East Side seeks more protection

POLICE PATROLS: Attorney Sonja Taylor spoke for East Side residents andproperty owners at the City Council meeting

BY BRIAN HICKS
Of The Post and Courier staff
Originally Published on: 04/12/00

     An attorney representing East Side community residents and property owners asked City Council Tuesday night to intensify police patrols in the neighborhood and consider turning 31 Amherst St. into a police substation.
     Sonja Taylor said East Side residents fear the city-owned property where a convicted felon was allowed to run a business could be torn down after the condemnation process at 31 Amherst is completed. It would be better used as a police substation to keep more officers in the area, especially during shift changes, when drug sales are more rampant.
     Police patrols by officers on foot, on horseback and with drug-sniffing dogs have been successful in the area, but need to be intensified at key times of day.
     "We would like assurances this will continue," Taylor said. "We have problems unique to the East Side. For instance, the pine straw used in public spaces in other parts of the city are used to hide drugs."
     Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said 31 Amherst will be turned over to the city's Housing Authority when the condemnation process is completed, which, he added, should be soon. A hearing on the property is scheduled for today.
     Police Chief Reuben Greenberg said the courts are not doing enough to curb a major problem in the East Side - Charleston's 30- to 40-year-old "underground economy."
     "We make 900 arrests a year on narcotics possession or resale, and less than 50 of them serve more than two days in jail," Greenberg said.
     Riley and council members adopted a resolution asking city staff to draft a letter to local courts asking for tougher sentences for drug offenders. Councilman Kwadjo Campbell added an amendment seeking to get Youth and Family Services to try earlier intervention to give kids better opportunities.
     After the meeting, Campbell said he was offended that the group came forward claiming to speak for the East Side neighborhood, which he represents.
     Campbell said the group included people who were East Side property owners - but not residents - who seemed to be belittling or dismissing the work he and the East Side Community Council had been doing to combat these problems in the district. The group requested a spot on the Tuesday night agen- da through Councilman Bob George.
     Campbell said many of the concerns they expressed - such as asking for better lighting on East Side streets - were well-known by city officials.
     "The East Side Community Council has been working on these things with me since I was elected," Campbell said.