SEEKING SAFETY SOLUTIONS
Gainey, other officials hold town hall with South Side residents, business owners to address neighborhood violence
In a packed town hall meeting on the South Side, residents and business owners told Mayor Ed Gainey what they view are the problems in the neighborhood and solutions they would like to see.
Mr. Gainey, Councilman Bruce Kraus, who represents the area, and public safety officials such as the Zone 3 Commander John Fisher and Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt, listened for nearly three hours Tuesday night while residents spoke.
Other members of the mayor’s staff and public safety department also were present.
The concerns ranged from excessive littering to the recent shootings and proliferation of guns.
“The idea that the South Side is imploding and is no longer safe to visit is a fallacy,” Mr. Kraus said during Tuesday morning’s City Council meeting.
The South Side Flats area stretches about 33 blocks and Mr. Kraus noted the majority of the problems are stemming from seven establishments with liquor licenses within a six- block stretch of East Carson Street.
“It is not an accurate representation of who we are,” he said at Tuesday night’s meeting.
The mayor acknowledged that this wasn’t a problem that sprang up overnight, but was the culmination of problems over decades and he emphasized that it would take everyone to reverse it.
“If y’all don’t help me get this violence on Carson together, it will hurt your business,” he said.
“Do we have challenges? Absolutely. But like this city has always done, because of the grit that we have, we will meet every challenge with the expectation of making it better.”
Mayor Ed Gainey
Cassandra Dixon and her husband have lived in the area about 20 years and own rental properties on the South Side. She said there has been a “glorification of the bad things that happen in our neighborhood” through videos on social media.
“I believe that we’ve made it too easy, and frankly comfortable, for anyone to break the law in our neighborhood,” she said. “With the lack of enforcement we have created not just a snowball, but an avalanche in terms of the severity of the crime going unpunished, and now we’re seeing shootings weekly.”
Mr. Kraus outlined that some of the main issues the area is facing are things like an influx of people, particularly underage teens, loitering in the area and open consumption of drugs and alcohol.
Some offered solutions like making the South Side a gun free zone, while others asked that additional police officers be added to the area.
Many of the residents and business owners echoed the sentiment that a lot of the problems come from underage teens.
“What the hell is a 15-year-old kid doing in the South Side at 2 [a.m.],” asked Brian Vetere, an owner of Carson City Saloon.
Some requested that the city enact a curfew for minors. Others said that kids in Pittsburgh have nowhere to go and suggested the city put resources toward something like a skate park for younger residents.
The sheer number of people that can gather on East Carson Street on the weekend is another problem that businesses owners and residents voiced concerns about.
At the corner of South 16th Street and East Carson Street, occupancy is granted for just 3,000 bar stools, Mr. Kraus said.
“It’s unsustainable,” he added. “We cannot continue to invite thousands of people into the public space.”
To help with crowd control, Mr. Gainey said the city will continue to have extra officers on patrol in the South Side on the weekends.
Mr. Fisher said he would like to see 15 officers dedicated strictly to East Carson Street. Other residents suggested using mounted patrol officers on the weekend.
However, some of the residents expressed concerns that they thought the police officers’ “hands were tied.”
“I’ve talked to many police officers about the situation and the general consensus from them is they can’t do their job effectively because when they make an arrest, that person is likely to be released the next day, with no punishment,” Mr. Vetere said.
In his closing remarks, Mr. Gainey said “no one has handcuffed the police.”
He emphasized the need for the rebuilding of trust between officers and the community.
Mr. Fisher, in addition to wanting to allocate 15 officers to the neighborhood, outlined some other solutions he’d like to see implemented, including possibly bringing back the one-way traffic flow to East Carson and posting signs along the street that remind people that open containers are prohibited and they are being filmed by security cameras.
Additionally, the city is working with its department of permits and licenses and the fire bureau to do occupancy checks and building code enforcement.
If the fire inspectors find a building to be over its occupancy limit, they will fine the business $1,000 per person over the limit, inspector Lisa Epps-Cuda said Tuesday evening.
“This is about prevention,” Ms. Epps-Cuda said. “We don’t want to shut down bars, but we want to keep the residents of the city of Pittsburgh safe.”
Various business owners and residents expressed interest in having the community continue to come together to discuss further solutions. Frank Vetere, another owner of Carson City Saloon, offered his establishment as a meeting place and said community members could find a day and time that works for everyone.
Mr. Gainey said he will walk the streets again in a few weeks and a member of his team will attend any meeting businesses or community members hold.
Tuesday’s meeting came just after Mr. Gainey took a walking tour of the neighborhood between 1 and 3 a.m. Saturday so he could see what goes on as the bars shut down for the night.
Many residents and Mr. Kraus said Saturday was a quieter night for the neighborhood, still Mr. Gainey said what he saw then “shouldn’t be.”
Residents thanked the mayor for his interest to help solve the problems, but they were curious about more immediate solutions.
“I’ve read your plan for peace and I so appreciate the commitments that you’ve made to it to try and help us,” Ms. Dixon said. “But those are very long term solutions as you said, and I wonder what you have available immediately and what we can do to help support those things in order to see actual change.”
Admitting he didn’t have solutions to some of the area’s problems, like rampant drug use, the mayor said that change isn’t going to happen overnight because the problems are complex. But in the meantime, he said he was going to make sure additional police officers were on the South Side for the weekend crowds.
“Do we have challenges? Absolutely,” Mr. Gainey said. “But like this city has always done, because of the grit that we have, we will meet every challenge with the expectation of making it better.”