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• Allied Area Landlords Ask For Help; Police Calls Up This Year

November 17, 2005 (Madison, Wisconsin) – Jim and Juanita Bushert own a number of properties in the Allied Drive area, and because of an increased level of violence six tenants have moved out in the last month alone, the couple said.

"They are afraid of bullets flying," Jim Bushert told Madison Police Chief Noble Wray and West District Capt. John Davenport during a meeting property owners called with police Wednesday evening at the South District police station.

"I have a lot of money invested in this area," said Bushert, who owns four eight-unit buildings on Allied Drive and two 16-unit apartments nearby on Rosenberry Road in Fitchburg.

Four years ago Rosenberry was a nice street, but not now, Bushert said.

"If I'm not mistaken, you are the police. What are you going to do?"

Davenport said that the West District is now the busiest police district, surpassing the Central District.

"What you get in terms of police resources is better than any other part of the city," Davenport said.

Still, if the goal is suppressing violence, Davenport added, "so far we aren't doing very well."

There has been an 86 percent increase in gun and other weapons calls in the Allied Drive area this year over last year, according to Madison police statistics.

From Jan. 1, 2004, through Oct. 18, 2004, there were 36 gun or weapon calls to Allied Drive and surrounding streets. In the same period this year there were 67 gun or weapon calls. Gun and weapon calls were up 56 percent in the city as a whole, while the West District saw a 65 percent increase.

Attention has been drawn to Allied Drive lately because of a rash of shootings. Then, in the past two weeks, a series of Madison cab drivers have been robbed at gunpoint, the majority held up in the Allied neighborhood.

It only takes a small number of people to spike crime statistics, Davenport said, adding that police believe one person is responsible for the taxi robberies.

Most of the dozen or so landlords at the meeting said they witness drug deals on the street on a daily basis. Many suggested bringing back the city's controversial loitering ordinance, which aimed to curtail open-air drug dealing but was found to be used disproportionately against minorities.

Duane Steinhauer, who has owned properties in the neighborhood for 15 years, said landlords have an obligation to their tenants. "They have a right to feel safe in their homes," he said.

Steinhauer had four security cameras installed on his eight-unit building on the 2300 block of Allied Drive. He makes the surveillance available on a Web site and brought a laptop to the meeting to project the images.

At one point during the meeting he and others pointed out an alleged drug deal in the building's parking lot.

Wray, for his part, was defensive about the problems on Allied.

"Look, this is nothing new and you know this. We've been down this road before," he said. "You fix this one building at a time."

Because Allied is so densely populated it has problems other troubled areas of the city don't, Wray said.

"We aren't going to keep arresting our way out of it," he said.

Davenport added that police are making arrests on Allied Drive in record numbers this year but the crime statistics keep going up.

A police and landlord response is not enough, said Leslie McAllister, the city's Weed & Seed coordinator. There needs to be a neighborhood response from the residents and neighborhood association, she said.

"I don't think a lot of police presence makes people feel safer," she added.

"It's one street but it's a big headache," said landlord Nick Dorneanu, who set up the meeting.

The overwhelming majority of those causing the problems -- the drug dealers and gang members -- come from outside the area, Dorneanu said.

There are two neighborhood officers who work during the day and in the early evening, but the real problems come when they are gone, Dorneanu said.

"Allied Drive is like Vegas. It's alive at night," he said.

Troy Hauk owns 129 units in nine buildings on Allied Drive.

He and other landlords have kicked out the bad tenants and now the good tenants are leaving on their own, Hauk said.

"We have to survive too. It's beyond us already," he said.

Hauk said it's a shame that one weekend -- Halloween -- diverts so many law enforcement resources to State Street for two nights. Those resources could instead be spread to Allied and other neighborhoods in need.

"That to me is very difficult to swallow," he said.

Another meeting, this one to include residents, is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 29 in the Allied Drive neighborhood.

By Samara Kalk Derby The Capital Times