City reassembles task force for troubled neighborhood

Diana Sahagun

Monday, July 15, 2002 | 10:54 a.m.

A troubled neighborhood west of the Stratosphere could get a boost this summer. City officials are reassembling a task force that tore down crack houses and punished absentee landlords there in the mid-1990s.

The city-staffed task force was created in 1995 specifically to address quality-of-life issues in Meadows Village, also known as the Naked City, with the help of Metro Police, whose officers infiltrated the area.

Over time, the task force was dissolved and the ward moved from Councilman Michael McDonald to Councilman Gary Reese during redistricting in 1996.

McDonald, who now represents the ward again after redistricting last year, said the task force is being reassembled to address code violations and crime in the area.

"Back in 1995, when we created the task force, we dropped the crime rate through the help of every individual on the task force," McDonald said. "But the numbers have gone back up."

Deputy City Manager Doug Selby said the task force should be assembled by next week. The group includes code enforcement officers, building and safety officials, Metro Police, the city attorney's office, public works and the city marshal's office.

Selby said the task force is part of a "second round" of efforts to help the area, and will probably last through the summer.

"They would basically go out there in a proactive approach to look at violations of codes and take enforcement action," Selby said. "In most cases we do that on a complaint-driven basis. Here, we'd be proactive and try to spend the summer working on that area, try to get it back to where it was a few years ago, which was in pretty good shape."

City officials and Metro say they face a constant challenge in the push-pull struggle to combat crime in one downtown area without pulling resources from another.

City officials in recent months have focused on the east Fremont Street area, calling on Metro to step up its presence there as preparations are made for a planned entertainment district of bars and restaurants.

"Displacement is a problem," Metro Sgt. Eric Fricker said. "That's why crime analysis is so important. If we begin to see problems occurring, we can go back in there, find the roots of the problem, and solve it."

Fricker said Meadows Village has had its share of problems but has improved in recent years.

Calls to Metro have remained relatively steady in the past year, Fricker said. Compared with May 2001, calls to Metro were down 12 percent this past May, from 201 calls to 175 calls. There was a slight increase from January 2001 to January 2002, he added.

At least one Metro officer is assigned to Meadows Village each day. When crime was at its worst in the mid-1990s, a bike squad was also assigned to the area.

While Metro pledges to cooperate with the city's effort, Fricker said he was unsure whether more officers would be assigned to the Meadows Village.

Chris Christoff, a community activist who has lived in Meadows Village for more than a decade, applauded McDonald's efforts but said the task force often fell short.

"It worked and it didn't work," Christoff said. "Sure we shook them up, we tore a couple of buildings down, but the reality was after a period of about six months to a year, the (criminals) came back right away."

Christoff said Meadows Village needs more Metro patrols and the installation of surveillance cameras to cast a watchful eye on the community.

"This has been going on for 16 years," Christoff said. "We have a situation where you just can't go down two feet and say we got it. You have to go all the way down to the root of the problem."