Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 21, 1991 TAG: 9103210359
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Another said that when teaching her 4-year-old to cross the street, she tells him to watch not just for cars, but also for drug dealers.
And another said she wants to call the police for protection - but knows she can't - every time she waits for the bus at a corner that is both a bus stop and an open-air crack market.
Those were some of the concerns voiced Wednesday night by residents of Roanoke's most crime-ridden housing project. They spoke to members of the city Drug and Alcohol Abuse Council, which was invited to Lincoln Terrace to hear residents' concerns.
About 50 people - almost all of them women and children - turned out to tell council members what it's like to live in a community terrorized by crack and the violence it spawns.
"We're fed up with it," said Carolyn Johnson, president of the Lincoln Terrace tenants council and newly appointed member of the city Redevelopment and Housing Authority board.
Almost every night, residents must cope with drug dealers practically on their doorsteps, and with bullets flying who knows where.
"You're sitting downstairs, you're watching TV, and you hear gunshots," Johnson said. "So you say, `Maybe I'll go upstairs to where it's safe,' but then you think: `Those bullets are traveling.' "
Most everyone agreed that the problem at Lincoln Terrace is not with the residents, but with people who come from other parts of town to buy and sell drugs.
"They're the ones who are bringing the trouble in," one woman said. Another resident suggested that police be stationed at every street corner around the project and ask for identification of everyone who enters.
Other more frequently cited suggestions included hiring security guards, enforcing curfews, screening new residents more carefully and beefing up police patrols - with officers walking the beat instead of cruising by in their cars.
Judge Philip Trompeter, the council chairman, told the crowd that although not every question could be answered Wednesday night, the panel was receptive to what residents had to say. "I think we hear you loud and clear," he said.
One woman told Police Chief David Hooper, a member of the council, how glad she was one night last week when police officers got out of their patrol cars and walked around the project.
"It did wonders," she said. "I felt safe, just for the few hours that they were over here. Until they left. Then things went on the way they usually do."
Other residents were supportive of a higher police visibility in the project, perhaps through a special precinct that has been suggested by a City Council member.
That idea came as a response to a newspaper study of Roanoke's black-on-black crime rate, which has produced nearly all of the city's homicides in the past two years. Panel member Henry Altice alluded to the problem, saying, "It very much scares me that there are little to no young black males in this room tonight," Altice said.
Although residents want the drug dealers chased out or evicted, they seemed reluctant to speak out. Tenants were told at the beginning of the meeting that they did not have to give their names. With the exception of Johnson, none did.
"We just fear for our safety," one woman said. "We're trying to protect ourselves. If we come forward, we could be the next [victim] in the newspaper."
Another concern by residents is that new tenants do not seem to be screened carefully enough by housing officials. If the newcomers are not selling drugs, residents said, many of them are providing a haven to dealers when police drive by.
As for security guards, residents were told that Roanoke applied for federal funding to hire guards at Lincoln Terrace but lost out to larger cities.
"We're at a loss because we're competing with bigger cities that HUD considers to have more serious problems," said panel member Vickie Price.
Council members said they were well aware of the reputation for violence the project has acquired through four killings in the past two years, numerous shootings and even more numerous drug arrests.
"There is a perception that this is a real battleground," Trompeter said. "Personally, I wouldn't want to spend the night here."
Someone in the crowd responded: "I wouldn't, either."
by CNB