It was too good to last. Now that repaving of 2nd Avenue is done, and the construction crews and attendant police officers have gone, some all too familiar faces are back. There doesn't seem to be a way to keep them off the streets, off of our sidewalks and corners. They went elsewhere when the Honduran gang took over (the Hondurans were violent to the competition). Some of the Hondurans were selling under coercion, threats to their family, that sort of thing. One morning I was walking to work in business attire. Some poor soul was looking at a potted orchid lying on the corner of Second and Battery; he looked up and asked if I was buying. There was a police officer standing on the opposite corner watching, but of course there was no drug transaction from me for him to capture. That was the caliber of the coerced Honduran sellers, though. He didn't care if he was caught, he didn't want to be there.
There was a big gang bust that took care of the Hondurans (thank you SPD). Then there was all the construction activity going on for Bridging the Gap, and we were having crowds of visitors out for the beautiful summer weather, and all was well. It started to look like a nice, normal, and even popular and safe neighborhood (if you ignore gunfire from drunks). But then there were signs of trouble. One bright Friday morning young men start showing up on the corner of Second and Bell, throwing gang signs at each other, menacing. Gang chops start showing up everywhere, even more than usual, especially on the parking meter stands. They were marking their turf.
Then the construction crews cleared out and the old crowd came back in, just like that. There they were on the street corners again - and by old, I mean older men as well as them being long-time sellers. I don't know what their relationship to the young gang toughs is, if they're working together or not. Tuesday night they started beating up some guy, he was rolling around on the ground. The good thing is that people were calling it in to the police (but why does it end up in the news when it happens in Capitol Hill, and not here? I guess people just pretended to call). The guy wandered off, not wanting to get caught himself; they were probably rousting him for non-payment. The drug deals are blatant on the sidewalks in front of businesses, again. Business owners are calling it in, again. It's the same old thing, all over again, deja vu.
I don't know what the solution is. It's been a couple of days since people were calling the police about drug deals and fights, and I haven't seen the dealers in that time. Maybe if people keep calling in, it works, eventually. There are more people there to witness and call now, maybe, more businesses, more legitimate activity. These cycles have gone on for a very long time, though, and it is hard to hope. The Parks Department will start tearing up Bell Street again late next year - that activity will give us a reprieve for a while, too. But after that? Who knows?
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