City Council members said Tuesday they want new solutions to replace the outgoing Greenville police chief’s downtown policing strategy.
Chief William Anderson sent an email to Mayor Allen Thomas following an incident when police arrested a 20-year-old man who allegedly tried unsuccessfully to fire a gun at another man outside Michelangelo’s pizza shop at the intersection of Fifth and Cotanche streets.
Anderson told Thomas in the email that the downtown area is an “out-of-control powder keg.” He said several recommendations issued in June by the city’s Special Task Force on Crime that would provide additional tools to address the situation were rejected by the council.
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Comments
Clear the sidewalks
I keep telling folks how to get rid of the hangers on crowding the downtown sidewalks late nights, but no one listens. Put a loudspeaker at each corner out of easy reach and play classical music loudly. The crowds in the clubs won't here it, but the underage wannabes will not hang around. A number of businesses have cleared teen crowds this way. Cheap and simple. Oh! That is why they do not want to try it.
Take this Solution and Run With It!
1. Take down the barriers.
2. Install 4 more cameras.
3. Install more lights.
4. Require any establishment that is open past 11:00pm to install metal detectors.
5. Require all pedistrians to stay out of the road.
6. No loitering of any kind, period. (Get moving and keep moving)
7. Install speed humps down 5th St. from Reade St. to Evans, down Contanche to 3rd St.
8. Have (4) K-9 drug sniffing dogs taking turns walking the street from 9-3am. (You want to make riff-raff diappear, here's your solution) No more additional man power is needed, just train the officers you have and buy more dogs.
You are welcome.
jack has a good point--who
jack has a good point--who pays for all that opening up?
the bond issue already approved or capital funds
that were budgetted for the intermodal bus station
for a start......
how about some of the $500,000 annually they are paying to police the area
use that money for a building or two
Do you mean more parking
Do you mean more parking lots?
whatever but something different
whatever but something different
Downtown solution- Third Order Change Needed
Never has so much money and so much effort went into a four block area of any community with absolutely no results.
It is time for a Third Order Change folks, which concedes that further "discussions" will not solve both the real and the perceptional problems in this area.
The third order change must be in the area of structures and redesigning the area to be more "user friendly". In other words tear, down some of the buildings and reconstruct the fifth street area in question to a more viable 21st century look.
You need not look far to see the idea; just look at the area by the library, which was one of the best ideas to come out of the Council in years. It opened up the area around the church and the library and made it much better and safer .
Its time to think out of the box and "redesign" the area of fifth street and open the area up to the Sunshine . If some old buildings have to go, so be it.The City can acquire the properties and destroy them- open the area up!!
Otherwise, you all, the Council, the police and the Uptown crowd will continue to "shoot liquid" in the wind and the problems will persist.
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