Ken Gasch, REALTOR®/Broker

Press

Crafting some skills
Man gives TROSA whimsical art business

Originally published in: The Herald-Sun
Friday, August 03, 2007
Edition: Final
Page: A1
BY BRIANNE DOPART bdopart@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

Some see art as therapy.
For Ahmad Paktiawal, it's a way back from the abyss of drug addiction.

Paktiawal is an Afghan refugee addicted to crack cocaine for 10 years before turning his life around in a two-year program with Durham's Triangle Residents Overcoming Substance Abuse (TROSA).

Never during his decade of drug abuse, he said, did he stop creating art.

Drawing was his hobby and his true passion, even when drugs were helping him to lead a life he didn't want to lead.

So it's fitting that Paktiawal, now a member of TROSA's Scholar program and a student at UNC Chapel Hill, was tapped to lead a new project that wouldn't be possible without the generosity of a local community activist and artist.

Ken Gasch, a father and real estate agent whose whimsical creations are sold across the state and country in posh galleries and upscale craft stores, said he was looking for a new challenge and a new line of business when he decided to give up his business, HLD Productions.

"I was ready to climb different mountains," Gasch said. "For a while I had been going through the motions of the business and then I began thinking about selling it."

But then Gasch had a thought: He could give his business to TROSA and TROSA residents could learn skills while generating much needed income for the private, nonprofit organization.

Gasch donated his entire business, and sold a few pieces of equipment, to the organization so production could start immediately.

"It was something I'd spent so many years on, but I feel good about moving on," he said. "I just feel really good about the skill set it brings and what it can teach others."

Gasch didn't just turn the project over -- he's been deeply involved in training. Paktiawal said Gasch has come to the warehouse every few days to answer questions and help when Paktiawal and his trainees get stuck.

Paktiawal is leading the project and works training others on how to craft Gasch's most popular sellers, lever and pulley based machines with a spinning wheel that offers answers to questions.

Pull the lever on the box labeled Fortune Teller to find out if your mother-in-law is moving in. Watch the wheel spin and get a wisecrack response: Is the Pope Catholic?

Ask the Meal Planner what to have for dinner and get counseled: Seafood Delight.

Now, Paktiawal and two other TROSA residents are headed to an art show in Philadelphia for their first opportunity to present their version of Gasch's art. The show, to take place Saturday, will be Paktiawal's debut and the realization of a long dream.

He's shown his own work at shows, he said, but never imagined going to a major trade show.

"And I never managed myself using a skill saw, or training others," he laughed.

Bright-eyed and soft-spoken, Paktiawal knows he's been given an important task. He said he's determined to continue Gasch's former business and to pass on the skills he's picked up to others in the program.

"I am honored to be continuing Ken's legacy," he said.

© Copyright 2007. All rights reserved. All material on heraldsun.com is copyrighted by The Durham Herald Company and may not be reproduced or redistributed in any medium except as provided in the site's Terms of Use.

Residents unite to end thefts
Copper thieves have cost property owners thousands in repairs

The Herald-Sun
Monday, October 22, 2007

BY BRIANNE DOPART bdopart@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

Stooped over a fistful of shredded wires Friday, community activist and real estate agent Ken Gasch could still see a silver lining in the missing copper.

Gasch, a real estate agent with Seagroves Reality, has had to deal with a couple of incidents of copper theft over the past few months. Wires ripped out of a house Gasch and his wife own on Carlton Avenue left it without electricity. And a copper coil ripped from a compressor on a home across the street that Gasch was working to sell left the buyer with a hefty repair bill.

"Who is the victim when this happens?" asked Gasch, while giving a reporter a tour of several houses that had been targeted along Carlton Avenue. "It's the community."

Soon to be part of that community is a young man named Dante Mandala, who decided to relocate from Oakland, Calif., to Durham and wanted to move into a community in which he could make a difference.

Mandala's bid on a Carlton Avenue home -- made through Gasch -- had been accepted and the contract under review when Gasch called to say the copper coil had been ripped from the compressor behind the house. Mandala had agreed to purchase the house "as is."

"It was a mixed bag," Mandala said of his reaction to the theft during a phone call from California. "It does make me a little nervous because that's a big expense -- to put in a new HVAC -- but I am determined to have a positive impact on this neighborhood."

Mandala has been working with Gasch, who he calls "an angel" and Preservation Durham on a solution to his loss, and says he looks forward to making the new home work.

"I'd rather someone steal copper than mug a senior citizen on their way home from the store," Mandala said.

Thieves can get a couple of dollars per pound of stolen copper, and copper thefts have been on the rise here and nationally as the value of the metal soars.

Home inspector Tony Alderman of Bob Rowley Home Inspections said he inspects about two homes a day and has seen some six or seven thefts locally over the past two months. He said some of the thefts appeared to have been committed by thieves using electric screw drivers who knew exactly what they were looking for. But, he said, one compressor appeared to have been beaten open with a bat.

Durham police were unable to supply numbers about recent metal thefts Friday, but said the thefts aren't occurring as frequently lately as they had been earlier.

In August, Deputy Police Chief Ron Hodge attributed part of the city's 13 percent increase in burglaries this year to continued thefts of high-priced copper and other metals.

Despite the expensive ramifications of the thefts -- the loss of about $1,500 in copper can cost a property owner several thousand dollars more in damages caused -- Gasch said the metals theft issue has united local real estate agents and property managers with a local Partners Against Crime group.

Agents like Kim Griffin Jr. are getting involved in the community, calling their local legislators and talking about ways that folks in his position can protect the community by way of protecting their investments.

Griffin, of Griffin Associates Realtors, had enough when several of his properties were plundered by metals thieves.

Two homes he was renting out had copper coils ripped from compressor units within days of tenants moving out.

Still, Griffin said he hasn't adopted the practice of removing compressors from even temporarily vacant homes that other real estate agents and property managers have.

"They say that it's $200 [to remove the compressor] versus $4,000 to replace it," Griffin said.

While Griffin is upset about the thieves who've hit his properties, he said the issue goes way beyond him personally.

"It's more than that. A local church had its copper gutters stolen three times before they replaced them and had them painted [so they wouldn't look like copper]. And it's a safety issue."

Griffin's passion led him to call state Rep. Will Neumann, R-Gaston, to offer support for a Neumann-sponsored bill that increased the criminal penalty for metal theft and required individuals selling metals to present the buyer with a photo ID.

The bill was passed and signed into law this summer.

Griffin hopes it will hold the owners of businesses who buy metals to the same standard as pawn shop owners, who are responsible for providing police with information about sellers.

Some involved in local real estate are less optimistic.

Dick Patton Realty Co. owner Dick Patton has had several thefts at properties he manages, each costing between $1,200 and $2,500 for replacement compressors. As a result Patton has begun spending around $300 per property to install a metal cage around compressors to prevent thieves from getting to the metal inside.

One Patton client, a beauty shop owner, was busy doing hair one day when she noticed she was getting hot, Patton said. When someone went to check the compressor, the coil had been removed.

"It happened in the middle of the day," Patton said.

He said he doesn't think a law or further restrictions will keep people from committing the thefts.

"When it happens to our mayor or city council members, or when somebody gets shot trying to steal a coil -- that's when people will pay attention," Patton said.

For Gasch, tightening the penalty for stealing metals and restricting the ways in which they can be sold will help people like him and Mandala protect their investments.

"People used to tell me you are crazy to buy a house here," Gasch said, looking out over a neatly trimmed yard to several brightly painted Victorian houses near his own tri-gabled Victorian.

"Now we're here and one neighbor's baking me a sweet potato pie ... and another is bringing me bricks and trimming my hedges ... My wife and I are invested here and we want Dante to do well," Gasch said.

© Copyright 2007. All rights reserved. All material on heraldsun.com is copyrighted by The Durham Herald Company and may not be reproduced or redistributed in any medium except as provided in the site's Terms of Use.

Giving hand up instead of handout
People urged to donate to agencies, not panhandlers

Originally published in: The Herald-Sun
Monday, June 18, 2007
Edition: Final
Page: A1
BY BRIANNE DOPART bdopart@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

Time was, Durham's Inter Neighborhood Council backed a citywide ban on panhandling.
Now the group that represents dozens of the city's neighborhood organizations hopes to launch an education campaign encouraging Durham citizens to use their spare change a better way.

The "Durham Can You Spare A Change" campaign aims to alter the thinking of people inclined to pass dollar bills to panhandlers through their car windows or hand them money as they pass on the street.

The goal is to encourage people to give instead to local agencies working to help needy people, said Ken Gasch, INC's president-elect.

And the effort has the support of two Durham experts on homelessness and poverty.

Gasch said INC members have met with Lloyd Schmeidler of Urban Ministries and the Rev. Ernie Mills of the Durham Rescue Mission in hopes of learning more about helping economically struggling people living in the community.

Mills has devoted his life and ministry to helping homeless or addicted people restore their lives using Christian principles.

He said he doesn't give to panhandlers, saying former panhandlers he's counseled have told him they used between 85 and 95 percent of the donations to feed their addictions.

Even if the money goes for food and other necessities, Mills said, passing a dollar bill out a car window is simply putting a Band-Aid over the real problem.

By giving panhandlers money, people are enabling them to spend another day in a unhealthy situation and, in some ways, discouraging them from getting the assistance they need.

Like Mills, Schmeidler agreed with the idea behind INC's proposed effort.

"I've given money to panhandlers," said Schmeidler, saying he was aware of the risk that "the panhandler won't use the money for the purpose it was requested."

While he agrees with the sentiment behind the INC's change in policy, Schmeidler hopes Durham citizens won't simply avert their eyes or roll up their windows when they come across someone asking for a handout.

"I would discourage giving panhandlers money, but I would also encourage [motorists] to acknowledge the panhandler. Say, 'Hi, how are you doing?' or something," he said. "And then, when the panhandler responds and asks for a dollar or something, I would encourage [motorists] to respond, 'No, I choose to give my money to an organization that helps people in your situation.' "

If you're not on a highway and it's safe, Schmeidler said, engage the person asking you for money in a conversation. Many folks would be surprised to find out they may have things in common with the panhandler, and some might come to see the panhandler as an individual, not just someone asking for money, he said.

Such conversations could be "an opportunity for people to learn more about why there is poverty and such extreme poverty," Schmeidler said.

"The causes of poverty are complex and we like as a society to blame the panhandler for their situation when really there's enough blame to go around."
© Copyright 2007. All rights reserved. All material on heraldsun.com is copyrighted by The Durham Herald Company and may not be reproduced or redistributed in any medium except as provided in the site's Terms of Use.

Neighborhood takes on troubles
Colonial Village residents take steps against criminals

The Herald-Sun
Monday, June 06, 2005

BY JOHN MCCANN jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601

Diplomacy. It really works.

Bad vibes were jumping off on Banner Street, over there in northern Durham around East Club Boulevard. Stuff just didn't look right. Drug dealing or something.

Don't think for a minute that Ken Gasch would sit around and watch it tear up Colonial Village.

Long story short, Gasch talked with the police and -- perhaps more importantly -- told the property owner that he'd talked with the police.

The process is under way to evict the curious tenant.

That particular situation didn't have to get ugly in order to get results. Gasch nipped it in the bud.

But he'll tell you about some urban messiness earlier this year that got a little too close to Colonial Village.

On Jan. 11, two groups of teens traded words in a parking lot on North Roxboro Road. Someone pulled out a gun. Antonio Dent took a bullet in the gut and was rushed to the hospital.

The 17-year-old died the next day. It was Durham's first murder of the year.

"That kind of killing ..." Gasch paused, overcome with emotion -- saddened not only by Dent's death, but also because the alleged shooter was a kid from the neighborhood.

Gasch continued, "We could have prevented it."

How? With diplomacy?

Well, yes, according to Gasch.

Diplomacy is about building relationships and understanding how to deal with people. It's being soft enough to bend, but never compromising non-negotiables.

Which could entail Gasch telling a landlord that he understands how tough it'll be to go without a tenant's rent check, but that Colonial Village neighbors won't stand for harboring a troublemaker. They're just not having it.

"We're really not playing around," Gasch said.

One bad apple leads to more rotten fruit, and one day you look up and everything stinks. So Colonial Village residents have seen fit to get streetlights added. Criminals aren't particularly fond of high visibility. And hopefully the speed bumps added to Cascadilla Street would make them rethink getaway plans.

More streetlights and speed bumps are on the drawing board, said Colonial Village Neighborhood Association President Julie Seagroves.

And a neighborhood security camera is slated for installation.

"I don't know that the camera itself could have prevented [Dent's murder]. It's just the attitude," Gasch explained. "Neighborhood policing? That's old-fashioned."

What he means is "neighborhood policing" is a new name for a practice that's been around for ages, back when one neighbor could tell another neighbor that his kid was down the street acting ugly, and that parent would actually believe it and thank the neighbor for butting in before proceeding to discipline the brat. Less juvenile delinquency that way, Gasch suggests.

The man's passion would lead you to think he'd lost a relative to senseless violence. Not so.

"No one in my family has been victimized," Gasch said. "But this is my neighborhood. Everybody in this neighborhood is my family."

So when Dent's accused killer got popped for the murder, Gasch essentially watched what might as well have been a nephew get hauled off to jail.

"We have disagreements," Gasch said of his neighbors. "We fight and scream, threaten not to talk to each other again."

But they kiss and make up, just like strong families.

They are a diverse bunch, to be sure. About 550 homes. Young couples. Singles. Retirees. Some have lived in Colonial Village since the neighborhood was established in the 1940s for Army officers from Camp Butner.

Neighbors around here get together and pick up trash, and they admire their handiwork while pushing Junior in the baby stroller and maintaining a firm grip on Fido's leash.

All they want to do is keep the place up, keep the hoodlums off their sidewalks so there's a clear path when they do push the baby and walk the dog.

And, see, that way Colonial Village remains this neat neighborhood of cute houses with clotheslines and tomato plants in the back yards.

"In Your Neighborhood" appears every Monday. If you know of someone or something interesting in your neighborhood, call (919) 419-6630 or e-mail news @heraldsun.com.

© Copyright by The Durham Herald Company. Original copyright 2005. Copyright renewed 2006. All rights reserved.

N. Roxboro St. revamp Business owners weary of drug users, vagrants

The Herald-Sun
Friday, August 18, 2006

BY BRIANNE DOPART bdopart@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

Crack addicts, vagrants and gangs of hoodlums are scaring off customers as profit margins plummet among businesses along the North Roxboro Street corridor, shopowners and activists say.

Given that sour turn of events in what was a safe haven of thriving stores and service providers, the Beaver Pond Business Association has a long road ahead of it.

Named for the little-known beaver pond that borders the North Roxboro Street business district, the small group of convenience store, record store and restaurant owners is hoping to reclaim the community in which they do business.

The stretch of road that neighbors I-85 has become a tramping ground for vagrants and crack addicts, according to community activist and former Inter-neighborhood Council president Bill Anderson.

Anderson, with activists Ken Gasch and Mike Shiflett, said they wanted to help organize the businesses that border their respective communities for what ultimately would be "a massive cleanup and revitalization."

David Noble, business manager of Noble Automotive Repair, said his shop has seen a "significant loss" in yearly income in the past several years because of the crime that occurs daily outside of his Club Boulevard property.

"Every one of these businesses around here are being affected by the stuff that's going on, not just me," Noble said. It's difficult to keep old customers and attract new clientele when patrons see "these little hoodlums that gather here and people passed out on the sidewalk," he said.

"It hasn't been that many years ago that this was a good neighborhood," Noble said.

Vagrants, he said, use the parking lot outside as a meeting place. At least one time, he admitted, he chased them off with a pistol.

Joy Convenience Store worker Cynthia Grissom said she has chased "thugs and bangers" from her store's property repeatedly. At a Wednesday meeting of the newly formed business association, Grissom expressed her frustration about dealing with trespassing vagrants.

Master Officer Eric Hester and Lt. Mike Ripberger attended the meeting to coach the business owners on how to trespass people from their properties.

Ripberger instructed each business owner to obtain "a stack" of trespassing forms from their local substation and fill one out for each person they do not want to have on their property. The forms expire every 90 days, he said, and would need to be resubmitted every three months.

Another option, Hester said, is for business owners to call an officer to their business and inform the trespasser in front of the officer that he or she is not welcome on the property. The officer will then fill out a trespassing card for the individual.

But Noble said when business owners take a stand, they need more support from the police on enforcement. He said he trespassed one woman from his property, but when he has called the Police Department when she returned " the police won't carry her to jail."

At Wednesday's meeting, Gasch reminded attendees that, like his own neighborhood association in Colonial Village, organizing meetings and forming initiatives would be slow going at first. But after the association has its first successes -- such as running specific people off properties or shutting down vacant buildings used as crack houses -- their momentum will build, he promised.

© Copyright 2006 by The Durham Herald Company. All rights reserved.

Drug eviction efforts get push
Anti-crime groups urged to step up attempts to boot out accused renters

The Herald-Sun
Saturday, November 19, 2005

BY RAY GRONBERG gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

Elected officials are urging Durham's Partners Against Crime groups to expand their attempts to get people accused of drug dealing evicted from rental units.

The effort, which involves civil-court proceedings and pressure on landlords, is being pioneered by the PAC movement's District 2. During a meeting Friday of the Durham Crime Cabinet, officials said the city's other four PAC districts should get involved.

"It's exciting that PAC 2 is taking some ownership of this issue and looking for a solution," said County Commissioner Ellen Reckhow, who co-chairs the intergovernmental crime cabinet with City Councilman Howard Clement.

Clement was just as enthusiastic. "I'd like the other PACs to share in this model," he said.

The encouraging words from Reckhow and Clement came after District 2 leaders Richard Mullinax and Ken Gasch briefed officials on what their group has been up to over the past couple of months.

In that time, District 2 activists have followed up on nine Police Department drug raids by checking whether the people arrested rented or owned the targeted homes.

Seven of the raids targeted rentals, and each time the group contacted the home's landlord to encourage an eviction. The group contends that landlords and the community have the right to expect tenants to honor leases that bar illegal drugs.

Tenants got the boot in five of the cases, and are on their way out in the other two, according to a report Mullinax and Gasch presented to the group.

District 2 leaders say the use of civil eviction proceedings -- which don't require the same burden of proof as a criminal case -- is a faster way of closing down drug houses.

"The nine [cases] here are the serious dealers in the community," Mullinax said. "PAC 2 is not going to wait on a criminal conviction. There's no reason to wait on a criminal conviction to bring evidence to a judge for summary eviction."

The effort has, however, sparked dissent from some members of the District 2 e-mail list precisely because it doesn't require the same burden of proof as a criminal case.

It also drew criticism Friday from Victoria Peterson, a local activist and unsuccessful City Council candidate who attends crime cabinet meetings.

"This community and country is losing the war on drugs," she said. "I'd rather see [police] officers deal with the murderers in the community. They're not going to go to Duke [University] and deal with kids there selling it and smoking it; they're going to beat up on poor black folks."

But a crime cabinet member, the Rev. Melvin Whitley, said pressure on landlords is appropriate.

In PAC District 1, which covers North-East Central Durham, drug dealers and property managers in some cases have established working relationships, he said. Every four to five months, when police pressure gets too hot, the dealers will move from one unit to another controlled by the same landlord.

"I applaud PAC 2 for what they're doing," Whitley added.

© Copyright by The Durham Herald Company. Original copyright 2005. Copyright renewed 2006. All rights reserved.

Police step up raids and seize more drugs
Support of communities cited in fighting larger illegal flow

The Herald-Sun
Thursday, December 01, 2005

BY LOVEMORE MASAKADZA lmasakadza@heraldsun.com 419-6684

Durham police have raided more homes, filed more charges and seized more illegal drugs this year compared to last, and one official believes that could be because the pipeline for illegal narcotics is growing.

The stepped-up enforcement also is tied to a greater willingness among residents to report illegal substances being trafficked in their neighborhoods, said Capt. Lee Russ of the Durham Police Department's Special Operations Division.

From January through October this year, the Special Operations Division conducted 186 drug raids, compared to 139 all of last year.

Police seized 222 pounds of cocaine through October, compared to 83 pounds all of last year. Police confiscated over 4,721 pounds of marijuana in the first 10 months of this year, compared to 980 pounds over all 12 months last year. And 14.6 ounces of heroine were taken into evidence through October, compared to 2.8 ounces all of last year.

The higher quantities of drugs seized came with a corresponding boost in the number of drug charges -- 1,632 through the first 10 months this year compared to 1,299 from January through December last year.

Russ credited the community with registering complaints to police that led to some illegal narcotics operations.

"The community is one of our biggest partners," he said.

As to why more drugs are being seized, Russ said that could be due to more drugs coming into the city than last year. According to Russ, most of the drugs flooding into Durham come from Texas after being smuggled over the Mexican border.

But seizures were not up in all drug categories. Through all of last year police confiscated 1,924 dosage units of other drugs, which are typical prescription drugs, but only 1,087 were seized by October this year. Police seized 417 dosages of Ecstasy last year compared to 318 through October this year.

Drug raids have been concentrated in the eastern part of the city, but Russ said raids have been conducted throughout Durham and he does not consider any part of the city to be awash in drug activity.

"Probably, the most important thing that a drug raid accomplishes is the restoring of control to the citizens who have been adversely affected by the drug dealers," Russ said. It restores a higher quality of life and also leads to fewer crimes related to the drug trade, he said.

Drug raids at rental houses highlight the illegal activity to property managers and gives them a tool to remove the tenants, Russ said.

There have been several occasions this year in which property managers evicted tenants using rental houses for drug activities.

Ken Gasch, a member of Partners Against Crime District 2 (PAC 2), has been a leading figure in the fight against drug dealers. He has been vocal in calling for their eviction from drug houses and hopes more community backlash will evolve.

"What the police are doing to the community is wonderful, and what the community is doing to the community is wonderful," Gasch said.

He said neighbors now realize that they don't have to live with drug dealers in their midst and are making reports to the police.

Russ said the Special Operations Division is sending a message to drug dealers through its enforcement.

Drug dealers have to be lucky all the time to operate "and we only have to be lucky one time," Russ said.

© Copyright by The Durham Herald Company. Original copyright 2005. Copyright renewed 2006. All rights reserved.

Video to assist Hispanic renters
Tenants' rights focus of creation on YouTube

Originally published in: The Herald-Sun
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Edition: Final
Page: B1
BY BRIANNE DOPART bdopart@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

YouTube may not be the place many turn for educational videos, but for Spanish-speaking renters and their English speaking landlords, some say a four-minute video could be the key to better tenant-landlord relations.
The video, which began as the brainchild of neighborhood activists, was created to inform Spanish-speaking renters of their rights as tenants and is now available on the site YouTube.com as well as on DVD.

Flashing images of how-to and how-not-to live, such as the word "No!" emblazoned on a picture of a car with no license plate, are narrated in Spanish. The goal, said co-creator Ken Gasch, is to empower the non-English speaking population with its rights as American renters.

Gasch, president-elect of Durham's Inter Neighborhood Council (INC), said his motivation to create the video came from a friendship he and his wife shared with a Honduran couple who dealt with a massive mold problem in their rental property.

The problem began when the couple didn't understand the necessity of airing out a steamy bathroom after a shower, Gasch said. When the mold became apparent and, apparently, very stinky, the Gasches' friends were hesitant to call their landlord. The hesitation went on for weeks and the mold spread. Soon, Gasch recalled, the couple's two closets and entire restroom were infested with the moisture-gobbling spores.

"It came to my understanding that tenants in Mexico and Central America do a lot of maintenance on their own properties, which is completely different than in the U.S. The buildings there are different. The plumbing and the ventilation systems too," Gasch said.

A thought immediately occurred to the activist-minded Colonial Park resident: Wouldn't it be nice to have something that could communicate to tenants the things they need to know when renting?

Gasch and friends from INC began asking around and found a like-minded individual in Leah Bergman of Bergman Lee Ray Real Estate Rentals, a leasing company that works mostly with Hispanic tenants.

Bergman's tenants in the past had been afraid of contacting the management company with repair requests and had been hesitant to report things such as damage or leaks, she said. While the company makes sure to have Spanish copies of all of its English-only documents, Bergman said she wasn't confident future tenants were grasping everything they needed to while signing on the dotted line.

Gasch heard the same thing from folks in the community as well as those who work in the same field as Bergman.

INC members drew up an initial list of items they thought tenants should know and be cautioned against, Gasch recalled. The list, including warnings about reporting pest infestations and changing air filters, was strikingly similar to the things important to property managers such as Rick Soles. He got to give his two cents when Gasch and company presented their idea to a local committee of property managers.

Eager to help Gasch and company with their video, Bergman contacted her alma mater Durham Academy and was put in touch with senior Ana Maria Diaz, a native of Columbia who needed a topic for her senior project.

The end result, Gasch said, is the product of several heads put together to take a stab at one common goal -- better living conditions for all.

Drug busts increasing

The Herald-Sun
Friday, December 02, 2005

Police are making far more busts and seizing far more drugs in Durham this year than the year before. Why? It could be that more drugs are being smuggled into Durham, or that more citizens are reporting drug dealers, or that the police are being more aggressive against drugs. Or, and this is the most likely conclusion, it's a combination of all of them.

The figures speak clearly. From January through October of 2005, the Durham Police Department's Special Operations Division conducted 186 drug raids, compared to 139 all of last year. Police seized 222 pounds of cocaine during the 10 months this year, compared to only 83 pounds in 2004. That was a huge difference, but so was the jump in the amount of marijuana taken off the street -- 4,721 pounds this year as compared to 980 pounds last year. Similarly, officers grabbed 14.6 ounces of heroin this year compared to 2.8 ounces last year.

Those are impressive and welcome statistics, given the litany of woes that stem from the drug trade. Consider a partial list of the consequences of illegal drugs:

* Addicts commit crimes, create victims, go to prison, break up families and contribute to poverty.

* The drug trade fuels violence between dealers that impacts innocent bystanders and turns peaceful neighborhoods into dangerous places.

* Drugs steal health, wealth and human potential from users.

* The drug business is the foundation that supports violent criminal gangs.

We know that tough law enforcement isn't the only answer to illicit drug activity. Durham needs more mental health and drug rehabilitation facilities to deal with the root causes of drug abuse and addiction. But as is shown in the list above, the drug trade is not a victimless crime. Drugs must be taken seriously and dealt with aggressively by law enforcement, and we're pleased that the police force is doing so.

It's also a positive sign that citizens are feeling empowered to report drug crimes to police. Ken Gasch of Partners Against Crime, District 2, has been a leader in encouraging citizens to speak up about drugs and in pushing landlords to evict tenants who run drug houses. Only through a sustained effort by law enforcement and the community will Durham become known as a town that has no time for drug dealers.

© Copyright by The Durham Herald Company. Original copyright 2005. Copyright renewed 2006. All rights reserved.

Plaza tries to fill in the blanks

With crime down in neighborhood, businesses show interest in coming to Avondale-Roxboro area

News and Observer

August 17, 2006

Jim Wise, Staff Writer

Compare Foods, a new grocery store, is going into the old Winn-Dixie space at Kmart Plaza off Avondale Drive. The old Kmart itself, like the Carmike 7 movie theater, remains empty. But their blank facades make a striking contrast with the Plaza's other side.

There, at a 16-shop strip center, the comings and goings during business hours are constant.

"If somebody vacates, we'll have it leased within a week," said Mark Mulvaney of Harbor Group in Norfolk, which manages the shopping center. "That has become a vibrant retail district."

With more than 30 acres and 234,640 leaseable square feet, the Plaza is the biggest commercial property, but far from the only one, around the intersection of Avondale, Roxboro Street and Club Boulevard. It's a busy district, but it has its troubles.

"Transients and drug dealers are a big problem around here," said Cynthia Grissom, who owns Joy Foods on Roxboro Street. "I was robbed at gunpoint a week ago Monday."

Troubles, yes, but, according to the Durham Police Department's Crime Mapper, there were 125 "crime incidents" within a quarter mile of the Avondale-Roxboro intersection in 2005. Through August, the year 2006 had seen only 19.

Why the decline in crime?

"It's all of us working together," said Michael Shiflett, who lives a few blocks away in the Northgate Park neighborhood, just west of Roxboro Street. "We've got that synergy."

'Problem children'

A drop in crime in the Club-Roxboro-Avondale business district is the apparent result of concerted cooperation throughout the past 18 months or so.

"The surrounding communities got together ... to work with the businesses," said Grissom. "To move the problem children out of the area."

"Problem children" are vagrants, drunks and addicts who leave hypodermic needles on playgrounds, empty beer bottles at storefronts and their own excrement on back stoops and whose very presence turns customers away. They are also the enterprises that cater to them -- selling narcotics and crack pipes, or providing places for undesirable behavior.

"A bar that doesn't have a nameplate on the front, what do you think is going on in there?" said Ken Gasch, an artist who lives and works in the Colonial Village neighborhood, just east of Roxboro Street.

Gasch and his fellow activists have shut down some such establishments: "a nefarious bar, pharmacy, where a mechanic was dumping oil," he said, "and a raging drug house ... [we] cut their stay short, shall we say."

He and a few other area residents are "agents of trespass," meaning they are authorized to act as agents for property owners to declare undesirables unwelcome on properties, to alert police to remove such people and to swear out warrants for trespassers' arrest.

And Gasch and Grissom are board members of the Beaver Pond Area Business Alliance, a group of business owners, police representatives and residents of the Colonial Village, Northgate Park and Duke Park neighborhoods. They formed the group this summer to further clean up the business district -- literally and figuratively -- and to encourage its patronage by area residents.

"So," Gasch said, "all sorts of good things are going on."

Room to rent

Another good thing Gasch mentioned is Compare Foods. Kmart Plaza manager Mulvaney said it will be "an international-type store," opening in October in the space Winn-Dixie left more than a year ago. But empty space at the old Kmart, gone since 2003, and the theater, vacant since 2002, remains worrisome.

"It is a fairly big concern, because it attracts the transients and drug dealers," Grissom said. "Kind of leaving them an open space to play."

This shopping district is not high-end. Mulvaney said the catalyst for the Plaza's strip mall has been a Duke Power payment center. One other business there advertises "Refund loans" and another dress suits for $89.99. The long-established Medical Supply Superstore at Club and Roxboro is moving out, and a pawn shop is moving into its space from across the street.

On other hands, the Mexican bakery gets good reviews, as does King's Red and White food market. A new McDonald's stands down by Interstate 85, and the BP station at Club and Roxboro is due for upfit. The district has the neighborhood feel, or at least potential.

Showtime?

Mulvaney will admit the Kmart Plaza has a problem.

"The center is down in a hole and you can't see it" from I-85, he said, but if he could get permission to remove the trees that screen the center from highway view, he could have a Costco-Target scale of retailer "in there before you knew it.

"We're 200 trees away from being the best location in all of Durham," he said.

He's had interest in the vacant theater, too, he said this week.

"We want to make sure people go in with the right type of use," he said. "We're actually looking at a second-run or cinema cafe-type use."

With seven screening rooms, an operator might devote two to second-run movies, another to classic films, another to a live theater, another to a jazz club and so on.

Here's hoping

Some neighborhood activists said another good thing for the district is the end of I-85 reconstruction.

"It will be a stimulus for business to look at that intersection as a gateway to Durham," said Shiflett, a former president of Durham's Inter Neighborhood Council.

Grissom, the Joy Foods operator, is not so optimistic on that point. "I don't think it's going to have much of an effect," she said: But she does think cleanup efforts are positives, for business and otherwise.

Grissom has lived in the Colonial Village neighborhood for 13 years.

"Thanks to the work of a lot of different people chasing out the crack houses," she said, "my kids can ride their bikes in safety, and comfortably. And that makes a big difference."

Staff writer Jim Wise can be reached at 956-2408 or jim.wise@newsobserver.com.

Police lock out drug suspects

Residents watch as sheriff’s deputies lock site of recent raids

The Herald-Sun

Saturday, November 05, 2005

BY LOVEMORE MASAKADZA lmasakadza@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

Suspected drug traffickers were booted from their home, and an uprising by a neighborhood that's mad as the dickens and not taking it anymore was behind the community cleanup of the narcotics scourge.

Deputies from the Durham County Sheriff's Office showed up at 1810 Rosetta Drive about 9 a.m. Friday armed with legal paperwork, sturdy shoes to kick their way into the home where three raids were conducted in recent months, and padlocks to keep the evicted suspects away.

Ken Gasch, a member of Partners Against Crime District 2 (PAC 2) who encouraged residents to come out and witness the lockout, said getting rid of such houses would cut the crime rate.

"Our communities belong to us," Gasch said. "Our communities don't belong to drug dealers. If people unite the drug dealers are not going to win."

He said the group would continue to work with property owners so that they can evict drug dealers.

John Schelp, Old West Durham Neighborhood Association president, also scorned the illicit narcotics trade and those who pedal dope as he watched the events on Rosetta Drive.

"The drug houses are a cancer on any neighborhood," Schelp said. "You have to address the tumor."

Schelp used Friday's situation to renew the call to have a citywide property manager's registry.

Having a handy list maintained by Durham government that identifies who is responsible for rental properties would make it easy for residents to contact the property managers in the event drug dealing is taking place, advocates say.

Rick Soles, property manager of 1810 Rosetta Drive, was involved in Friday's eviction after some members of Partners Against Crime District 2 got in touch with him about the drug activity.

"I did not know about the drug busts until people in the neighborhood told me," Soles said.

He decided to evict the tenants and he obtained a writ of possession of real property, which led to the lockout.

Police raided the house at 1810 Rosetta Drive three times within the past three months, confiscated cocaine and arrested several people on drug-related charges. The most recent raid was Thursday night.

Police reports show one drug bust went down on Aug. 26. Antonio Cendejas Vargas, 29, was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine. During an Oct. 18 raid, Hollie Neoll Barrow, 25, Calvin Benard Stewart, 17, and Dandre Jerome Fairgood, 18, were arrested. Charges included possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver crack cocaine and maintaining a dwelling for the purpose of selling drugs.

Police District 2 Commander Capt. Ed Sarvis said a handgun was seized during Thursday's raid, but no reports were available to show whether arrests were made.

Friday morning, sheriff's deputy S.D. Martin III and Soles arrived in the deputy's car and parked in the driveway. After Martin knocked on the door and got no response, he tried the house keys that Soles had given him. The keys no longer fit the lock, so he kicked the door several times in an unsuccessful attempt to enter.

Martin then went to the back door, kicked it open and jumped into the house with Sarvis, followed by Soles.

"Nobody home," Soles said after he had spent a few minutes searching inside.

The deputy then padlocked the house and left two notices, which read that the property had been padlocked in accordance with a writ of ejectment issued by the Sheriff's Office.

Sarvis said the community's efforts would make it difficult for drug dealers to rent houses in the neighborhoods and the police would continue to hunt them down.

"If they are selling drugs, we are going to be there to stop them," Sarvis said.