I seriously hope that everyone possible comes to the City Council meeting at 6pm tonight, to speak during Citizens Right To Be Heard at the end of the meeting to voice our desire to adopt a comprehensive strategic plan for reducing crime, like the Hope Project in Greensboro, NC, and the Boston 10-Point Program (see my earlier posts for links to info on these programs). Below is a message from Terrence Miller, former Chairman of the Anti-Gang Task Force, regarding the shooting that occurred last night on Walnut Street. I've also pasted links to the original ET article on this incident, as well as their latest update:
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Hi everyone,
You may have read this story. EPD is still in the process of sorting out the facts. Whatever did occur, it happened in area with a frequent Hoover Crip presence and where HCrip graffiti tags have been removed. The 'victim' being arrested later in another part of the city with a handgun and marijuana raises concerns in itself. If any part of the story is accurate, particularly the shooting on a public street with a child present, it would be pretty brazen. I spend a lot of time on Pine Street and there is a lot of activity.This incident along with the near brawl at the Pearl Street Playground should be a red flag to the neighborhood that tensions are rising.
You may have read this story. EPD is still in the process of sorting out the facts. Whatever did occur, it happened in area with a frequent Hoover Crip presence and where HCrip graffiti tags have been removed. The 'victim' being arrested later in another part of the city with a handgun and marijuana raises concerns in itself. If any part of the story is accurate, particularly the shooting on a public street with a child present, it would be pretty brazen. I spend a lot of time on Pine Street and there is a lot of activity.
The other concern is the effort residents are making to restore Dutchtown Park. Some things to weigh moving forward. All the more reasons to get moving on presenting a strategic plan.
Terrence
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16 comments:
At last month's safety meeting with Lt. Remaley, I spoke of a Weed and Seed meeting that has organized community leaders to work together, the AID team (Assistance for Impact Delegation). The Easton Weed and Seed AID team will meet today, Thursday Sept. 10th, at 3:30 in the 6th floor conference room, City Hall.
West Ward resident voices are needed and most welcome to present the topic of replicating a community intervention strategy to help reduce criminal activity in our city/your neighborhood.
Weed and Seed has organized key community representatives that are eager to hear the plan and can help to see it through to success.
Please join us today.
Laura Accetta
Weed and Seed Site Coordinator
I am not from your area and certainly not familiar with the problems you are experiencing. However may I suggest to those who can afford them, to buy a camera surveillance system of your own.
I have done that with my home. It serves to aide police. Reinforce to council the problems you are experiencing if they are witness to your recorded videos.
Pictures are worth more then words and can be used as evidence. It also plays an interactive role between citizen crime watch activities.
Perhaps a crime committee could negotiate some deal with a local vender?
Frankly, a 3:30 p.m. meeting is useless unless you're retired, or someone who has a flexible schedule, perhaps like a pastor, or someone who works locally in social services and can make the meeting a part of her job. Even a concerned work-at-home mom can't make that meeting because 3:30 is when her kids are coming home from school.
And really, if Weed & Seed wanted folks at the AID team meeting, do you think it would do a bit more work than posting a note on a blog at 10:30 a.m. the same day of the meeting? If you wanted people there, you'd post fliers at businesses, maybe ask to have the meeting put into church bulletins, etc.
The city's meeting times are most convenient for city officials and employees, not for residents. We have a diverse group of residents in the West Ward with an incredible range of gifts and ideas, so the city has organized SOME key community leaders, but is missing the input of some great talent in this city. In my job, I meet with people all around the world --often at times inconvenient to me--in any way technologically possible because I care about input from anyone who can add value to a project I'm working on. This city can't even manage to have the high-tech, 21st Century tool of a spider phone available for residents who want to be on committees but can't physically make meetings.
And really, where city council's meeting time is concerned, how many people are home from work and have had a chance to catch up with their families over dinner by 6 p.m.?
I know I sound super-jaded here, but this city is not geared toward public participation. Sure, many of the meetings are open, per the state's sunshine laws, but the meeting schedules keep the public in the dark.
And by the way, as a former reporter I used to cover municipal meetings all over the Lehigh Valley, and most committee and council meetings start at 7, 7:30 or even 8 pm. I have never lived in a municipality with meeting times so inconvenient to the public.
LVCI--thanks for posting--although this blog is, for the moment, still hyper-local, it is always nice to find out that we have concerned citizens outside the neighborhood reading our blog. I think video cameras are hard for a lot of WW residents to afford, but I have had similar ideas--namely that I would love to focus a video camera on one troublesome block for a day and night and then produce a sped-up time-lapse photography piece that would illustrate in a few short minutes, just how many cars stop and double park to do hand-offs (as well as the walking hand-offs). I think showing a video like that would bring the pervasiveness of the situation home to City and County officials (not to mention giving some potentially valuable evidence to the EPD).
Theresa, your point is very well taken. I have pointed out to the Mayor and City Council on more than one occasion (including the last City Council meeting when the Mayor mentioned that the Anti-Gang Task Force has a few seats open for residents, but meetings are at 3:30pm) that meetings are not really "open to residents" if they are held during the work day, when most residents cannot attend. This goes for most Weed & Seed meetings as well, the exception being the Safety Committee meeting, which has recently been moved to 7pm to accommodate residents.
I'm directing this to Mrs. T. Miller's posting. I did suggest at the Safety Meeting (attended by yourself and many residents-all of whom said they were very interested in moving forward with a community intervention strategy)that the AID team would be meeting Thursday the 10th, so i did more than post it on the blog at 10:30 am...it was announced 2 weeks in advance). I do unerstand the difficulty of residents getting to the meeting at 3:30 and I am working on a meeting time that will accomodate all and allow for maximum participation,however,this involves many people's schedules. This 3:30 meeting is convenient for Easton high school students (west ward residents) and teachers that do attend. If we do change the time we risk losing the participation of key (organization) partners that we need on board in order to make any of the changes that the neighbors want to implement. Weed and Seed definately DOES want residents at this AID team meeting and since i accepted the position last January I have tried all of those things you mentioned: posting meeting times in churches, newsletters, businesses etc...sometimes folks attend and other times they do not but overall there are a core group of 30 concerned communityleaders and residents combined. I imagine it is frustrating as it seems nothing is being done but key leader-"workers" are laying the foundation just as "resident-workers" are organizing in the streets. For the past few months Weed and Seed has spent a great deal of time and energy to get the people on board that absolutely have to be at the table before any changes can be made. For instance, at the AID team meeting you spoke of, we finally were able to get Dr. Maura Roberts, Asst. Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Serives to the meeting. This is the first time Easton School district has participated in a meeting since Dr. Guy Greenfield retired in April. School District participation is key. We are now working on participation by the Adult Probation Dept. as well as the DA's office. Again, I empathize with the frustration of nothing being convenient for everyone. As for technology that the city does not have (spider-phones), we can only work within our limitations and not be judgemental of what we dont have (hopeful yes but not use it as an excuse), that wont move us forward. In this age of budget cuts and an uncertain financial future, less is expected, not more. Officer Remaley attends the AID team meeting and reports the information from the safety meetings. The next safety meeting will be this coming Thursday Sept. 17th, 7:00pm, Easton Area Community Center (St. Anthonys). Please pass the word to the neighbors to attend. Together we can definately plan for successfully infusing a community driven crime reduction/neighborhood support innitiative. Please keep in mind that any innitiative will require the participation of key leaders (that right now we lack-DA) and so it is vital that we all work together,whether it's at 7;00am, 3:30pm, 8:00 pm or a series of meetings where information is gathered and reported from multiple sources.
I appreciate your input and will use it to further the cause.
Laura Accetta
Weed and Seed Site Coordinator
Laura--thanks for posting. I know you're up against some tremendous challenges right now in the face of the State budget crisis.
One thing I want to be clear on is that the development of a comprehensive strategic plan to reduce open air drug markets is a citizen-driven initiative and not something that is going to develop as a Weed & Seed program. It is still in development and will take some time to do right. Your idea to present to the AID team is a good one to consider, as it would be a line up of some of the key players that would need to be on board ultimately, but even then, it would be a independent citizen project, not a Weed & Seed project. The main reason for this is that since we're proposing a new strategy that has not yet been embraced by the City, it would make sense for the development of the plan to be by an organization ultimately run by the City. The City cannot, logically, present a new plan to itself, and this is a completely citizen-driven initiative.
Most of the residents who came to the last Safety Committee meeting, came because Lt. Remaley invited them directly via the blog to come discuss crime concerns--they were not even aware that it was in the context of a regular Weed & Seed meeting.
Ultimately a comprehensive plan modeled after the Hope Project in Greensboro and the Boston 10-Point Plan will be a strategy and a coalition of citizens and organizations that will work together with the enforcement efforts of the City (including the Anti-Gang Task Force), and orgs like Weed & Seed, but it remains a citizen-driven program, and is not ready yet for presentation as it requires a lot of research and planning to do right.
You are also absolutely right about the need for our DA, Morganelli, to get on board.
Laura, I get your point, where getting partners to the table and the specific charge of the AID committee is concerned, but I have to say that I've never seen an invitation or bulletin posted anywhere. And I very much appreciate the juggling you need to do, and the need to find a time that gets maximum participation.
But generally, the bulk of my comment had nothing to do with the AID committee and was directed more broadly because I firmly believe that the city schedules many of its meetings for the convenience of the city, not the residents. I get that some meetings need to happen when most of the world is at work elsewhere, but I'm suggesting that 7 p.m., not 6 p.m., is a more reasonable time for residents (check Bethelehem's city council calendar--or virtually any other municipality's calendar-for example).
There is such irony to the effort being put forth to get more 'key stakeholders' at the table, when at its peak the Route 222 Task Force in Easton was not only a rich representation of city, county, state and federal organizations and residents, it was the 'go to' task force along the Route 222 Corridor providing lectures, training and conferences throughout the state and managing a resource-rich website.
Its present state does not rest in pointing the finger at the school district, county or lack of funding--it rests in the comfortable, pin-cushioned seats in council chambers. It has become an all too familiar repeat performance in our city, and one we strived to avoid without success or the necessary support of City Hall. The Task Force, overwhelmingly supported by multiple players, the DOJ, PCCD, the board of CIT, outgoing Mayor Mitman and recognized by many others was on the cusp of becoming a city-wide, cohesive community collaborative. What a shame!
I have banged on the doors to get a comprehensive plan together and I still have to listen to a wet-behind the ears elected official spin yet another tale about how 'he' is working on it (two years running!) I have met with department heads and sat in meetings to no avail to get the city and the county to coordinate with expansion while my neighbors wrestle with parking problems, declining housing values and disappearing green space. I have presented the repercussions of a park ban that has displaced crime, fueled racism and social discrimination and an 'us against them' mindset without a single council person raising even an eyebrow. I sat in a council meeting last week witnessing a 'yuck fest' over a kid who [allegedly] fabricated a story about being shot while no one mentioned the fact that he was [allegedly] carrying a gun and was most likely gang affiliated and that a young man the prior week [allegedly] affiliated with a rival gang was also [allegedly] carrying a handgun.
I've listened to my colleagues in the region describe Easton as 'a police state,' 'punitive driven,' and a 'dysfunctional family that thrives on cronyism and special interest.'
I sat amazed as a city council gave the overwhelming nod to allow a mayor and his wife to sit on council (while expressing all sorts of concern about 'conflict of interest’) and a council member whose husband is on the school board—that entertainment value speaks for itself.
City Hall and city council is NOT the answer for the residents. We have to move beyond politically tied and agendized organizations and city officials for it is the only way progress will be made effectively and efficiently.
We must seek our resources, leverage and representation outside the city and find ways to empower the registered voters.
Let's roll up our sleeves and continue the work without the noose.
The Morning Call reporter posted a message on the Valley610 blog, saying that Noel Jones and neighbors are drafting their own comprehensive approach to drugs & violence.
Since June, I have been working with select students at Lafayette College, studying community-centered approaches to justice, including David Kennedy's work in Cincinnati, Boston, & High Point NC. When gangs are really strong and pervasive, this seems to work well -- especially if modified to fit the unique situation in the community.
The evidence is clear that prevention, intervention, and treatment are much more successful than punishment -- less costly and more effective at reducing repeat offenses.
True community policing also goes a long way. I'm not talking about bike patrols, but police that build partnerships with residents and community organizations -- partnerships that focus on empowering residents and working together to find real solutions to community problems.
The local law enforcement and criminal justice systems could also do more by incorporating restorative practices that are designed to heal victims and the community -- and the offender, which is especially important since many of them will return to the community sooner or later.
Peter Crownfield
Alliance for Sustainable Communities–Lehigh Valley
Email: peter@sustainlv.org
Thanks for your post, Peter. This is exactly what we have been trying to get across to the Mayor and City Council for a year and a half now, and still we get spin and lip service, invitations to "open" meetings in the middle of the work day when most residents can't attend, and suggestions that we just fall back on the EPD (who are terrific, but can't be expected to do everything) and an Anti-Gang Task Force that primarily enforcement-focused.
Lt. Remaley and Cpt. Vangelo both expressed their support at the last Safety Committee and City Council meetings for the idea of a more comprehensive strategic plan like the one you mention, if the City and County were to get on board. The City and County need to remember that they are elected by voters and paid by taxpayers, and that listening doesn't just mean giving residents their 5 minutes on the mic, but actually incorporating the ideas and desires of their constituents into policy. I am not yet familiar with this particular program that you mentioned, so thanks very much for the info--it sounds like it's in line with the general philosophies and strategies that have worked in Greensboro and Boston.
Noel - I'd love to talk to you about this whole situation [with the students, if possible]. If you contact me directly by email, maybe we can find a time to meet or maybe you could join us when we meet with people at West Ward Neighborhood Partnership next week. -Peter
Thanks, Peter--I will email you.
I'll be brief...Noel, talk to Peter Crownfield. He knows his shit. Terrence and Theresa are both right...regardless of the hopes and dreams of the city-centric planning initiatives, they are not OUR plans, hopes or dreams. Until Easton realizes that it is cutting it's nose off despite its face by not allowing the dedicated individulas to carry the ball, they will be rewarded with nothing more than temporary skirmish victories while the war of attrition kills the city. Finally, I abandoned Weed and Seed for this simple reason. I have never believed that those at the table - AID Team or whoever - can function effectively with a top-down process that has not adapted to the local conditions apparent to many of us. I have no desire to fight with that organization or make anyone feel bad but I see nothing to make me think these conditions will change.
Dennis R. Lieb
Please see comments on the latest post for my response to this...
Mayor Sal Panto -- There is so much mis-information here and personal agendas that I don't know where to begin. So I will just say that the Weed and Seed Safety Meeting is tomorrow evening at EACC, and City Council meetings are the second and fourth Tuesdays and Wednesdays of the month. If you care to offer opinion, commentary, or criticism that is a good place to start.
As always, I thank you for your desire to make Easton a better place for all residents.
I will be more than happy to address these issues at the meeting.
By the way -- the Task Force has been meeting at the same time since its inception. The time has not changed.
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