not as much in other parts of the city? I dont hear stories of carjackings on King Street or crack smoking in Rosemont.
Why would people who dont live there actually go there? Are they invited to come? Do people just get in the car, drive over to Alfred, and decide to smoke crack, litter, and carjack?
When personal responsbility begins to rise in "Uptown" or "Parker Gray" perhaps some of the criminal problems will abate.
Last week's candidate forum was a bust. So much for ICCA cosponsorship. Guess the ICCA blew its wad on the Mayor's walk. No one there seemed interested in inner city issues.
"When personal responsbility begins to rise in "Uptown" or "Parker Gray" perhaps some of the criminal problems will abate."
Interesting - so where was that sense of personal responsibility about raising neighborhood issues at the candidates forum that your own Civic Association cosponsored?
"Do you really wish me to believe that crime is contained because Jim Crow once failed to object?"
Nope - crime is contained because too many new residents are afraid to object.
very embarassing to see mostly white folks walking through this traditionally black neighborhood. black people still live here.where were they? where is their voice?
My association? HAHAHAHAHA. The ICCA does not represent me at all. They represent the interests of Alfred St, basically. The reason we dont have more associations is because we have few homeowners. The large proportion of public housing and rentals in North Parker Gray might have something to do with that.
And when people try to raise issues to City Hall or to ARHA, we are told to shut up, we are told we are racist and insensitive, and we are told that crime is to be "expected"
Anonymous said...
very embarassing to see mostly white folks walking through this traditionally black neighborhood. black people still live here.where were they? where is their voice?
Mon Apr 10, 01:04:15 PM EDT
You tell me..... The impression most whitepeople have is that black residents really don't care as much about Parker Gray as they say they do.
Anonymous said...
"Do you really wish me to believe that crime is contained because Jim Crow once failed to object?"
Nope - crime is contained because too many new residents are afraid to object.
Mon Apr 10, 12:39:03 PM EDT
Object how? Every time we object we are told to shut up by ARHA, because we are complaining about "their" residents. A 5 year old could figure out that the combination of high concentration of poverty in one area combined with the lack of business/residential homeowners is a recipe for disaster. I found ARHA's comments in the paper hilarious. ("the police need to protect our residents") And why are these "visitors" showing up at the Adkins and Bland projects? Are they invited? If not what would make someone come out to Alfred St to stand around?
All the "newcomers" I know call the cops. They come and make arrests when they can find the perpetrators. But what would you like newcomers to do? Go outside with guns blazing? Call the cops and then subdue the perps themselves?
Thats whats truly embarassing; that a neighborhood can basically be destroyed so you can "save" it from "newcomers".
"Nope - crime is contained because too many new residents are afraid to object."
To anonymous: I stand corrected. Your analysis is more accurate than mine.
Anonymous said: "this traditionally black neighborhood...where is their voice?"
Black people do still live here and some have been wonderful neighbors. But what of Mayor Euille's want for "one" Alexandria? Are we not better off to speak in terms of right and wrong rather than race? Drugs are wrong and violence has reached an unacceptable level. Drugs are not a black or white problem. Drugs are a neighborhood problem.
OK, the Growler has had it with the commenter who whines obsessively about ARHA.
Outline for us, please, the meetings (dates, participants, issues discussed) that you have had with any of the politically appointed board members of ARHA to discuss your problems.
Let's see if you really know how to get things done in this town or if you are just bloviating.
The Growler
Anonymous said...
"My association? HAHAHAHAHA. The ICCA does not represent me at all. They represent the interests of Alfred St, basically."
If you want to be represented, quit whining and participate. It is so easy to whine instead of working.
The word is getting out that ICCA is the most crooked civic association in town. Most people don't want to get involved because it's a puppet club for Cromley and his buddies.
First of all Growler, ARHA Board members dont meet with residents; they only meet with recognized City Associations. Thus, they only meet with ICCA leaders. Go ahead as a resident and try to call or contact them. Go ahead; growl on the phone to them and see what they say.If you ask ICCA members, they will tell you that even getting them to formally attned a meeting can be a multi-month exercise.
They represent public housing residents and the state, first and foremost.
But if you want a breakdown of attempts to contact them that I am aware of or that I or others have made, here it goes:
Dearman
Mr. Dearman has been one of the most antagonistic of the Board members, precisely because he never cares to do anything about the concerns of local residents who complain both about the conditions of the public housing properties and the activities that occur on these properties.
3 times last year, residents requested meetings after major criminal incidents on ARHA property. 3 times he refused to meet with residents. Each time he stated that these were "police" issues.
Furthermore, he had the gall to blame "wealthy residents" last year for complaining about issues of crime in the Norht Parker Gray area. He is directly quoted in the Gazette. When I attempted to contact him by phone to question him about his comments, he refused to respond to me.
Miller
Residents from ICCA, Bruce Hill, and business leaders have also tried to contact Mr. Miller, to meet with residents in a formal meeting setting. He has refused each time, asking concerned residents to attend ARHA Board meetings instead. Letters have been sent to him from residents I know regarding the deteriorating conditions of the public housing projects. This has included rat problems, noise issues, trash all over the place, units smelling up the area, car parts in the road, etc... Each time he has said he would let "someone" know. WHO?
ARHA Board Meetings
Its difficult to remember the exact dates and times of these meetings but at each meeting I attended, the pattern was similar. ARHA Board members would conduct their business, and leave a little time for local resident concerns. Then, when residents might voice a concern, ARHA Board members would do their usual "we will take this under advisement" and do nothing. I cant even begin to talk about issues because they are too numerous to start with. Here are a few:
Mini-bikes running stop signs
Loud noise at night
Broken bottles strewn all over Wythe, Madison, Montgomery
Drug sales occurring in Adkins and Bland
Gangs of youth out at 3 AM in the morning
Assaults on Metro riders
Need I go on?
I am aware of multiple residents who have contacted ARHA with issues. They live near Montgomery, near First, in Chatham Square, in Old Town West, and near Adkins. None of them ever got any feedback from ARHA on measures taken.
As a sign of what I am talking about, ask anyone who attends the Braddock Area Planning meetings about ARHA's participation. 2 ARHA board members attended the last session. Neither one asked a single question or even spoke. Did they let any of their residents know about the planning session? If they did you would see there were few, to ANY, public housing residents there. Then on the Community Walk, residents borught up crime issues . Each time ARHA said they would look into it; one time they blamed "white slumlords" for not taking care of properties, as a reason for the trash and crime problems.
You just can't accept 2 facts, Growler:
1. ARHA doesn't care or want to meet with local homeowners. If you actually lived anywhere near the public housing projects you might get that through your head instead of being the local ARHA apologist.
2. When you meet with them they simply dont listen to your concerns and say its a police problem or its not their residents fault. My favorite line of all time was the Dearman "wealthy residents" line, where he stated that because 75% of his residents are employed, they must not commit crimes.
Why would you want to constantly meet and complain to people who simply say "there is nothing we can do" or "its not our residents fault"?
But don't ask me Growler, get up off your butt and call them. Ask to speak with an ARHA Board member about neighborhood concerns. Bring up the rat problems just discovered this month, bring up the beating that occurred this past Sunday on Fayette in front of the Adkins project (go ahead, call the police about it, they were there in under 3 minutes). Come up here at night and stand out on Montgomery or Madison and see for yourself.
What I find so tiresome about your police bashing is that if you call up the police or ask to speak to a sergeant or the local community officer, they will get on the phone and talk to you, listen to your issues, then send officers out to deal with it.
If you call ARHA on the phone, they will listen and promise or do NOTHING. Yet you are the local ARHA apologist, acting like they have no responsbility and its all the police's fault.
Its amazing how so many people here just think the ICCA and the police are to blame. Couldn't be ARHA or specific ARHA residents.....
Guess you guys missed the assault by the Metro station on Saturday or the beating in the street at Fayette and Madison on Sunday. Each time police reported that the "assailants" ran into the Adkins project.
But don't let the facts get in the way of your police bashing.
I don't know what bloviate means, but I don't think ANONYMOUS is doing it....response, Growler??
An online dictionary defines to bloviate as "to discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner." The Growler's literacy is impressive.
Do I not remember when attending Amy Harris-White's ICCA meetings that she, her neighbor and, maybe others, had ongoing meetings with the Mayor, Police Chief and an ARHA Board member ... in the Mayor's office ... to discuss nuisance and crime problems related to the projects? Relying on the newspaper, were not ARHA Board members present for the Mayor's Walk? Why did no one complain to ARHA Board members then? It seems opportunites for community discourse exist, maybe just not to the desirable extent.
You don't have to live near the projects to experience loud noise, trash, unruly kids, and drug activity.
And I concur with those who say that police response is always prompt.
Anonymous said...
" 'My association? HAHAHAHAHA. The ICCA does not represent me at all. They represent the interests of Alfred St, basically.'
If you want to be represented, quit whining and participate. It is so easy to whine instead of working."
Participate? HA! There's more information filtering by ICCA than there is internet censorship by the Chinese government!
"Participate? HA!"
Was ARHA Director Dearborn not included in the ICCA's February panel discussion? He was. He was also on the Walk. Perhaps the problem is not so much Mr. Dearborn's unwillingness to communicate but rather the ICCA's unwillingness to publicize such events.
Others involved in the February panel were Police Chief Samarra (crime), TE&S Director Rich Baier (trash) and Code Enforcement Director Art Dahlberg.
Last night a guest got out of her car and three men walking the middle of the street stopped her and, among other things, told her she was a white bitch. The community's standards are lax and for that I hold our police officers accountable. I don't buy the cops' notion that bad behavior is cyclical. It occurs with permission. Some think it is with Dearborn's permission. I think it is with police permission.
wow - how is your guest being called names the police's responsibility? Could it possibly be the parents responsibility or the way they were raised? I sit out on my porch and watch toddlers on up to 11 and 12 year-olds walking the streets at 11 o'clock at night. When the kids come home from school guess how many books they are carrying...approximately none. Not the police's fault.
What about blaming the males themselves? What do you want the police to do? Arrest them for calling her a "bitch"? Calling a white woman a "bitch" is tame compared to the normal stuff we see. Harassment of Metro riders, assaults, etc... If the community's standards are lax, what does that say about the community? Look at the high rate of black on black crime. What does that tell you?
Parker Gray reminds me so much of many other ghettofied communities, where they want the police to "do more". Its never: take responsbility for the actions of the residents or your sons, its "the police need to do something".
Yet if the police moved in and started to really crackdown: clearing Queen/Fayette at night, clearing out loitering at the housing projects, we will automatically hear cries of racism and racial profiling, since everyone knows the overwhelming majority of the arrests would be of black residents.
And its not Dearborn, its Dearman. Dont look to him for guidance, he will just say "its not my residents"
1200 blk. of Wythe St. 04-14/ between 12:00 a.m. and 12:06 a.m. The victim, a 44-year-old Fairfax County man was beaten and robbed. The victim was delivering a pizza when he was approached by four men. The suspects attacked him, punched him and stole his money and the food items he was carrying. The suspects are described as black males, 18-24 years old
Yep, Growler, this looks like the police and ICCA's fault. Or those damn "project visitors" Hagen is talking about.
The funniest thing of all is that the police were on foot patrol last night. They are here in force in repsonse to the beatings last weekend.
Oh, man, here we go again. Sounds like this is a neighborhood with multiple problems, too many pointing fingers and power-grabbers, and too few people interested in ALL of the neighborhood. When living in a condo, my car was stolen from our underground, locked garage. The police showed up after a half-hour to get a report and told me they could do nothing. A guy was found dead in his condo, apparently several days after he OD'd. Did I mention this was in Upper Northwest DC? There were no projects nearby, we had every color of young professional living in our building.
Get a grip. Not all poor people are black people, and not all rich people are classy or well-educated, or white. Anyone hear of Nicky Scarfo, or "black-on-black crime"?
Who are your allies, really? Some of us do share the same values and want the same things. Lets get there together and stop trashing every institution you can think of.
So you don't like my example of three men walking the middle of my street calling visitors names. Would it surprise you to know that it is only in the last few months that I have witnessed such behavior? Mine traditionally is a quiet block. Recently two cars were stolen. Please don't tell me to call the oh-so interested police. I'm told they are expected to spend most of their time at Columbus and Alfred Streets.
Sorry lady but people witness this all the time. Bad manners cannot be stopped by the cops. What would you like police to do, arrest people for calling white girls a bitch? Police can't force kids to go to school and learn, they can't force adults to not be outside at 3:30 AM (that would be setting curfews), etc....
Furthermore, all of these cranks arguing for a crackdown know that the weight of that crackdown would fall overwhelmingly on African-Americans, since most of the crime in Parker Gray is committed by African-Americans, often against other African Americans. And everyone knows that cries of racism would start howling out. What this neighborhood needs is more personal responsiblity and less cop/ICCA hating.
Sorry, dude, but no lady lives here. Admittedly one was visiting but, for reasons previously stated, she left quickly.
My apologies for the error. I can't blame her for leaving; that kind of stuff happens all the time up in North Parker Gray, especially to Metro riders.
Growler - a new post, please!! This conversation has veered into depressing territory. I don't want to face the cold, hard truth that Parker-Gray can be a scary, hopeless area...
The Growler agrees -- this exchange is going nowhere.
This posting is now closed for further comments.
Post a Comment