Parent Pages
Sibling Pages
Child Pages
The Committee met on July 22 to discuss the open air drug dealer at the Shirley Manor. The subject was the young man with the Olds low rider. He was selling, mostly out on MacArthur. He would go out to the car and raise the hood, apparently as a signal. After the transaction, he would lower the hood and go back in.
Westminster-Canterbury loaned us their lovely Westbrook Room for the meeting. There we all met Henry Briggs, the Realtor who manages Shirley Manor. Briggs told us that they keep the rents in the complex slightly high, to discourage folks they and we wouldn't want there, and they try hard to run a decent place. It seems that our dealer was living with a tenant, a young woman who had passed the usual credit check and reference screen. In any event, Briggs already had the eviction proceedings underway.
Cookie from Dots Back also attended the meeting. She told us she has canceled the contract on the pay phone out front, effective September 28 (the earliest possible cancellation data). The dealers in Shirley Manor and MacArthur had found the 'phone useful. Thanks, Cookie!
Sure enough, on August 21, the tenant and the dealer moved out.
This, folks, is the right solution. If the police had caught our dealer and put him in jail, we all would have been taxed for the $15,000 a year to keep him fed and guarded, and another one would have replaced him before you could say "drug dealer." As it is, this dealer is gone, and the Shirley Manor is a harder target for the next one who tries to move in. This lacks the emotional satisfaction of seeing our dealer go off to the slammer, but it is an all ‘round better outcome.
If we view the issue as getting the dealer arrested, we’re thinking short term and we won’t get any abiding improvement. If we view the problem as getting rid of the dealer, in circumstances that will make it hard for somebody to replace him, we’re thinking long term solution. As it is, this particular problem is solved, about as well as it could be.
Briggs now has put up the "no trespassing" signs the police want so they can control uninvited visitors at the apartment complex. Briggs is being a good neighbor. The Association will have a certificate of appreciation for him at the general meeting in December.
Last updated 02/24/02
Please send questions or comments to John Butcher