Merchants along Albany's South Pearl Street say they’re concerned about neighborhood safety.
A meeting earlier this month brought together South Pearl Street business owners, city officials and the Albany Police Department. Common Council President Corey Ellis says he was contacted by the merchants about issues including vagrancy, drug use, prostitution and theft. Ellis says nothing was resolved.
“The chief just wanted to hear about what was going on, which set off a number of people because like, we've been calling the police department, we've been telling them what's going on, and a couple of people told them what was going on, you know, out of courtesy, after he had asked because we didn't want to go in that direction," said Ellis. "We wanted to go in the direction of ‘OK, we all see the problems, what's happening on South Pearl Street? How do we how do we go about fixing them? How do we go about dealing with them?’ So a few people, you know, they submitted what they've been seeing on a regular basis. A woman even had a recording of calling the police department on threats that she'd gotten by people coming into her shop. And nothing was resolved.”
Chief Eric Hawkins disagrees. He says the meeting gave he and his command staff "insight" into what people are experiencing in the area.
“We've learned that many in that area are concerned about some of the social issues, you know, the homelessness, mental health, substance abuse, because those factors are what are driving the quality of life issues that they're having,” Hawkins said.
Second ward Common Councilor Derek Johnson is the Homeschool Coordinator at Giffen Memorial Elementary School. He blames the nearby City Mission for contributing to neighborhood decline, saying people arriving in the Capital Region from other states are attracted by the facility.
“And a lot of these people come here, and (then) they refuse the services that, you know, that are offered," said Johnson. "So they're recruiting people here that really don't want help. And they end up being stagnant in our community. So that was the first part. The second part is that the police, the police, they aren't addressing low level quality of life crimes.”
Johnson says the area begs for increased police presence.
Hawkins says after the meeting, the police department is now more aware of the business owners’ concerns.
"I personally walked the area that they were saying was one of the source problem areas, just to get an idea of the layout, and, you know, the geography that we were dealing with," Hawkins said. "And so I thought it was a, I thought great things came out of that meeting. And another thing that came out of it is that we now have a meeting scheduled in the near future within the next week or two, with business owners from across the city, because many of the things that the business owners in the South End were concerned about, as it pertains to homelessness, mental health and substance abuse, are concerns that business owners across the city are concerned about."
Hawkins didn't provide a date for the meeting but expects to engage other "stakeholders" including representatives of the city’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program.
Tuesday evening the Albany Planning Board is set to consider City Mission’s proposed $6 million expansion in its current location, which includes a dormitory with housing for more than 200 people. Mission Director Perry Jones could not be reached for comment.
