Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jan 2007
Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Copyright: 2007 Mountain Xpress
Contact:  http://www.mountainx.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/941
Author: Hal L. Millard

LOOKING FOR A FIX

Council Ponders Drug Problem, Calls for More Jobs

Asheville City Council member Carl Mumpower's continuing campaign to 
beef up drug-interdiction efforts claimed the spotlight at Council's 
Jan. 16 session. A heated e-mail exchange in the days leading up to 
the meeting (see sidebar, "The Straight Dope") set the stage for 
Council to tackle the matter.

Asheville police Chief William Hogan said his department is doing 
twice as much as most municipalities in the state to combat the 
scourge of drugs, including the blatant drug trafficking in the 
city's public-housing complexes.

Hogan bulleted through a PowerPoint presentation showing that city 
police are on the job. In 2005, he said, the APD arrested more people 
(per 10,000 residents) on various drug charges than Buncombe County, 
the state's other major cities, and even the nation as a whole. The 
police, said the chief, are exploring other ways to address the 
problem in cooperation with the Asheville Housing Authority. 
Emphasizing the difficulties local authorities face in tackling the 
drug trade, Hogan highlighted last year's major joint-agency bust of 
a drug ring supplying Asheville dealers, which netted 27 arrests, 60 
pounds of cocaine, 6 pounds of methamphetamine and $750,000 in cash.

It's not unusual for a police chief to update city leaders on 
crime-control efforts. But Hogan's presentation seemed aimed at 
refuting recent charges by Mumpower that the Police Department has 
failed to target the city's open-air drug markets (see "Pushing the 
Envelope," Jan. 10 Xpress).

Undaunted, Mumpower bit back with a PowerPoint presentation of his 
own. During 30 separate visits to city public-housing complexes since 
Jan. 1, he'd been solicited to buy drugs 20 times - even when the 
police had recently patrolled those areas. As for Hogan's numbers, 
Mumpower said, "I do believe our city and police administration are 
choosing to stand behind hollow statistics that betray the real-world 
realities of an unrestrained drug market."

Both Hogan and Housing Authority Director Gene Bell, told Council 
that despite the Police Department's efforts, much more needs to be 
done to stem the drug trade, which they said is a societal problem 
exacerbated by such things as the lack of meaningful employment 
opportunities and reliable childcare. Hogan added that there are "too 
many social issues involved for police alone to solve the problem." 
Citizens, including some public-housing residents, seemed to agree, 
though some criticized the police for lack of effort.

People living in poverty in Asheville, said Hogan, "simply don't have 
the sense of future that you and I do." The department, added Hogan, 
is considering other approaches, including saturation patrols in 
public-housing complexes, to disrupt and drive away the drug trade. 
But until the larger social problems are addressed and the state's 
overworked and underfunded judicial system is fixed, the police are 
limited to arresting dealers and distributors - who are often back on 
the streets before the officers can even complete their arrest 
reports, he noted.

Mumpower made a motion directing Hogan to develop specific strategies 
for shutting down open-air drug markets in all Asheville 
neighborhoods. But Council amended it, instructing City Manager Gary 
Jackson to come up with long-term strategies for creating job 
opportunities and reducing poverty. The dual-pronged motion was 
approved on a 5-2 vote. Mumpower and Council member Jan Davis voted 
against the measure, preferring Mumpower's original motion. Both men 
intimated that by trying to accomplish so much, the city would 
actually accomplish little, but their colleagues preferred a 
multilevel approach.

The Greening Of Staples

City Council also continued to struggle with persistent 
development-related concerns in connection with Staples and Greenlife 
Grocery. Both businesses have been the targets of complaints by city 
residents (see "The (Non)Enforcers," July 12, 2006 Xpress).

There was progress in one area, however. Citing a Jan. 8 letter from 
Staples executive Ted Frumkin, Mayor Terry Bellamy said the 
office-supply company has agreed to provide new landscaping around 
its controversial Merrimon Avenue store. "The design will include a 
green screen along the brick wall to soften the look from the street, 
which has been the source of comment," Frumkin's letter said. "The 
new landscaping will also enhance the experience of those pedestrians 
who use the sidewalk along our store. We are confident that Asheville 
residents will be pleased with the design."

However, Staples has told the city it has no intention of changing 
its wall sign, which the city and some residents say is larger than 
what the Unified Development Ordinance allows.

"In exploring the request to change our signage, we found that it 
would require significant investment," the letter noted. "Therefore, 
we do not plan to change a sign that was approved by the city and, 
according to our local lawyer, is in compliance with all of the 
Asheville codes."

"I believe we've done what we can do," said Davis. "And I think 
they've made it clear what they plan to do."

But other Council members, including Mayor Bellamy, weren't 
satisfied. "It's clear the red background [of the sign] is part of 
their corporate logo and counts in the size, and it clearly isn't in 
compliance with our ordinance," said Council member Brownie Newman.

And while Frumkin's letter said that Staples had fully complied with 
the law and worked closely with city staff, Council member Robin Cape 
declared, "We were manipulated; staff was manipulated." Bellamy said 
Council would huddle with City Attorney Bob Oast (who was absent from 
the meeting) to determine what legal remedies - including litigation 
- - the city might use to settle the matter.

Meanwhile, Newman and Council member Bryan Freeborn said they would 
revisit various ideas they'd developed with help from city staff for 
alleviating traffic and noise along Maxwell Street, a residential 
neighborhood that abuts Greenlife's busy loading dock. Since the 
store's opening in July of 2004, residents have complained about 
truck traffic on their street.

Newman and Freeborn presented two ideas: installing traffic-calming 
devices on the street to keep out tractor-trailers, or redesigning 
the site so trucks could maneuver into the loading dock without 
having to use the street. The first option would cost the city about 
$30,000, said Freeborn. The redesign, which would cost about $100,000 
and require Greenlife to apply for rezoning, would create a 17-foot 
vegetated buffer between the dock and the neighborhood. The redesign 
would also entail repositioning a small house on the Greenlife 
property to help make room for trucks maneuvering into the dock.

Greenlife co-owner John Swann said his business is amenable to either 
idea, but he shot down other suggestions by Council members. One 
called for the store to undertake an expensive remodel to relocate 
the offending dock. Another involved requiring large trucks to 
offload onto smaller ones so they wouldn't need to use Maxwell Street.

Neither of Newman and Freeborn's two original ideas would "make 
everyone 100 percent happy," conceded Newman, but he and Freeborn 
believe they offer the best chance of placating unhappy neighbors 
without unduly burdening Greenlife. Other Council members still 
seemed unsure about the specifics, however, and the two men promised 
to present more details at Council's Feb. 27 session. Other business

By a 5-2 vote, Council agreed to create a "Public Artist of the Year" 
competition, open to any artist in Western North Carolina. The winner 
will receive a $10,000 commission to create a work of art to be 
displayed downtown near Pritchard Park. Although the entire Council 
supported the idea, Cape and Vice Mayor Holly Jones wound up voting 
against it because of concerns about how the competition would be run 
and the relatively small amount of the award, among other things. The 
city will foot half the bill for the award, with the remaining money 
to be raised by the city's Public Art Board. Mumpower, the chief 
proponent of the idea, said he had already raised the first $10,000.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine