Many towns have problems with people on the street doing things that make consumers a little skittish when considering visiting a downtown. Many times these folks are not really doing anything bad. They are just down on their luck. But there are times when illicit activity is the prime reason for them being in the downtown.

Downtowns have been a gathering spot for all kinds of people through the years and it can be expected that people would congregate. Sometimes downtowns become a haven for subsidized housing. People on section 8 housing vouchers move into the downtown if the prices are low enough and the landlord accepts section 8 tenants. These folks really have limited options and need to secure housing where it is available. This was the case with downtown Phoenixville when I arrived there to lead the revitalization.

I remember when people started to buy the buildings and totally gut them to make the improvements, there were people who were displaced. Most of those people had been paying a very small rent. Once the properties were renovated, these folks had to live elsewhere. This is a function of revitalization. The rents that need to be charged in order to get the dollars to renovate far exceeded the capacity of the folks living there prior to renovation.

I remember how painful it was to some of the occupants to relocate after 30 years. These are not the folks that I found as aberrant. These folks were just low income and at times acted like they were living in a rural setting rather than an urban atmosphere.

I view aberrant behavior as something that acts as a deterrent to people coming downtown, including people with questionable behavior, fighting, drugs, prostitution and just the general weirdness that happens in life. Sometimes it is intentional, and sometimes it is just someone’s bad luck when the incidents hit the police blotter.

I always like to look at the area and observe over a couple of months.  If you are there at the times when things move in an aberrant direction, you can witness for yourself. There are always areas that could be considered problem spots.

I remember on South Street in Philadelphia, we put the parking back on the north side of the street on Fridays to keep people from having direct access to the cars going by directly from the sidewalk. That was an easy one.

I believe that as a community organization, the goal is not to have people arrested but instead get people to move to another area. In Phoenixville, as well as South Street, we had a strong community watch by neighborhoods. On many occasions, once you start to move people they will just move to a street adjacent to where you apply pressure, whether through increased police presence, or increased store owner and resident awareness. If the surrounding areas increase that pressure, it makes identification of areas to do illicit deeds difficult. Things are changing too much. There is a need to introduce change upon change consecutively.

It all comes down to who wants to make it happen. If you have an active police presence downtown, people will understand that you mean business. Many times police departments do not have the funding to patrol downtown. It then falls on the revitalization committee to act to equip the merchants and the residents of the area in skills of reporting.

The key to making an inroad is to develop a relationship with the police department, and have the committee take a little bit of guidance on what they are looking for to make an impact in the downtown. Everyone is different, and everyone has a different problem. Solutions the committee comes up with will become more welcomed if you are working together as a team versus something adversarial.

On both South Street and Phoenixville, I was the staff to the community watch when it came to some things. In both cases, there were regular meetings between the residents, the merchants and the police. We had discussions that sometimes would make me cringe when different people made comments that were a little extreme… but all input is good input… even if it is not remotely correct… because it provides perspective.

The idea is to disrupt the normal flow as much as possible. One time in Downingtown, I was able to fence in an area that had a plethora of drug dealers. I made it a one way in, one way out situation. We were fortunate to have a brownfield located next to the drug area and we fenced in the brownfield it pretty much encompassed the area.

When we were identifying what was wrong in Downingtown we targeted two abandoned and run down factories. One of those factories was located next to the drug street. I believe the lack of care for the building promoted decay to the surrounding houses that were on the back end of the commercial district. We were able to interlock strategies, the one for economic land reuse and quality of life issues.

Each town is different and calls for different actions, but with a dedicated group you can make a change in the downtown.