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.