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Permalink Reply by John Boutet on October 2, 2009 at 6:03am

I was at the Street Watch meeting and it was nice to see the meeting so well attended and to see the enthusiasm for the proposal Adam McFadden, Mike Dardzinski and Bryan Hetherington described. Hopefully this pilot program will refine effective methods to using civil lawsuits and city ordinances to evict drug dealers. We desperately need to refine the tools we can use to deal with this problem effectively. The police can't do it all and even the good landlords need all the help they can get.

A few years ago we owned a house at the corner of Post and Milton. It had been my mother's house. We were hoping to sell it and ended up leasing it with option to purchase to a "nice little old couple" who were going to live there with their handicapped son. Marian, who was in real estate at the time, checked their references carefully and used a standard lease with option to purchase form. Before signing the lease we both went down to talk to them again at their daughters house where they were staying in the southern end of the 19th ward. They seemed like a really sweet close family. We soon found out what their family values were from the traffic in and out of their newly leased "home". It was being used as a drug house. We talked with the police to make the needed buys. We talked with the neighbors urging them to call 911to report drug traffic and keep pressure on the police. We talked with our attorney to see how we could evict them. We needed proof of wrongdoing to evict them. We needed police buys to have proof. The police could not make ANY buys. That was disappointing. I walk PAC-TAC and and when out walking we often stood on that corner many times hopping put a dent in their traffic. That did not drive them away. It took us one and a half years to get them out of there! We only succeeded because one month they were ONE DAY past their grace period in the lease for paying their rent and I refused the check and started the eviction process.

I don't know if what Adam can pull together would have helped in our case but it probably could have in many other cases that were left to the police at the time where the lease situations and code violations would have made things easier to address quickly through civil lawsuits. Freeing up the police from the "easy" cases would let them spend more effort on the tough ones.

I want to thank Adam and his associates for all the hard work that has been put into this project and I sincerely hope that we can all work to see it become a success.

I took some pictures at the Wednesday meeting and put them a Kodak Gallery album with captions.

You should be able to get to the album via this link:
http://beta.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.js...

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on October 2, 2009 at 7:46am

Thank you John! That was an amazing post. Having a different view of the situation, and having first hand experience, you would have a better understanding if this program could work. And from the sounds of it, you could have used it!

I am very proud of what we are doing. If you think of it, we have been able to, with the help of Adam bring resources from the city directly to the 19th Ward to address our concerns. I think that this points to the strong commitment the residents of the 19th Ward have for our community. I know I get frustrated, and do my far share of bitching. But we also need to not get lost amongst the forest of doubt, and negative thinking. The 19th Ward just won a battle in the war to claim our neighborhoods. Let's take a moment to be thankful, and optimistic while we prepare for the next fight; implementing and testing "Rochester Street Watch". After which I’ll lead the chorus of disdain, once again! :)
-Shawn

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Permalink Reply by Wendy Sullivan on October 2, 2009 at 8:17am

thank you all for the updates. I am heading to work and will review more this weekend. As I said, my husband and I are unable to attend due to work schedules but are actively following the forum.

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Permalink Reply by Hilary Homer on October 20, 2009 at 6:27pm

Okay, maybe I haven't read this carefully enough. How does bringing a nuisance complaint directly result in an eviction? Would the complaint not name the property owner, rather than the tenant? And if the owner was found liable, then what? Would there be fines? Would they be significant enough to motivate the owner to go to the considerable trouble of evicting a tenant? My summer job in law school was defending low-income tenants against eviction. Evicting a tenant is a huge time-consuming pain in the butt, as John's post indicated. Most of the lessors I encountered were happy to negotiate rather than go forward with the eviction, especially the out-of-state owners. If the owner's C of O was revoked as a result of the suit, then the owner couldn't rent to anyone until a new C of O was issued. Vacant property? Guess what it will be used for...
I'm going to assume that my skepticism is due to a lack of understanding about how this actually works. Can anyone explain?

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Permalink Reply by Adam McFadden on October 3, 2009 at 8:27am

Update

I have heard from five attorneys since yesterday who want to volunteer!!!!! I am excited! Bryan, Mike and I are working hard to make sure we cover many aspects and don't worry I see us having the ability to expand this in other areas.......

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Smith on October 3, 2009 at 9:49am

Wow, 5 more attorneys; great news indeed. Thank you for all your efforts Adam. Thanks also to Shawn for giving us a venue to share our views and hear other voices as well.

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on October 14, 2009 at 3:39pm

I've been away since the beginning of the month - wondering if there is any news on Street Watch??

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Permalink Reply by Mark Sweetland on October 19, 2009 at 9:50pm

I certainly think it will. Looks like it was gang activity to me.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on October 24, 2009 at 1:14pm

Hey Sheri, yes the meeting is on, I just posted the event.

Here is a message I received from Ashley Cortese (thurstonrd.streetwatch@yahoo.com)

Dear Resident:

As part of Councilman Adam McFadden's Thurston Road Street Watch program, Lt. Joe Morabito of the Rochester Police Department will be conducting a workshop on how to identify and close down drug houses. The workshop will take place this Wednesday, October 28th at 7 PM at The Rochester Presbyterian Home, 256 Thurston Road. All are welcome to attend this unique program.

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on October 24, 2009 at 2:18pm

THanks for sharing Shawn- Are other people receiving emails about this meeting??? (I know that I have given my address twice and have not received any notifications).

Adam, if you're following this thread can you please comment about what mechanisms are in place (or will be in place) for reporting various activities and (more importantly!) for receiving information back re: the status of various initiatives?

I, for one, am sick of going to meetings, 'reporting things', 'calling NSC' and every other single thing that we're asked to do and NOT getting a response and NOT seeing things happen. We need more ACTION, not meetings!

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on October 26, 2009 at 5:01pm

I just came across a great article, in the Minority Reporter from Oct 9th, about the Thurston Road Street Watch program. It's also captures a snap shot of the state of Thurston Road today, with reactions and views from folks who live, and work there. A must read.

http://www.minorityreporter.net/fullstory.php?id=261

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on October 29, 2009 at 6:35pm

Below you will find links to the Drug House Tracking Sheets that Kris made up, to easily write down everything the police are looking for. I have uploaded a Word file and a PDF file. I also added a new tab at the top of the site called Drug Reporting, that will bring you to this page.
-Shawn

Attachments:

• drug_reporting_sheets.doc, 44 KB
• DrugReporting.pdf, 710 KB

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