By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

District Attorney Lynne Abraham’s tongue-lashing of a Summerdale Avenue bar owner seems to have worked.
On June 26, Abraham appeared at a community meeting at St. Martin of Tours on behalf of neighbors who told her that drug transactions were taking place on the corner outside the tavern.
The district attorney threatened to close the man’s bar if he didn’t get rid of the drunks, the druggies and the gunfire.
The threat worked.
Assistant District Attorney Bob Daisey, who works with the Public Nuisance Task Force, told residents at a follow-up meeting last week that the bar is in compliance with city codes.
That doesn’t mean all is well in the Oxford Circle/Summerdale community. There are still plenty of serious problems.
But the neighbors who attended the Oct. 10 meeting in the St. Martin’s gymnasium focused more on so-called quality-of-life issues.
“We want to get CLIP in Summerdale as quickly as possible,” Cheltenham Avenue resident Charlie O’Connor told Deputy Managing Director Tom Conway.
O’Connor was referring to the city’s Community Life Improvement Program, a pilot program in the 6th Councilmanic District. Conway is coordinating the program at the street level.
Folks in Oxford Circle/Summerdale are part of the 7th Councilmanic District, but will be shifted to the 9th district on primary day 2003 following reapportionment.
Residents have been happy with Conway’s efforts as part of his official duties to help the neighborhood eradicate graffiti and clean up the site of the old Rascal’s Roost restaurant.
Conway said CLIP has been a success, writing more than 6,000 violations for weeds, trash, dog dirt and other offenses in six months.
At the start of the program, only about 35 percent of people complied with the violations. Now, the rate has climbed to two-thirds.
Conway said CLIP will expand. He estimated that it will come to the Oxford Circle/Summerdale area in a few months.
Besides Conway and Daisey, others in attendance were police officials and aides to Councilman Rick Mariano (D-7th dist.) and Councilwoman Marian Tasco (D-9th dist).
Meeting organizer Phyllis Swing, block captain on the 900 block of Marcella St., was discouraged that she didn’t get a response from the mayor’s office.
Inspector Joe Sullivan, of the police narcotics field division, said drug trafficking has increased in the Northeast, especially the lower end. Undercover officers are trying to catch the buyers and sellers.
In addition, Operation Safe Streets — the city’s crackdown on drug sales — places officers along Summerdale Avenue from Roosevelt Boulevard to Levick Street.
Inspector Jeremiah Daley, commander of the Northeast Police Division, encouraged residents who see a pattern of drug transactions to call 215-686-DRUG. The hotline allows callers to remain anonymous. Callers are asked to be as specific as possible.
Daley is happy with Operation Live Stop. Under the program, which began on July 1, police officers confiscate vehicles if they are unregistered or if the driver is unlicensed.
Most of the crackdown in the Northeast is coming along Roosevelt Boulevard.
“Thousands upon thousands of cars have been towed,” said Daley, adding that the stops are leading to arrests on other matters.
Capt. Jack Downs, commander of the 2nd Police District, received a warm reception from neighbors who saw him show up at the scene of a fistfight on Loretto Avenue.
Downs said his officers have written 167 violations for truancy since school resumed and almost as many curfew violations.
The captain plans to look into a complaint by some neighbors about a family on the 800 block of Brill St. that plays basketball and curses late at night.
Another house on the same block is among the 90 properties that will be auctioned by the district attorney’s office on Nov. 14. The houses have been forfeited under the Pennsylvania Controlled Substances Forfeiture Act.
Other neighbors complained about barking dogs. Daisey, the assistant district attorney, said the city recently took over animal control from the SPCA. He advised people with complaints about dogs to call 215-686-5858. ••
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com