September-October 2005

SUN brings the heat

The month of August is traditionally one of vacations; look at George W. Bush down at the ranch in Crawford, Texas. Not so on the streets of Syracuse, N.Y. where leaders of Syracuse United Neighbors (SUN) spent the month winning several victories for their neighborhoods.

Maria Johnson and a young SUN leader show city officials problem areas in their neighborhood. SUN's pressure resulted in city agencies uprooting trees and boarding up houses to combat drug sales and drug use.

Leaders of SUN’s Southside Coalition hosted a neighborhood tour on Aug. 9 that the drew over 50 people, including residents, police officers, code enforcement officials and candidates for Common Council. They walked a 10-block route to learn more about the concerns of neighborhood residents and the conditions in the community. Leaders pointed out tax delinquent vacant houses owned by absentee landlords and problem corner stores that create crime. SUN leaders won commitments from the city code enforcement agency to cite several buildings and increased police patrols of several crime hot spots.

“There’s nothing we can do about that” was the standard reply from police to complaints about crimes committed by underage youth for too many years. Nothing could be done about crimes associated with anyone under 16 years of age, police officials would say. Leaders of SUN’s Skunk City Neighborhood Association changed that traditional answer during an Aug. 22 community meeting with Deputy Chief Frank Fowler. 

In an effort to stop a marked increase in loitering, vandalism and criminal mischief by unsupervised youths, two officers from the Family and Youth Division were assigned to investigate problems with youth in Skunk City.  This unit can help make referrals to programmatic assistance that might put some of the youths back on the right path. Two additional patrol officers were also assigned to a special beat to deal with a rash of criminal mischief complaints. The officers will have a special cell phone number so residents can contact police as problems happen. Leaders of SUN’s Southwest Action Council took Deputy Police Chief Fowler on a tour of what they called the “Southwest Crack Trail.” Vacant houses, overgrowth and hidden trails allowed dealers and users to turn a three-square block area into an open-air crack market. One vacant house was dubbed the Crack Hotel, complete with a dirty mattress in every room, empty plastic bags, broken lighters and used condoms strewn around.

Police heard the pleas of the neighbors and decided to eradicate the Crack Trail. During the first week of August, 35 crew members from the Department of Public Works and the police Ordinance Enforcement section spent three days uprooting overgrowth and boarding up vacant houses.  Several of the vacant houses have been placed on the city’s priority list for demolition.