Mending a neighborhood

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

The "broken-window theory" has been a prominent buzz topic in the law enforcement community since 1996, when the book Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities, by George L. Kelling and Catherine Coles, was released.
Police departments large (including the massive NYPD) and small quickly adopted the ideas proposed in the book as a blueprint for fighting crime.
In short, the theory claims that if you correct relatively minor problems swiftly, such as broken windows, graffiti or litter in the street, the frequency of similar offenses will be reduced. And, in turn, the smaller problems won’t escalate so much into more serious issues, like drugs and violent crime.
In Philadelphia, implementation of the theory coincided with a sharp decline in all crime in the late 1990s and early part of the current decade.
In the 7th Police District, Capt. Al Martin is trying to bring back those "broken-window theory" days in response to the recent citywide resurgence in homicide and other violent crime.
Late last month, Martin led a task force of city agencies into a Somerton neighborhood in an effort to rectify so-called quality-of-life problems that, he believes, are more than coincidental with a recent double-homicide there.
On April 13, a teenage male and a woman were shot and killed, while two men were wounded, during a shootout inside a first-floor duplex on the 10000 block of Ferndale St. Police said the shooting was drug-related and involved a man living a few doors away on Ferndale.
Police allegedly found drugs where the shootout occurred.
During the April 26 neighborhood sweep, aided by representatives of the city’s Community Life Improvement Program, Department of Licenses and Inspections, Department of Sanitation and the Neighborhood Services Unit, some 90 citations or code violations were issued against properties.
The borders of the targeted area were Red Lion Road, Verree Road, Parlin Street and Jeanes Street. In the future, the agencies will sweep from Parlin north to Tomlinson Road and Bustleton Avenue west to Rennard Street and Lockart Road.
Martin said the sweep was "a request that we made (to CLIP) after examining the area in reference to the problems up there. The number-one problem was a drug house up there. We let the neighbors know that we’re not going to tolerate that."
Beyond the hidden presence of drugs, however, the patrol commander wants the area to start looking the part of a safe, family-oriented community again.
"There were other problems up there (besides drugs)," he said.
"There was trash and abandoned cars. It was time to take some action and clean up the neighborhood. And we’re going to stay on top of it with (patrol) cars."
During the sweep, which lasted throughout the morning and well into the afternoon, city officials wrote 17 violations requiring immediate cleanup by sanitation workers. The issues included excessively high grass and weeds, broken windows and trash strewn in yards and driveways.
By city ordinance, the city cleaned up the messes, then billed property owners for the work. Those who don’t pay will incur a lien on their properties.
In addition, inspectors cited 51 properties with 10-day warnings for similar code violations. They had 10 days from the date of issuance to clean up their yards.
City workers towed five abandoned cars and cited another 10 for future towing, if not fixed or removed by the owners within 30 days.
L&I business-enforcement officials cited seven commercial properties for code violations.
Martin figures that with less debris lying around, the neighborhood looks better and will eventually attract more conscientious residents. A large number of properties in the area are rentals, which in some cases attract short-term residents who have little stake in the community.
"If you handle the small things and get on top of them right away, you prevent the bigger things from happening," Martin said.
The people involved in the April 13 shooting on Ferndale Street had been living there for only about six weeks, the captain said.
Long-term local residents were happy to see the city crews show up and take action.
"The main problem is drugs," said the Rev. Johnykutty P. John, pastor of the Philadelphia Tabernacle Church of God on nearby Verree Road.
"This is the main staging place over here," he added, pointing to a parking lot behind a gas station and convenience store.
Law-abiding people, many of them seniors, can be intimidated by the younger, suspicious-looking characters living in their midst.
"Most people are fearful at this time," John said of his church members, most of whom are neighbors. "They don’t go out at nighttime, whereas years ago they could walk (around) freely."
Salamon Esther, who has lived for 23 years on the second floor of the building where the shooting occurred, had a terse message for the workers who cleaned up piles of debris from a rear driveway.
"God bless you," she said. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com