Pubdate: Tue, 02 Aug 2005
Source: Bluefield Daily Telegraph (WV)
Copyright: 2005 Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Contact:  http://www.bdtonline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1483

THE WAR NEXT DOOR

City Must Begin Fight For Neighborhoods

People shouldn't have to live like this: Bluefield residents are
fighting their own neighborhood wars against thieves, drug dealers,
and general human vermin.

It's high time for all of us to get involved in taking back our
streets, our neighborhoods, our towns, our sanity.

A news report by Bill Archer in Monday's Daily Telegraph - bannered
"We want to take our neighborhood back" and headlined "Highland Avenue
residents call for a crackdown on 'Crack Alley' '' - should shock everyone.

Of course, it didn't develop overnight. Like most diseases, this one
festered like a disgusting boil amid the opportunities we gave it.

The decline of downtown Bluefield kicked off a wicked downward spiral
that led to loss of taxes, vacant properties, empty buildings,
dilapidated neighborhood structures, trash, high weeds, etc. These
conditions deteriorated to the point of becoming an open invitation to
subculture elements looking for flophouses, drugs, money to buy drugs,
and young people to deal in drugs. They settle in neighborhoods of
least resistance, and such locales take on the profile of a ghetto in
large urban areas.

While local and state politicians, economic development agencies and
members of the city board promise growth initiatives to "revitalize
downtown," the social rot in many neighborhoods continues. The open
drug deals, the discarded syringes and other evidence become
commonplace.

Worst of all, the safety of residents becomes a heart-thumping risk
that gradually forces disabled and elderly indoors. Fixed income
homeowners must add locks, nail shut seldom used doors and windows and
become tragic recluses.

Fear overwhelms many who long for a return to the glory days of
Bluefield's heyday, and the out-and-about lives with neighbors and
family now denied by the drug vermin next door or across the street.
Many have moved away in fear, and those who haven't simply don't have
the financial or physical means to leave.

Many have simply given up. But Bluefield as a community must not
surrender.

It's high time for a city strategy and a law enforcement crackdown.

Yes, we must call the police every time we see a deal going down, a
brazen daylight breaking and entering or someone using drugs.
Convictions must be swift and sentences must be as tough as the law
will allow.

The city board must rethink its priorities. As well as downtown
business growth, a key focus must be the welfare of frightened families.

Along with tighter police protection and city board strategies, the
problem must be a top concern for every resident of this city. Blaine
Braithwaite and his South Bluefield Neighborhood Association have
become a model for citizen involvement, and that determination must
spread to all other sections. Neighborhood Watch programs must be
augmented with dozens of surveillance cameras with monitors in the
police station.

Meanwhile, everyone must continue to eliminate garbage, pick up
litter, cut high weeds. Keep an eye on a neighbor. Cut grass for home
owners who can't. The list of helping is endless.

The nasty, dangerous "crack alleys" of Bluefield - and all towns in
this region - can be won back. We can restore the comforts of a quiet,
safe neighborhood.

We can do it. It won't be easy. It will take some time.

But together - neighbors, police, city management, and determination -
we can squeeze the vermin out.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin