Posted by: Noel Jones
This Thursday, 6pm at the Salvation Army is the safety meeting we have all been waiting for: vice officers from the EPD will be coming in meet with West Ward residents and explain many issues that we have had questions about, i.e., setting up surveillance, what it takes to establish probable cause, how long a sting can take to set up a drug house raid, etc. This is also a great opportunity to get more details on when the new surveillance cameras that have been approved are going to be installed, and where they will be installed. The mayor attended the last Safety Committee meeting and assured residents at that time that the cameras were not going to be limited to the schools only, but would be put up at particularly troubled areas of the WW where there has been consistent open-air drug market activity. This is your chance to tell the EPD and the mayor where you think the hottest of the hot spots are in our neighborhood.
Because the meeting has been moved to the earlier time slot of 6:00 pm, I will have a hard time making it back in time from a meeting I have in New York tomorrow. So I would really appreciate it if those of you that go post comments here afterward to let me know what was discussed and what your impressions were!
Below is the info on the meeting that Lt. Remaley has provided:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22ND
6:00 P.M.
*NOTE THE TIME CHANGE
SALVATION ARMY
1110 NORTHAMPTON STREET
*EASTON POLICE DEPARTMENT VICE INVESTIGATORS WILL BE SPEAKING IN
REGARDS TO VICE INVESTIGATIONS,
PROBABLE CAUSE ISSUES FOR SEARCH WARRANTS, AND OPEN AIR DRUG ACTIVITY
QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION!
Thank you, Lt. John Remaley
Posts
12 comments:
I have a previous engagement as well, but I would have been glad to be there. I've been trying to figure out how to get a streetlamp put back in at the sassafrass st/N 7th St intersection where alot of drug activity takes place (much of sassafrass really). the west ward has a streetlamp at every corner and half block EXCEPT this intersection.
the apartment complex in the 600 block of Bushkill st (next to the abandoned circle system bldg) is also a hub of drug activity.
whoever attends, please give a report. thanks!
EHB
EHB,
For what it's worth, a woman on my street asked Met-Ed for a street light at mid-block on my street about seven years ago. They came right out and put one up. I don't think the city had much to do with it (although someone pays the electric bill). Be warned though - it won't be a nicely scaled residential lamp. The one we got was a typical highway cobrahead fixture with a high pressure sodium lamp (hideous orange glow) that now shines directly into my bedroom window. Be careful what you ask for.
DRL
EHB,
I remember the mayor posted a comment a while ago, asking anyone who notices street lamp issues to please call his office and let him know. Also El Warner is the City Council person that covers Public Works initiatives, so I would cc her on the email as well. All email addresses for the mayor and City Council are available on the new City of Easton web site, and the link is on the side bar on the right of this home page.
I hope this helps!
thanks for the tips. I will pursue that.
I did contact someone @ the city offices about this a few years back (I forget who it was) and they were very adamant that "we don't fulfill individual requests for streetlamps". I pointed out that the city has set the pattern itself and there should be a streetlamp there. he claims they sent out their 'electrician' who says there was never a streetlamp there. yeah, right. I also had called met-ed and they put it back on the city. at that frustrating point, I gave up.
until now.
again, thanks. I will get an email out.
EHB
well, Dennis and Noel, thanks for your help, but I got shot down by El and Dave Hopkins, the director of public works. Mayor Panto had also initially responded, but I didn't get a final answer from him as of yet.
If anyone is interested in the details I can forward you the email excahnge.
thanks again.
Keith Cieplinski
(yes, that is my real name, I'll idnetify myself in the interest of full disclousre since I used my name w/ the emails w/ the city, and the mayor reads this blog)
Keith,
I'd be happy to take a look at that exchange in the spirit of demystifying city processes (which I just blogged on by the way).
One thing you will learn as you interact more with our municipal departments...without personalizing it, there seems to be a default response to everything that starts with all the reasons (excuses?) why something CAN'T be done instead of working together to figure out a way to GET IT done.
Eventually, things do happen but it's a long, hard road that can be frustrating if you aren't really, really committed. At some point something triggers in their heads that you are serious and need to be placated, but I don't really know what causes it.
You can email me at work: dennislieb@prupaulfordrealtors.com
DRL
Keith,
Nice to know ya! I would definitely be interested in seeing the exchange as well, and you are welcome to post it here, or if you prefer, you can email me at nmarie008@yahoo.com.
I agree 100% with what Dennis is saying--there seems to be a persistent knee-jerk reaction from the City to questions/requests/demands from the tax-paying public in which they immediately roll out excuses as to why nothing can change, and why we should be ok with the status quo, and it takes a lot of persistence from residents who won't take "no" for an answer to get things changed.
This resistance from the City is a systemic problem that needs to be addressed by electing people who will address the problem, not encourage and participate in the same behavior. For that, we need to focus on developing political will among voters.
Did anyone attend this Safety Committee meeting? If so, please post a comment and let us know how it went. I was stuck at a meeting in New York, otherwise I would have been there--this seemed like it would be the most interesting one...
I attended the Safety Committee meeting. Lieutenant Remaley brought two of the three Vice Detectives, and they spoke about their job and their duties. One resident asked if they could take pictures to help the police find those causing problems in their neighborhood. The detectives said that streets are public property, and you can take pictures of people on the street. However, you cannot take pictures of someone's house. I hope that others can add more information as to what was discussed at the meeting.
It was a great meeting, and I am sorry that there was a very low attendance. I am not sure whether this was do to the change in time or the poor advertising of the new time.
Thanks for the report, Alan. How many people would you say were there? Last time it looked like between 10 - 20 people.
Changing the times and locations definitely effects consistency in attendance, but I'm not sure that's the only reason. Attendance at Weed & Seed meetings has been very low for years, and attendance has also been very low at the canton meetings as well.
I am aware, and we need to find a way to change that. It will be interesting to see if the newsletter created by the WWNP will help keep the residents of the West Ward notified or not.
Notification is key, but we have other deeper issues at work in our neighborhood than getting the word out that affect attendance. There is a deep apathy and sense of disenfranchisement that has been around for decades in the WW that we need to address earnestly, because if people have given up on their local government, or orgs who have said for years that they were going to bring meaningful change to the neighborhood only to disappoint, they won't come. We need more diversity in our leadership, not just our attendance, and we need truly grass roots orgs in the WW for people to be inspired to buy in, in terms of time, energy and faith that things will change this time. Any top-down processes are just more of the same and will not draw attendance.
That is one point that Majora Carter makes very clear when she addresses Al Gore in the video I posted earlier. I am very excited that she is coming to Easton in November. In a neighborhood that is roughly 15% black and 20% Latino, the WW needs to see black and Latino leadership on grass roots efforts to help inspire the neighborhood to think that this time will be different, so the movement in this neighborhood can gain some momentum. We have 11,000 people in this neighborhood and 40% of Easton's population. Almost 40% of our neighborhood is non-white. When people begin to realize how much sleeping power there is in within the disenfranchised cultures in this neighborhood, it will begin to wake up around here in a big way.
I think bringing Majora Carter here is a step in the right direction, meaning, a step into a vital and diverse future together.
Post a Comment