Thursday, September 11, 2008

LPH resident: 'All I want is someone to care.'

A 37-year Lower Price Hill resident just wants someone from the City to care.

"Things are bad here and they have been getting worse for a few years now," she says in a communication to Vice Mayor David Crowley.

Her main issue is the property at 646 Neave Street, which is vacant and neglected, and the neighboring properties at 644 and 650 Neave.

"Some of the people that sit in front of 646 Neave live at 650 Neave," she says. "The others are drug dealers and drug users. They sell in front of the house and in the side yard. Once they sell to the druggies, they go in the yard and take the drugs. This goes on all day and night."

Attached to the e-mail was 15 photos of the deplorable conditions.

"I want you to look at them and answer a question," she says. "Would any of you like to walk out your front door and see your street like this?"

The resident says that she has tried going to the police, who have said that they can't do anything about the trash and drugs unless they see an offense take place.

They can't clear away the loiterers unless the building owners complain.

"You can see in the pictures that none of the owners care about what happens to their buildings," she says. "I have called the Health Department, but nothing has been done. How long does it take to look into a problem like this?"

The drug dealers have guns, and they use them.

"They are using them almost every day and night," she says. "This is done in front of young kids due to the fact that these people don't care about anything."

And cleaning up the unsanitary and aesthetically displeasing mess left by loiterers should not be her responsibility, she says.

"The owners and the tenants need to be made accountable for their actions and lack of," she says. "I work all day, then come home to clean up after people that most likely have never worked a day in their life. They have nothing but time to make the mess. They should have to clean it up."

She says she just wants to know where to go to find some - any - help.

"I would go to our Community Council with this problem but considering that the President of our Community Council, Jack Degano, lives two doors down at 656 Neave Street, I don't believe it would help," she says. "We just need someone to care about what goes on in Lower Price Hill."

A report to council by City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr is due by the beginning of October.

Photos of the conditions may be coming, and will be posted as soon as they're received.