Pubdate: Wed, 09 Mar 2005
Source: Cincinnati City Beat (OH)
Copyright: 2005sLightborne Publishing Inc.
Contact:  http://www.citybeat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1692
Author: Stephanie Dunlap

TO THE BARRICADES

Why Not Pen in the Suburban Drug Users?

An unsightly barricade of orange barrels might have divided the
community that lies beyond it more effectively than it kept Kentucky
drivers from the Pendleton neighborhood's drug market.

On July 28, 2004, the city erected a temporary barricade to block
direct access to 13th Street from Reading Road, hoping to stymie the
easy flow of Kentucky drivers who exit Interstate 471 and shoot
directly across Reading Road onto 13th Street. It was like a druggie's
drive-thru, some residents say.

But as soon as the barricade went up, other Pendleton residents
started decrying the lack of notification and community
involvement.

Marvin Butts, owner of Mr. Bubbles Detailing, and his office manager,
Tabatha Anderson, lead the opposition to the barricade. Butts sent out
postcards that show him, decked out in the full cowboy regalia he
favors, standing next to the barricade.

The postcard wryly notes that blocking the road to his business
without telling him about it couldn't possibly be due to his race.
Maybe there's another reason.

"Is it because I'm a cowboy?" the postcard asks.

Block the 'Burbs

Joe Bodkin doesn't think it's funny to introduce race
to the debate. The former president of the Pendleton Neighborhood
Council led the initial push to block the street.

"I'm really kind of shocked and kind of hurt the way Marvin has taken
this," Bodkin says. "He knew about this from day one. He was always
bitching to me about having to chase off these Kentucky white boys
down here to buy drugs."

Cincinnati City Councilwoman Laketa Cole heads the Neighborhoods and
Public Services Committee, which recently recommended removing the
barrier. At a Feb. 24 meeting it looked as if council were going to
vote to keep the barricade, so she referred the matter back to her
committee for a March 22 hearing.

Anderson suggested that council barricade Hyde Park or Alexandria,
Ky., so people buying drugs can't even leave to go to Pendleton.

The barricade was supposed to last only six months, when its
effectiveness at reducing crime would be evaluated. A study by the
University of Cincinnati's Division of Criminal Justice concluded the
barricade had little effect on Pendleton's overall crime; the drug
dealing simply moved to 12th Street.

While the proponents see that as a start and tackling 12th Street as
the next step, others who once supported the barricade are starting to
view it as the limit of the city's efforts. In a Feb. 17 e-mail, Chris
Smith, president of the Pendleton Neighborhood Council, asked what
became of the Community Problem Oriented Policing team.

"The barricade should have only been the beginning of a long-term
solution, but it wasn't," he said. "The CPOP team involved dissolved
and the community -- meaning all of us -- stopped there. ...In the
meantime, businesses have been affected and 12th Street is a living,
breathing nightmare."

Recent city surveys reveal a neighborhood divided. On Feb. 24 the
Pendleton Neighborhood Council voted 20 to 11 in favor of removing the
barricade.

That leaves those who have seen the barricade make a difference on
13th Street angry that it might be removed without another plan in
place.

"Thirteenth Street is a different place than it was before the
barricade went up," says resident Lisa Cameron. "Residents and police
worked so closely together to accomplish something unprecedented. And
now the message from leadership is glaringly apparent -- there is not
a long-term vision for a better community, only a Band-Aid to avoid
any short-term conflict."

Cameron's neighbor, Gary Gabbard, told Cole he cut a hole in his back
fence to sneak past drug dealers and stopped using the living room at
the front of his house.

"When the barricade went up, I thought it was a silly idea, but the
neighborhood seemed to change overnight," he wrote in a Feb. 24 e-mail.

Now he refuses to watch quietly as the barricades come
down.

"You will hear from me often and loudly, and you all had better pray
that nothing happens to my wife," he said.

Smith doesn't think Pendleton has the resources to address crime on
12th Street or find an alternative to the barricade on 13th. He thinks
that in the meantime the barricade should come down.

"Our bench is not deep enough and it is not fair to our neighbors to
wait until we can get the level of participation required to address
our problems in earnest," he wrote.

'Do Something'

City Councilman Jim Tarbell wants to retain the
barricade at least through the summer, the busiest time for drug
traffic. During that time a new CPOP team will be gearing up and
Citizens on Patrol might take shape, he says. Other options include
more surveillance, lighting and police patrols. Anderson says
residents, including Butts, have been asking for more patrols in the
neighborhood for years.

Perhaps the crux of the debate isn't the barricade but a sense of
disrespect. As far back as July 19, Bodkin's fellow architect Ty
Provosty was asking why he'd learned about the proposal through the
media and not the community council.

"My objections have nothing to do with the project itself but the
process of achieving the goals of the project outside the democratic
process of the neighborhood council," Provosty wrote. "It is just that
simple. Ends do not justify the means."

But it's really not that simple, says Tarbell, who lives
nearby.

"A lot of people routinely are not engaged in the political process,"
he says. "They don't come to meetings. You can't wait for everybody to
show up and have a one-on-one. Otherwise nothing gets done."

City officials hold that the neighborhood received plenty of
notification before and during the process.

"A lot of people were let down by that, because we're telling you that
we weren't," Anderson says. "There's lots of people in the community
saying we didn't know. It's almost like they're saying we're lying."

She and Butts submitted to council the signatures of 74 Pendleton
residents who say they weren't notified of the barricade and now
object to it.

Nor did Anderson appreciate back-to-back visits from Tarbell and
Police Officer Frank McGraw asking her to convince Butts to play along
once the barricade was in place.

"It almost sounds like you're saying, 'If you know what's good for
you, you'll be on the same page,' " she says. "It was just a little
uncomfortable."

Tarbell thinks the frustration with process is a separate issue from
the barricade itself.

"There's still underlying tension from people about community
relations issues in general, and so they'll take whatever comes down
the pike to express that frustration," he says.

Then there are some objecting to the barricade who are part of the
local drug culture, Tarbell says.

"They've kind of talked themselves into thinking that it's really OK,
they're not hurting anybody, all they're doing is selling drugs," he
says. "And I guess part of that's true. But when it interferes with
the overall safety of the neighborhood, when you've got people who are
finally a couple decades later, for all the neglect, investing real
money, hard-earned money in their own homes -- when that progress gets
interrupted or stopped, then it's time to do something."
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MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPFFLorida)