Lt. Duane Gordon brought along Officers Rivera and Mahoney to the PSA1 meeting on April 28th to give them an opportunity to hear first hand from about 30 concerned residents about their problems.
Officer Mahoney, Officer Rivera, Lt. Gordon and Pete Specos
Gordon ran down a list of statistics for the past 3 weeks. Besides the major crimes which we knew about, we were surprised by the number of truancy and curfew violations. What may appear to be minor issues are of major concern because some of those truants and minors out after hours are the very ones who will be getting into major trouble at some point in the future. The police are continuing to work on the issue.
Bike patrols are targeting the area of the 4700 to 5000 blocks of Frankford Avenue to Penn Street at present. That is where we will be seeing a significant increase in police presence.
Police are aggressively enforcing business hours at night. Those businesses that are open late become a locus for bad behavior and if they are legally supposed to be closed then the police are going to see that they close.
The owner of a building on the 4800 block of Penn Street inquired about getting information from the police on incidents at his building. Gordon advised him to come to the District for that information.
A resident talked about the rampant drug activity at Wakeling and Duffield Streets.
Joe Krause, President of the Northwood Civic, complained that they have been trying to address the ad hoc car sales business on the 900 block of Foulkrod Street for 3 years with no success. The City is completely ineffective in dealing with this problem. Cars are parked or moved from place to place all over the neighborhood and nothing gets resolved. Gordon took notes and said he would be looking into it,
Residents from the 4700 block of Griscom reported on the ongoing problem of drug sales and violence on that block. Gordon said this is the area that will be under increased police attention.
Residents from Dyre Street talked about the blatant drug sales and violence plaguing that area. Gordon discussed in detail what the residents should do.
Reports of abandoned vehicles on the 1400 block of Harrison and 4800 block of Oxford with no action from 311 were noted.
There were several landlords at the meeting who discussed the problem of bad tenants and how to avoid them and then evict them when needed.
The next meeting of PSA1 will be held at the Northeast Bridesburg Boys and Girls Club on May 26th at 7 PM. The club is located at 2900 Bridge Street.
