Meeting to consider Downtown safety concerns

Some Downtown business owners and residents are concerned about what they say is an uptick in problems such as car breakins, loitering and aggressive panhandling, and they don’t believe police are doing enough to address them.

“It’s easy to dismiss quality-of-life issues Downtown and minor infractions while dealing with major crimes in other neighborhoods,” said Cleve Ricksecker, Capital Crossroads’ executive director.

“I do perceive that the Public Safety Department is not paying enough attention to Downtown right now,” he said. “There is an expectation the private sector will take care of these things.”

Capital Crossroads has scheduled a meeting for 4 p.m. Thursday at Southeast Recovery & Mental Health Services, 16 W. Long St., so business people and residents can discuss their concerns with Columbus police, representatives from the city attorney’s office and others.

The intersection of Long and North High streets seems to be a nexus of issues. On Wednesday afternoon, Dr. James B. Ford, a dentist at 118 N. High St., pointed to five men he said had been standing at the corner for three hours.

Ford said people often stand outside his office, drunk, harassing people, making noise and dealing drugs. Some urinate on his window. He said he’s been threatened and that he has lost staff members and patients because of the behavior.

Ford said his office was at High and Gay streets for 20 years and has been at High and Long for the past five years, and he’s never seen behavior this bad.

Brad DeHays’ Connect Realty has a parking garage on East Long Street just west of South 3rd Street. DeHays said that one person was breaking into vehicles in his garage, another across the street and on nearby surface lots.

“This went on for three months,” he said. “They caught him two weeks ago.”

At The Hills Market at 95 N. Grant St., manager Kevin Palone said panhandlers will stand on the sidewalk just outside the store’s property line.

“They know the law. They know their rights,” Palone said. But he said he’s had customers call because they feel uncomfortable.

Downtown is home to 85,000 workers and 9,000 residents.

Sara Loken, a spokeswoman for the Community Shelter Board, said the Columbus area needs more outreach workers dedicated to engaging homeless people on the streets and in camps. The board works with the local behavioral health center, Maryhaven, to provide that service, but the agencies can only do so much, she said.

“It’s two positions for the entire county,” she said.

Successful outreach — persuading someone to accept help and get on a path toward housing or treatment — can be a long and tricky process. “Outreach is making an offer,” Loken said.

It’s difficult to know how many of the panhandlers and others causing problems are homeless. But Loken said officials can see that the number of homeless men who wind up on a waiting list for a bed in the city’s crowded shelters has grown.

The daily average number of men on the shelter wait list this year is about 63. “Last year it was 25,” Loken said.

Representatives from Southeast, the YMCA and the Central Ohio Transit Authority will attend the Thursday meeting. Steve Skovensky, the YMCA’s senior director of operations, said the Y houses 403 residents Downtown, and has installed more lighting and cameras around the building to address safety concerns.

Robin Davis, a spokeswoman for Mayor Andrew J. Ginther, said safety and police officials will attend the meeting to listen and discuss potential solutions and strategies.