Thursday, December 13, 2007
News Residents: Board up the vacant homes, Atlanta
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Thu, Dec 13, 2007 at 7:11 PM
Take a drive down Oakland Lane and you're greeted by vacant homes for sale, mattresses left in lots and the shells of once accommodating shelters now fallen into disrepair. Look past the dilapidation and you'll see the residents who live among these run-down houses and the crime they attract.
"I've been living here 30 years and I've seen dope dealers all that time," says Prince Stewart. "I know what a dope dealer looks like. How you gonna tell me the police don't know. I've had enough, you understand?"
Oakland City residents -- along with "Santa Clause," a local man who presented a patrol contract to the neighborhood's police liaison -- gathered last night along Oakland Avenue to march in the streets and protest what they consider a lack of concern by the police and the city in addressing the brazen crime their neighborhood has experienced: drug dealers, prostitutes, daytime robberies and squatters. And the chief cause of those problems are vacant homes residents want the city to board up.
"This is just a street," Zaneta Brown said to the 50 residents who gathered with signs, banners and candles in hand. "We're talking about the whole Oakland City area of abandoned homes that we would like to see dealt with."
Residents say criminals break into the homes and set up shop, running drugs and offering prostitution out of their walls. The police can't enter the property until the landlord complains. Because many of the properties are owned by absentee landlords, the police aren't hearing about the problem from -- sadly -- the people whose voice gets immediate results. Brandi Barnes, chairwoman of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, said that children will often try to play in the easy-to-access homes and find condom wrappers and drug paraphernalia. The criminals have timed their activities around police shift changes, she said.
Residents wonder where their tax dollars are going as well.
"Are we standing on a dirt road in the middle of Atlanta?" a man asks the crowd. "YES!" they respond in unison. Underfoot is gravel and chunks of gray dirt, a rarity in the middle of one of the most vibrant metropolitan areas in the Southeast.
When Ramone Howard, a 13-year-old resident who moved here a year ago from Savannah, was asked what he wanted Oakland City to be like, his demands seemed realistic. "I imagine no more drug dealers, no more guns in the bushes and better roads," he says.
CL put in a call to Atlanta City Councilwoman Cleta Winslow, who residents say represents the neighborhood. We'll post her comments when we hear back.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
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