Stegmaier Building Project

[Alladin Sane]

Originally Posted by W-B proud

But they are tackling crime and beautification. Wilkes-Barre has been hiring many new police officers, they are in the the process of installing cameras in troubled neighborhood are over the city.Violent crime is lower then it's been in many years. They are removing graffiti and aggressivly going after the graffiti artist, they reinstated the street sweepers (they come down my street every Tuesday), they now have a downtown work crew that plants flowers, powerwashes the sidewalks, removes trash, sweeps up cigarette butts, and there is added security. I don't know if you've been here in a while(i read your post about the whores on S Main st) I used to drive cab (night shift) and well aware of what you are talking about. Well, they have been replaced by families going to the movies and college students going out for a night on the town. You wouldn't even recognize S Main st from five years ago (to be fair, the area around Academy st is still a shady), but between The Square and South st there has been a great change for the better. If you live here, you simply cannot deny that things are changing for the better unlees you're blind. Yes!, there still is crime, yes! parts of the city look like a bad "hood" in Detroit, yes! our leaders still do things that p*** us off, but I can honestly say, this city is moving in the right direction, and it's been a very, very long time coming.

I never wrote a post about whores on South Main. But what about WB Boulevard and the overgrowth, graffiti on Hazle Street, etc. Violent crime is not down. We have had several incidents in the past month. Too much NY and PHilly scum coming in.

[W-B proud]

Originally Posted by Alladin Sane

I never wrote a post about whores on South Main. But what about WB Boulevard and the overgrowth, graffiti on Hazle Street, etc. Violent crime is not down. We have had several incidents in the past month. Too much NY and PHilly scum coming in.

It was reported about two months ago in the Times Leader that violent crime is down to the lowest point in several years, they did a big story about it, with stats and the whole nine yards. We are a city, so we are gonna have crime, but when compared to other Pa. cities like Harrisburg, Reading, York ect. we look like Mr Roger's Neighborhood. I agree alot of the city still looks like a ghetto, but it's slowly getting better, they are going after the graffiti artist, they have closed many of the trouble bars, like, The White House, Chu's Lounge, Shotzies, Desi's ect. Unfortunately, there are laws preventing a city from screening people before moving into a city, even if this were possible, they would have thier girlfriends get screened and then to criminals would move in with them when no one is paying attention (like our current welfare system). As far as crime and murder, a city can only do so much (and they are: hiring alot of new police officers, and installing camera's to monitor bad neighborhood's) the police can't prevent a shooting though! If I wanted to go next door and shoot my neighbor right now, I could easily do it, there isn't gonna be a cop outside my door waiting for me to commit the crime. So, the police can only do so much, and I think they are doing as much as they can. My point is if you took a before and after picture of W-B five years ago and today, I think it's very clear which W-B most people would choose. You have to take what you can get! This city hasn't seen any sort of improvement in thirty-forty some years, and now a whole lot of improvement is happening very rapidly. I take that over continued decay, and high crime any day of the week.