[Peace-discuss] Re: [Discuss] From the WCIA Website

[Stuart Levy]

On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 01:19:43PM -0600, Marti Wilkinson wrote:
> In reading the story below I would like to know what kind of resources are
> available for the kids who live here?  As a resident of Garden Hills I'm
> concerned about what could be a lack of a multifaceted approach here.  Both
> the high schools in this community are overcrowded and I believe that this
> combined with limited options for kids is a huge factor here.

William Trent of the Planning & Implementation Committee,
in the recent presentation about the Champaign Unit4 School District
Consent Decree, made a point like yours: he noted that there is just
no place in town where 14-16-year-olds can go and have adult supervision.
And he quoted Dan McCollum as having pointed out how little investment,
compared with other cities, Champaign puts toward its children.

> Champaign's Most Dangerous Address
> Reported by: *Dave Benton / WCIA 3 News*
> 
> *Monday, Feb 18, 2008 @10:57pm CST*
> 
>  They are busy spots for police. But there's one neighborhood where crime is
> up and it's getting more serious. This Champaign sargent backing up other
> officers with a traffic stop.. on a cold night in february. He questions
> those involved.. and one person is put in the back of a squad car. From
> here.. it's back to his normal beat.. the garden hills neighborhood.
> 
> Sargent Dennis Baltzell heads up the "Cat" team. "If you can built a
> relationship with them and they then help you, that's gold." "We were
> experiencing a lot of juvenile problems, fighting and large groups of
> juveniles, juveniles throwing things at cars, taking over the streets," said
> Dep. Chief John Murphy. It all boiled over with a double shooting on hedge
> road last may.. so the community assistance team was formed.. to take back
> the streets. The same 4 officers handling all the calls. In the last two
> years.. there were more than 67-hundred calls to police from the southern
> part of the neighborhood alone.. that number is now down.. slightly.
> 
> Police, the neighborhood association and other city programs are working
> together. Bill Bland "Police have really bonded with the neighbors and areas
> adversely impacted, the results have been very positive," said Bill Bland
> with the Garden Hills Homeowners Association. Garden Hills isn't the only
> neighborhood in Champaign that's had a realatively high number of police
> calls, there are others. But this area has raised a red flag most recently.
> We're on the North side of town.. here they've gotten 19-hundred calls in
> the last two years. "With that call volume, you can't help but notice that
> there's some activity," said Murphy. Activity like loud parties..
> vandalism.. even a home invasion where the intruder was armed with a gun..
> some of the 1,942 calls.. "Traditionally that area had been primarily
> business. When you build a residential base in that area, the calls spread
> out to 24 hours a day." The city is now evaluating this area.. based on the
> same factors used in Garden Hills.. types of calls.. how many and who's
> calling.
> 
> The solution may be different.. but one thing they've learned from Garden
> Hills.. the neigbhorhood must be involved. "We find involving the property
> owner early on is when this is most successful." Murphy knows the solution
> up North.. won't come overnight.. as it hasn't in Garden Hills. Some here
> still worry.. all the trouble makers aren't gone. "I'm just kind of nervous
> to see what's going to happen in the summertime because they've been acting
> crazy in the winter and summer not even here yet," said Denee Thomas

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