The Growler was horrified when an alert neighbor (and soon to be pop) E-mailed the following link:
http://www.familywatchdog.us/Default.asp
If you enter 22314, you'll find we have several sex offenders living in the neighborhood, some only a few blocks from Jefferson-Houston elementary school. Visit the Virginia sex offender registry for more information on offenders and to find answers to frequently asked questions and as well as a list of the statutes that govern registration.
Most worrisome is that one offender resides in a house bought in 2005 by investor Nathan Carter, who has turned three single-family homes at Princess and N. Fayette Street into boarding houses for those recently released from prison. Neighbors are alarmed because there doesn't seem to be any supervision on-site and turnover is heavy. Some have also seen the local crack dealers rolling out the Welcome Wagon and turning up to greet new tenants.
How did the Alexandria cops and politicians let this happen in our neighborhood? Why are they still tolerating it? And do we need watchdogs to watch the watchdogs?
Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
19 comments:
Carter's boarding houses truly are problematic. The front doors are like turnstiles, the newer residents yell across the street at all hours, and parking is a problem. At a minimum the police need to monitor the properties, enforce noise ordinances, and ticket improperly parked cars. The boarding houses are nothing more than a cashflow mechanism. Is it true that Carter himself has a criminal record?
wh wh wh what??? the hits just keep on coming. how the hell could this happen? we are raising two kids in this neighborhood (for the time being) and this, along with the homeless shelters, the abundant public housing, the staggeringly horrific school, the 'normal' crime, the sex offenders, the drug use, the 'street' language used everywhere and loudly make this such a pleasant area. people wonder if we'll ever get a grocery store?? hah...go shop at the 'historic' queen st retail...then get a hair cut and a mugging on your way home.
Is the same Nate Carter tv cameras filmed giving cash envelopes to Katrina victims on the Mall? Odd since he has reportedly stiffed at least one Queen Street business owner.
I don't like this any more than anybody else, but what are they doing that is illegal? The city can't screen every resident of the community before they live here. If they are doing something illegal, the city should do something. If not, what do we expect them to do? Last time I checked, there were no laws preventing former criminals from buying or renting homes. But restrictions near schools sounds logical to me. Why doesn't the civic association invite Carter to come to a meeting and tell us what he is up to?
"Last time I checked, there were no laws preventing former criminals from buying or renting homes."
Sounds like a community cop was caught sleeping.
"Why doesn't the civic association invite Carter to come to a meeting and tell us what he is up to?"
So here's the scenario. The sleeping cop pairs with an impotent civic association Board only to tell us residents nothing can be done because all have rights. If you can't evict the person then like the previous blogger suggested at least enforce noise and parking ordinances. I am all for law enforcement helping those in the affected areas.
Occasionally we have had run ins with Carter's tenants. We tell ourselves that people deserve a chance to start over but not at the expense of our and others' safety. Carter's nickname is the rat so it is sometimes hard to remain objective.
Carter also bought a house on Monroe Ave in 2005 and sold it to Christie Blomberg, but it appears to still be used as a halfway house. But we're curious because our child goes to Jefferson-Houston. Does anyone know anything about Blomberg? Does she have other similar houses as well? What's their angle? Is the city paying them to house these guys? And if so, how does that happen without some sort of meeting or public notice? We inquired and looked through minutes from city council meetings and found no mention.
When I moved into Chatham Square last year, I did a "Crime check" on the neighborhood. It surprised me that registered sex offenders lived in public housing, in close proximity to families with young children. In addition to that, a number of public housing residents have criminal records relating to drug usage and sale. With working families in need of affordable housing, it seems to me that they should be offered the housing before these other folks.
The mystery of North Old Town to me is still why citizens put up with drug dealers, and teenage hooligans while residents to the south pretend that the drug problem has cleared up in Alexandria.
So far, the only remedy has been to call in drug deal sitings and noisy neighbors to the police. Not sure how effective that's been!
In the UK, the police monitor high crime neighborhoods with CCTV cameras. Not sure why we couldn't implement those here, since the city is expanding its wifi network anyway, and the cameras could be linked on the internet. I suspect people would use better language late at night, and stop selling drugs in the neighborhood if they knew their actions were being recorded and that those recordings would be used to prosecute them.
It seems that at least one of these sex offenders lives in public housing (the Adkins project). I suspect that others do, too, although I've never seen a list of all of the ARHA properties in the area (I'd love to see one if anyone has access).
So, I suppose it's not enough that the dear taxpayers of our neighborhood had to pay for the incarceration of these sex offenders. Now we have to pay for the priviledge of their living in our neighborhood, as well. The wonders never cease.
We tried asking the City to install cameras in our neighborhood. The Council members, after appearing aghast at the mere suggestion, asked the City attorney to look into it. He essentially said it wasn't legally feasible.
As for the effectiveness of calling the police to complain of noise, profanity, and drug deals, please keep doing. I asked that very question of the APD, and was told that the new police chief is a big computer guy. He has a system which keeps track of calls for service and then assigns officers to areas that have the most calls.
I also think it can't hurt to send an email to the City Council each time you call the police. Just to keep reminding them that there are lots of voters out there who care deeply about the crime problem in the north end.
I don't know Christie Blomberg, but her property on Monroe is zoned R 2-5. If she's operating a boarding house there, it doesn't appear to be permitted under the zoning ordinance. Have you called the City to complain?
Sec. 3-500 R-2-5/Single and two-family zone.
3-501 Purpose.The R-2-5 zone is established to provide and maintain land areas for low density residential neighborhoods of single-family and two-family homes on 5,000 square foot lots. Nonresidential uses of a noncommercial nature which are related to, supportive of and customarily found in a residential neighborhood are also permitted.
3-502 Permitted uses.The following uses are permitted in the R-2-5 Zone:
(A) Single-family dwelling;
(B) Two-family dwelling;
(C) Accessory uses, as permitted by section 7-100;
(D) Child or elder care home, as permitted by section 7-500;
(E) Church;
(F) Home occupation, as permitted by section 7-300;
(G) Public park;
(H) Public school;
(I) Utilities, as permitted by section 7-1200.
3-503 Special uses.The following uses may be allowed in the R-2-5 zone pursuant to a special use permit:
(A) Cemetery;
(B) Day nursery within a church or school building;
(C) Noncommercial, not-for-profit facilities, including indoor and outdoor recreational facilities and community centers, designed to serve the neighborhood;
(D) Private school;
(E) Any church or school parking added after October 1, 1996 which exceeds the number of spaces required by this ordinance; provided, however, that no special use permit for such excess parking shall regulate or substantially burden any religious practice or belief.
3-504 Prohibited uses.Any use which is not a permitted, special or accessory use pursuant to this section 3-500 is prohibited.
The mystery of North Old Town to me is still why citizens put up with drug dealers, and teenage hooligans while residents to the south pretend that the drug problem has cleared up in Alexandria."
Gotta hand it to you fella you've got balls! You're probably the same whiner who defends the community policing program as it now operates. Because it only operates in the north end. Meanwhile we in the south complain about Carter's boarding houses only to be told nothing can be done because he's a minister. Let us pray for the preacher with the drug record. BTW Carter supposedly gets his real estate comps from one who lives in the north end.
"With working families in need of affordable housing,"
Brother Carter offers affordable housing to singles. Like the developers he's makes lots of money in the process.
"I asked that very question of the APD, and was told that the new police chief is a big computer guy. He has a system which keeps track of calls for service and then assigns officers to areas that have the most calls."
Thank you for explaining why community policing no longer works well. Would it surprise you to know that the nonresidential community policing program began here in the inner city. It was a citizen's design offered as an alternative to Councilman Speck's residential policing program. Community policing long ago went the way of calls for service.
That sex offenders are living in our neighborhood is no news to me. The nicest neighborhoods of Fairfax County have them.
I'm more worried about the crime associated with public housing than from sex offenders. I don't have the stats in front of me, but I don't seem to recall an outbreak of sex crimes in this area.
I glad Brother Carter has found another way other then selling drugs to make money.
I live in the 400 block of N. Fayette and have a straight site of all the properties. There is a lot of falsehoods going on here, because these properties are in better condition then some of the people that are probably writing on this blog.
No noise or loittering during the daytime, and on the weekends, when has it been a crime to sit out on you lawn and not bother anyone. I walk both my dogs past these places on an everyday basis. Nothing other then a "Hello Ma'am" or "How are you today" has been uttered to me.
Don't ask to live in a diverse neighborhood and then get mad when it becomes just that. Maybe if you talk to people instead of fearing them, you could get a better grasp of who your living around.
"I glad Brother Carter has found another way other than selling drugs to make money."
One sentence speaks a thousand words. Since Carter's arrival trash has increased including crack packets. His nickname on the street is the rat, isn't it? Integration is not the issue because the neighborhood has otherwise been integrated for years and years.
"I walk both my dogs past these places on an everyday basis."
Apparently we live in the same block and while I thought I knew most neighbors but none with more than one dog. Which is your house so that I will know to speak the next time we pass?
I understand by some of the people that live in Nathan Carter houses that in one of the houses he owns, the gas was turned off for none payment. Shortly after the house was shut down the men living in the house had to find shelters. And many of the houses went without water for a couple of days.
What a Man!!!
Post a Comment