Pubdate: Sun, 20 Feb 2005
Source: Savannah Morning News (GA)
Copyright: 2005 Savannah Morning News
Contact:  http://www.savannahnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/401
Author: Tom Barton

REAL VINTAGE SCOURAGE DOWNTOWN ISN'T CABERNET - IT'S CRACK

Today, chardonnay

Tomorrow, Colt .45 Malt Liquor in a brown bag. Or maybe a Hooters and
a "Girls Gone Wild" crew.

Unfortunately, this was the overheated tone to some of the debate last
week to menu changes at the Firefly Caf. That's the tiny restaurant at
the corner of Habersham and Harris streets in the Troup Square
neighborhood that got City Council's blessing to offer its customers
glasses of wine with its Atlantic salmon and other dishes.

The confrontation before council was true to form for this opinionated
city. That means ample hyperventilating. One foe even ranted that the
postage stamp of an eatery was a blight on the square.

"Seven hundred thousand dollars for a house, that's not blight,"
southside Alderman Tony Thomas responded. "I can show you some blight."

Meet Tony Thomas, rational thinker. Miracles do happen.

Certainly, issues of public safety, quality of life, land use, zoning
and livability hit close to everyone's home in Savannah - and not just
in areas where houses sell for big bucks. Process is important. If
local governments want neighborhoods to evolve for the better, then
officials must have a strategy that's fair and clear-cut. Not one that
bends with the rhetoric on any given day.

But perspective is important, too.

With all due respect to Historic District homeowners who fought the
Firefly , selling wine by the glass indoors - and only with sit-down
meals -shouldn't kill their charming neighborhood. Its desirability,
along with its real estate prices, shouldn't suddenly nosedive. If
anything, it should add to the vibrancy, health and allure.

There are, however, some Savannahians who live about a mile or so to
the south in the Victorian District who are right to be concerned
about the future of their neighborhood. Susan Horner, Jessica Poser
and Ted Annis own homes on East Park Avenue not far from Forsyth Park.
On Friday afternoon, a day after some homeowners went ballistic over
beaujolais, two cops were bicycling down their block. Two more were on
foot a block or two away on Lincoln Street.

These officers in blue were on patrol for a reason. Not cabernet.
Crime.

It's a vintage problem that gets worse with age, not
better.

In this neighborhood, the issue isn't wine by the glass. It's crack by
the dimebag. It's a thug who sticks a gun in your face, or steals your
car or breaks into your house and grabs your stuff.

"I don't want to live in The Landings or the like," said Horner, who
is restoring a handsome frame house and has been the victim of several
property crimes, including a stolen car. "I want to live in downtown
Savannah. I don't want anyone, the police included, to ever tell me
again, 'Welcome to Savannah,' or, 'That's Savannah for you.'"

Since October of last year, police and other city departments have
been trying to help residents like Horner reclaim their neighborhood,
which extends south from Gwinnett Street to Anderson Street and is
bounded on the east and west by Price Street and Martin Luther King
Boulevard. It's a big job. One reason is the blight that Alderman
Thomas described. Many buildings are abandoned, boarded up or in
various stages of decay.

But a bigger reason is drugs.

This part of the city is crack central. At least four areas are
considered "open air" drug markets by police - the 500 block of East
Park Avenue, the corner of Park and Habersham Street, the 500 block of
East Waldburg which is just a block north, and the 100 block of East
Duffy Street.

"You don't want to drive down there (East Park between Price and East
Broad Street) at night," said Annis, a hair designer who has his salon
a few blocks away. "They'll come out in the street and flag your car
down."

Annis, however, is fortunate in two respects. One is that his
customers are loyal. "I'll follow him no matter which ghetto he moves
to," said one attractive client who was getting her hair done. The
other is that he's never been robbed, although he has been burglarized
twice - the last time in July of last year.

Poser has a 19-year-old tenant, a Savannah College of Art and Design
student, who wasn't so lucky. A punk stuck a gun in the young man's
face during a robbery attempt not long ago. Fortunately, police got
their man.

Then something odd happened.

A few weeks later, a woman with badly blackened eyes showed up on
Poser's doorstep. She identified herself as the robber's mother. She
pleaded with Poser to get the charges dropped.

"It looked like someone had really beaten her up," Poser said. But on
closer inspection, those discolorations weren't black-and-blue marks.
They were the products of a makeup job. She also noticed that the
woman was riding with a group of young men in a car, with its sound
system blaring, parked at the curb. Even would-be mothers can't be
trusted.

But Annis is a believer. While he said crime seems to go up or down
depending on the level of police presence, he believes his
neighborhood is trending to the good. One reason is Queeny's
restaurant at 33rd and Habersham streets. Owner John Baker has
expanded his modest establishment, and the outdoor tables and pink
umbrellas add life and color to an uneven urban landscape.

"It's going to generate positive traffic," Annis said. "We need more
things like that in this neighborhood."

Queeny's, incidentally, sells wine with meals. No neighbors, as far as
I know, have moved as a result. But when you're dodging crack dealers
and addicts, the city's real scourges, you keep certain things
straight. Like your priorities.

Tom Barton is the editorial page editor of the Morning News.
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