Crime task force proposed for all ofLas Vegas

Diana Sahagun

Friday, Aug. 23, 2002 | 10:40 a.m.

Meadows Village is getting some much-needed attention from a city task force, but the improvements have sparked a debate about whether the Las Vegas City Council should focus its efforts on more than one high-crime area.

A discussion by the City Council on the efforts in Meadows Village prompted questions of whether the city is moving in the right direction by targeting individual areas rather than the city as a whole.

"If we do form this task force let's make it city-wide, not just Meadows Village," Mayor Oscar Goodman said. "(Councilman Michael McDonald) will watch over Meadows Village very well ... but this a city-wide issue and I think this is the time we should really step up as a council and really be heard on this."

Meadows Village, the area near Industrial Road and Sahara Avenue, once called "Naked City," has been plagued with crime for more than a decade. The area improved in 1997, after Metro Police and the city began a massive effort to rid the area of drug dealers and prostitutes. Over the years some of the old problems have drifted back.

But it isn't the only Las Vegas community that has been beset with crime.

An area that borders North Las Vegas and Metro Police jurisdiction near Martin Luther King and Lake Mead boulevards has seen a spike in gang-related murders. Since January of 2001 there have been at least 15 slayings in that area, including the shooting deaths of innocent bystanders caught in the gang-war crossfire.

Deputy City Manager Betsy Fretwell said she would evaluate the options of spreading out the city's efforts and putting task forces in other areas.

McDonald in July asked city staff to organize the task force in Meadows Village after the community was drawn back into his ward. McDonald organized a similar task force when he represented the area in 1997, although it was eventually disassembled.

The new task force is made up of 20 people, including city staff and Metro.

Fretwell said the task force has four objectives to meet by October: a decrease in calls to Metro, improved living conditions, creation of an active neighborhood association, and improving Chester Stupak children's park.

Sharon Segerblom, director of neighborhood services, said the city has completed an inventory of all abandoned buildings and vacant lots in the area.

Notices of noncompliance have been sent to the property owners of eight vacant or abandoned lots, and 31 empty lots. City staff has cleaned two lots that were considered nuisances to children.

On Aug. 15 the task force inspected 21 apartment units and served correction notices for 148 code violations, Segerblom said. Two apartments were declared substandard, and the occupants were forbidden from entering until the units meet city code.

McDonald said all the property owners should be served notices of the city's intentions to improve the area.

"We have to show that this mayor and City Council have a buy-in from the property owners and their designee managers," he said. "We've seen where they are supposed to have on-premise landlords and they're not. We've seen where the drug dealers will play hide and seek and they're popping in and out of apartments."

Chris Christoff, a community activist who lives in Meadows Village, said the next time Metro submits a budget to the city the council should request $10 million to $20 million be set aside for high-profile crime areas including Meadows Village.

He also said the task force in Meadows Village should be permanent.

"This is not a 10-day deal, or a six-month task force," he said. "This task force is going to need to stay intact, continuing over the years to help other areas of the community."