Wabash Neighborhood Center
I'm wondering how many of the people upset with Eureka's Stop and Shop Market opposed Teen Challenge's bid to move into the old church in the same neighborhood? They're just a few blocks apart.
Stop and Shop is the neighborhood center for the Wabash Avenue area, it seems. Always people hanging out around there. Problem is, when the neighborhood is the armpit of Eureka, you get mostly the riff- raff hanging around.
I've never been by there late at night when they say it gets real bad, but it seems to me it got a little quieter there when they got rid of the pay phone outside the store.
They did get rid of that phone didn't they? Seems to me no matter when I'd drive by there you'd see people hanging around or talking on the phone. I don't recall seeing that phone for some time now.
But, it's the neighborhood. I don't know that the one store not too far away from it has many problems. The one on F street a block north of Wabash, what is it; D&V Market? Seems pretty quiet there.
It's the neighborhood, not the store, seems to me.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:19 AM
19 comments
19 Comments:
You know,I used to hear the same arguments here on Pine Hill in regards to Bonomini's.It's just the nature of the beast or something that puts markets as the center of attention.I've known many of the employees year in and out and they always seemed vigilant in dealing with riff-raff,but not until the neighborhood worked together did anything change,and problems there seem to few and far between.
But I think that Jerry Camuso is,as much as I'd hate to say it(I don't like authorities regulating one's business hours)he's probably right about reducing the hours,and closing it at 10pm.I can't imagine that they generate enough profit between 10pm and 2am to overcome the side effects of being in operation.
I was unaware they stayed open that late until I read it in today's paper. I can't imagine why they'd want to stay open that late, especially in that part of town. Maybe they do get enough business to make it worth their while?
The same thing used to happen at the BP station on Myrtle. They had a series of pay phones and with the almost all sales of booze and cigarettes and not much else, it finally turned into a pit. I'm glad to see it gone.
I used to live in the neighborhood described by Nan Abrams in her July 1 Times-Standard opinion piece. It was a good neighborhood. Then drug dealers started setting up business in apartments there. We kept them at bay for a while, working with the EPD. From what Abrams says, the drug dealers have taken over the neighborhood.
Our legal system does not have enough money, police officers, or jail cells to combat all the drug dealers. Citizens who don't want to live in a hell hole have to find ways to prevent the drug dealers from taking over their neighborhoods. Rambo-like actions are guaranteed to fail. Neighborhood Watch (neighbors working with the police) can do a lot of good.
Stop n Shop Market had pay phones across Wabash Avenue from the store. They were taken out about 10 years ago because drug dealers were using them as offices. Today, thanks to cell phones, drug dealers don't need pay phones.
You are right that the C&V Market has nothing like the level of trouble that Stop n Shop has. Main reason -> They close earlier. The owners told me that twenty-five years ago. I think it is still true today.
Another reason, which at least was true from about 1977-1987, the neighborhood around C&V was nicer, people looked out for each other there.
That leads he to ask some questions. Is Nan Abrams right in the way she described my old neighborhood? Were her perceptions accurate? Will anyone who reads this and lives in my old neighborhood around Wabash and E Street please tell me what you think?
I actually live on E street, three blocks south of Wabash, but I don't know that I'd consider it the same neighborhood.
I think all of Wabash, east of Broadway, is pretty low class. Three blocks away, where I live, I'd say it's deteriorated over the years, but hasn't gone to the level of Wabash...yet.
Only one druggie place within eyesight of my house that I know of, and they've been fairly quiet as of late. I think some of the trouble makers must have moved.
i was agaisnt the Teen Challenge project, but am im not upset with the liquor store. The liquor store is regulated, the article says they were closed down for 25 days or so once, Teen Challenge is not regulated at all. The liqour store pays taxes, Teen Challenge doesnt. The liquor store serves the local population, Teen Challenge doesnt. The liquor store property is zoned for that purpose, Teen Challenge property wasnt.
3:17, I think you've got some really good points there.
But some people, like Fred here, are prejudiced and don't care about local, regulations, or taxes. They're certain they know who the "good" people and "riff raff" people are. If Eureka becomes a hellhole it's due to their smug all or nothing thinking that calls for use of force against anyone they don't like.
4:47, i agree, this "us vs them" mentality is getting anoying........i was just reading a local blog regarding the cotton death in the hands of EPD and a eurekan made a comment to the effect of "cotton's family is just like moore's family" (moore and cotton are 2 people who recently lost lives due to EPD).......its sad to know that there are people who will wish death upon "others"......
Seems like there isn't a problem at Harris & K.
Nicer neighborhood there.
So, Fred, you live about five blocks from C&V Market and about three blocks from where Nan Abrams in her time, and I in my time lived.
I think her point, that the problem is "rampant drug abuse," is exactly right.
If you ignore the problem, the blight will spread, ruining your happy home.
You must find effective ways to keep drug dealers from encroaching into your neighborhood.
Have you developed any effective ways of doing that? I want to hear your ideas and things you have done first. Then maybe I'll tell you a thing or two that worked for me when I lived there.
I do wish you and Eureka both luck and the courage to make that luck good.
We just need drugs to be more potent, kill their users faster. Then the problem would take care of itself. None of this meth-chewing-away-facial-muscle over a couple decades stuff. Get it over with right away.
It's pretty freaky driving around Humboldt and seeing the zombies walking around, the life sapped out of their faces, jaws shriveled up. Worse when they have kids in tow. It's pretty sad how bad parents have to get before Child Protective Services will do something.
Stop n' Shop was one of the stores that were being "good" in the papers this week when the police or ABC had a sting to see which stores would sell alcohol to a minor. Stop n' Shop refused after checking the ID. I think it is not their fault the riff-raff (and yes, there is a difference in folks, good bad, riff-raff or "ok", and whether or not it is their "fault", they still create problems for others) leave their garbage and hang out on the phone. I would think for their own safety, S and S would close and not sell anything late- it couldn't be worth it.
It's a trip to drive by there and see a group of young blacks loitering out front.The whites , Mexicans, and Asians look plenty stupid loitering too. Man, they have no idea what role they are playing....Although they think they do.
Anonymous 6:22, Is your point that young people loitering in front of the market is in some way connected with the problem of crime in that neighborhood?
Not every person who hangs out and talks with people they know in the neigbhorhood is part of the crime problem.
While it is true that Eureka has many more non-white residents than it had twenty years ago, I haven't seen any evidence that crime has increased as a result. Were you trying to imply a correlation? Do you have evidence to show us?
Drug dealers, tweakers, and other types of drug addicts are moving into formerly safe public areas of Eureka. I was threatened by one of them Thursday while taking a walk south of the Warfinger Building. I hope the police will keep an eye on this area. You all, be careful, too.
Maybe I was overreacting with that last entry. I talked on Friday with a someone whose job makes it possible for him to monitor crime trends in Eureka. His take on the situation is that crime is not as bad as it has been at times in the last ten or fifteen years. He sees crime in Eureka holding steady.
So I've promised myself to calm down and not confuse my unpleasant encounter with some kind of city-wide trend.
It seems like a week since I asked for evidence, if any is available, to show a correlation between the increase in non-whites in Eureka and any trends in the crime rate.
Since I haven't seen any reply here, I am assuming for now that no correlation has been demonstrated.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Did Nan Abrams overstate the case? Is the neighborhood around Wabash and E Street really a "hellhole?"
So far, Fred has responded that he lives three blocks away but doesn't consider his home to be in the same neighborhood. OK. I accept that.
So why haven't we heard from other people who live near there? Does YOUR neighborhood feel like a "hellhole?" If so, when did it start feeling that way? Have you done anything to limit the power of the drug dealers around your home? What have you found that works?
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