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South Sider at wits’ end over crime, city response
Life on the South Side
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When Bonnie Jacobs moved to Youngstown 18 years ago, she carefully checked the house on East Florida Avenue and the surrounding neighborhood before her purchase. Back then, Jacobs, 63, said she never could have imagined what would become of her life on the South Side street.
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Bonnie Jacobs talks about her experience living in an unsafe neighborhood on the South Side. She said she has been held at gunpoint, has bullet holes in her house and had her property stolen and vandalized.
YOUNGSTOWN
When Bonnie Jacobs moved to Youngstown 18 years ago, she carefully checked the house on East Florida Avenue and the surrounding neighborhood before her purchase.
Back then, Jacobs, 63, said she never could have imagined what would become of her life on the South Side street.
In the past three years, Jacobs said she’s seen drugs, guns, her property stolen and vandalized, and other criminal activity.
“I used to talk to my neighbors about our medications, and now we talk about AK-47s and handguns and shootings and murders,” Jacobs said.
There aren’t too many of her old neighbors left on her street. The lucky ones sold years ago while some purposely let their homes be lost to foreclosure because of violence, she said.
Though Jacobs said she’s scared to remain, she doesn’t want to abandon her home — at least not yet.
There are two bullet holes in her house — one is above the window of her bedroom and the other is on a downspout in the back. Jacobs said she wasn’t the target of either shooting. It was just people driving down her street firing guns.
But she has had a gun put to her head.
That was a few years ago. Just last week, she said someone tried to run her over with a car in her driveway. Jacobs said she’s been victimized by a neighbor who verbally threatens her on a regular basis.
“I’m afraid to go to sleep; I’m afraid to be on my front porch by myself,” she said.
She’s called the police and other city officials to get help as well as file police reports.
But nothing’s been done, she said.
“It doesn’t matter who is the mayor or who is the police chief,” Jacobs said. “Nothing has changed.”
When told about Jacobs, Police Chief Jimmy Hughes said the department takes every call seriously, but this matter sounds like “an ongoing issue with a neighbor. It could be even worse than what she says or she’s interpreting action in one way and the police may see something totally different. We’re investigating it.”
The police prioritize calls based on a variety of factors, Hughes said. The most important are the severity of the crime and if it’s happening when the call is made or very shortly thereafter.
A burglary in progress is a higher priority than a case in which someone returns home and finds they are the victim of a burglary, he said.
But, Hughes said, there isn’t a focus on major crimes at the expense of responding to smaller crimes.
“We’re concerned with all calls,” he said.
Charles Sammarone, who will replace Jay Williams as mayor Monday, said he’s heard complaints from some residents about the police department’s response times and priorities that sometimes push aside crimes such as burglaries to focus on violent crimes.
“I know that is a concern,” he said, adding that is something he plans to address.
Williams, who is leaving for a job with the President Barack Obama administration, said crimes of all types are a focus of the police department, and overall crime is declining in the city.
Crime statistics for 2010 compared to the previous year showed declines in violent crime — homicides by 17 percent, rapes by 11 percent, robberies by 20 percent and arsons by 7 percent. But burglaries went up 11 percent, and thefts increased by 16 percent in 2010 compared to 2009.
The city is on pace to have its lowest homicide rate in decades.
“When was the last time going into August that there were [eight] homicides?” Williams said. “Maybe next year or the following year it will be three homicides.”
The Rev. Kenneth Simon, pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church on Hillman Street, said crime has decreased with Williams as mayor. But “we have a lot of work to do,” he said. That’s something Williams also says.
Sybil West of Bennington Avenue on the East Side said violence in her neighborhood is getting worse. But that’s not all. There are problems with blight and vacant properties, she said.
“I would like to think [Williams] tried to help the neighborhoods,” she said. “You see the downtown improving, but not much at all in the neighborhoods. I’m hoping there will be a change” with Sammarone.
A lot has been done downtown, and there needs to be more of a focus on the neighborhoods, said Sammarone, adding that the city’s population decline is due, in part, to that lack of focus.
“If the neighborhoods aren’t maintained then people won’t move here, and we’ve seen people leave,” he said. “We need to focus on neighborhoods and stabilize them.”
That means fixing potholes, cutting high grass and the demolition of vacant properties.
During Williams’ 51/2 years as mayor, about 2,400 vacant properties, mostly residential, were demolished.
Councilman Paul Drennen, D-5th, said demolition needs to be done in a more-strategic manner and “not shotgun demolition with one house here and one there. When you demolish one or two houses on a street that needs 10 demolished, it doesn’t work.”
Sammarone said he’s heard complaints about the demolition strategy, but Williams’ administration did an “effective” job with housing demolitions.
Chris Travers of Sheridan Road, president of the 7th Ward Citizens Coalition, said he’s seen an increase in the number of vacant homes throughout the city.
“The city administration hasn’t done enough, and we are certainly disappointed with the lack of progress,” he said. “There’s blight all over the city.”
Williams disagrees with his critics.
“It’s absolutely impossible to satisfy everyone because a mayor has to be involved in everything,” he said.
The Rev. Mr. Simon said Williams “could have done better in the area of helping the neighborhoods,” but that also is the responsibility of members of city council, other city officials and everyone who lives in Youngstown.
The Rev. Lewis Macklin, pastor of the Holy Trinity Baptist Church on Parkcliffe Avenue, said Williams did an excellent job as mayor improving the neighborhoods.
“There has been demonstrative and forward steps in the neighborhoods,” he said. “Neighborhood initiatives are helping neighbors become neighbors again working on beautification and planting.”
He specifically said many houses that should have been demolished a long time ago would still be standing if not for Williams’ leadership.
Change takes time, the Rev. Mr. Macklin said.
“Do you want evolution or revolution?” he asked. “Revolutions come and go quickly. Evolution is a slow process, but it’s a sustained process.”