Survey Results as They Are Received.  The comments below are submitted by Charleston residents and are the opinions of the same residents. These are not facts reported by this website or any agency. In these posts, we are sharing the thoughts of residents, not necessarily those of the website designer. Thanks for your support in taking the survey and sharing your thoughts with the rest of Charleston. Posts are from oldest at top to newest posts at bottom.

Charleston Speaks! Results below.

Get rid of the crack heads and shut down the bars on Elizabeth Street - Especially the NAME REMOVED which is a center of drug traffic in the East End.

Many sidewalks in the East End are in poor repair. They will be safer in good repair and while the improvements are being made, we should plan art installations as part of the sidewalks. For example, in Seattle I saw bronze dance steps in a sidewalk. That city has a very good program of art in public places and Charleston could do well to model after it. We could pay for this out of a "1% for art" tax on projects such as the ballpark, new riverfront projects, docking fees for the tourist riverboats...

I'd also like to see an educational aspect along with repairs and art. I'd like to see some arboretum-style signage related to East End trees and plants of interest. Wouldn't it be cool to look at a huge old oak and learn that it was the boundary/treaty tree for this or that original property owner/user and what was going on in the world when it was a seedling? It would be wonderful to do some science education too. For example, we could have a walk through exhibition near the river that would show the plants and fish and animals living in the Kanawha and map the water table and tributaries. 

The repaired, enhanced streets and sidewalks could attract more people. Having more pedestrian and bike traffic would attract more businesses. More healthy activity in the area will discourage the criminal element which thrives in the dark and unseen spaces.

The city's improvements are massive. Better and better police training is evident and helpfully encouraging. Thanx 2005 times for this. Greater activism among more citizen groups in the city is causing more enlightened governing and happier governed. So get involved! This survey is a great start. Our air, land and water will improve once we all plant trees. The DNR gives them away!

Personally, I wish the police would make more regular patrols of the "far East End" or the area between the Capitol and the 35th Street Bridge.  This area is often ignored, and abandoned vehicles are allowed to sit on the streets, despite repeated calls to the police department to have them removed. 

Some apartments on Washington Street are clearly places where drug activity is occurring - witness the Police shooting of the Pit Bull a few months ago in one of these apartments.  Can't patrols be stepped up, to address these issues more proactively, rather than wait until a dealer is well-established and surrounded by such defenses as dogs, look-outs, etc.?

If people would develop a stronger sense of community things would be safer.  People are so busy and work so hard to maintain their privacy that they forget what it is like to look out for each other and help the people who live closest to them.  Instead of being afraid of our neighbors we should reach out to them and look out for them because they, in turn, will reach out to us and look out for us.

Provide more respect to young people.  They need to be a meaningful part of our community.  We should create jobs where young people are helping to solve our problems.  For example working with people to help them save money by reducing heating costs this winter.  Or have block sports teams of mixed age to enjoy competing and getting to know each other and publishing the accomplishments of the outstanding players. Or start a watch dog group to make sure all students have an area they can be successful in school.  Schools increase a feeling of hopelessness by just validating one kind of academic skills.  I worked with teens who got in trouble a lot for 13 years at New Connections Youth Services.  Preventing hopelessness equals preventing crime.  Every student wants success but often the schools are set up to vertically rate students instead of validating their strengths.

More frequent police patrols would be very helpful. The presence of the police prohibit the crime. I think patrol cars should be "moving" not stationary.

We need laws to stop the pandering/begging outside of stores. We also need laws to stop public intoxication and public alcohol consumption. I see the drunks walking around with bottles every day on the East Side. We could also use a no loitering law. The criminal element standing in front of my house nightly is not only a threat but a real danger!

Make the slum-lords of Charleston take responsibility for their property. Boarded up houses are a neighborhood problem which provide a place for crime and lowers value. Run-down rental properties are an eye-sore. Even worse some of these rentals are the scene of various crimes. I think the property owner should be held accountable for actions on their properties once they have been informed of illegal issues.

We need to do something about the suspicious men and women lurking around houses on the east side. I have a friend who lives on Jackson Street near Ruffner, and every time I go there to see her I see the vagrants lurking, begging, and obviously doing things which are illegal. This makes her afraid and me afraid for her. Why can't the police stop this?

Better lighting, more police patrols actually patrolling and not sitting, arrest the drunks and drugged roaming our streets! Our residents must take pride in their city and pitch in too. Stop using Charleston streets as your trash can!

More police patrols. Laws which help our police deal with issues like public begging and intoxication. The "street standers" at night should have a legal reason for being there or move on.

Take pride in our city! Pick up trash you see laying around. Report criminal activities. The police cannot do it alone. We must all do our part! Lets do something about the landlords who have trashed our city by not keeping the property up to standard. If a landlord knows the tenants are breaking the law then they should evict or be responsible themselves!

I think the City Counsel should think about making laws to protect the citizens and improve our city. A two dog restriction is ok I guess but wouldn't that time have been better spent addressing the vagrants, drunks, and drugs on our streets?

More street lights especially in the alleys.

I would love to be able to go shopping on the east side without being approached by drunks and beggars. And why are these drunks allowed to drink behind the stores? As in Rite Aide on East Washington Street? I have complained to the Rite Aide manager and he seems as frustrated about this as I am.

If we would all take the time to report the crimes, and suspicious street happenings it would help. We do NOT live in a vacuum, we should look out for each other.

A more resident friendly Neighborhood Watch program would be very helpful. Just the sign in someone's window will let the criminal types know they are not wanted.

Regarding the East End:
Stop the loitering at Ruffner and Washington Streets and nearby intersections.
Eliminate substandard housing from the East End.
Force landlords to evict criminals and criminal behavior, and if the landlords won't do it, take properties via eminent domain.

I agree with some of these comments--vagrants, bums, drunks, and loiterers GREATLY DECREASE the enjoyment of the East End, or anywhere.  Eliminate these bums from "our" East End and everyone will be better off.

The NAME REMOVED  is "a center of drug traffic in the East End"?  Please!  This is untrue.  There are real dangers--strange and threatening men who stare at women all along Washington Street...  Is it any wonder why so many equate the East End with crime and delinquency?  Just look around without the rose-colored glasses--these are criminals and bums and as long as they're hanging out in front of Shop-n-Go/Strait's/Zegeer's/etc./etc., everyone will be put off by the whole scene.

The police need encouragement.  Residents need to complain more, since the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  While you're at it, writing down license plate numbers and running the bums & drunks & drug dealers--the real ones--off, calling the police, thanking the police--it will all help.

Somehow I always become concerned when people start discussing removing the "bums" from "our" East End. Many of the "bums" have been here for many, many years. Are some of them alcoholics and drugs addicts - certainly. Are some homeless, yes. Are some criminals, yes again.

Yet so are some of the people living in the houses in "our" East End. Several who, while not being part of the population described as "bums", do act as their slum lords. Renting their properties on the other side of Washington Street in deplorable conditions and feeding the desperation of many of the so-called "bums".

Many of the folks in "our" East End are also alcoholics, addicts and criminals - even some "strange and threatening men who stare at women". But, they are cleaner and better dressed - they are part of "our" East End.

I remember some of the people in "our" East End fighting the opening of Sojourner's, Rhea of Hope, and other ventures aimed at helping many of these so-called "bums".

Places like that being referred to in this forum as NAME REMOVED do contribute to the woes of the East End. But some of the people in "our" East End do their drinking there early every evening and then drive home in "our" East End. Some do other substances as well which are easily available in and around places like NAME REMOVED and the other places around it.

But these people are cleaner, and better dressed, and don't drink 40 oz. beer out of a bag on Washington Street. If their behavior is the same of the "bums" do we also purge "our" East End of these people?

The real question is how are we going to build a neighborhood that does not foster behaviors which bring crime, poverty, and dispare to "our" East End. We can get rid of the current "bums" on Washington Street and, over time, more will replace them. Coming from the North Side of Washington Street where in many places conditions are bad and people are profiting from those conditions.

Force out the slum lords, bring the properties up to code, place a DUI check point at the corner of Elizabeth Street, get rid of the sleazy bars with their broken windows and street fronts littered with mysterious tiny plastic bags. These will have lasting impact.

But also this might impact some of the residents of "our" East End - who profit from renting crummy apartments - who drive home after drinking too much at the local bar - and those who sell them the booze.

So whose East End is it?  

The complaints about the "bums, vagrants, juveniles, drunks, etc., etc., etc. are just another form of passing the blame.  You cannot dispel the City's years of neglect as a contributing factor to these problems.  Focus on developing a comprehensive and holistic approach to the socio-economic disparities that we face, not only on the East End but citywide and progress will follow.  Shifting the problems from one side of Charleston to another will not resolve these issues as all citizens bare the brunt of the adverse effects.  Alcoholism and drug addiction are illnesses.  Would you tell someone living with AIDS or cancer to move on?  No, you'd reach out and find viable solutions to help cure the problem or make life more bareable.  You can't legislate these problems out of existence, haven't you realized that?  Everyone has rights including the bums, vagrants and the homeless.  There are laws that protect them just as the ones that protect the so-called acceptable citizenry.  Maybe if we try using honey as the bait instead of vinegar, these supposed liabilities can be converted into assets.  If we show ourselves as friendly we just might receive friendship in return from those we find to be offensive. Truthfully how many of you have been harmed by any of the men, you so inhumanely complain about, that hang out on Ruffner & Washington.  Have you ever considered a implementing a drop in center at Roosevelt to give the men something meaningful to do, instead of hanging on the corners.  What have they done to you, personally?  I would wager the most harm they've caused is to themselves.

I recommend that the City legislate local hiring policies to help reduce the high unemployment in our communities; implement diversity hiring practices within the police department that reflect the population, as well as, throughout the entire city government. How many minorities have been hired on the police force? How many minority contractors have won bids for street paving?  How many blacks have been hired by those providing the services since the implementation of the user tax, don't Black folks deserve to benefit from being taxed as well.  Would it best serve the citizens if the City required companies that do business with them to have a demonstratable diversity employment hiring program. Abjunct poverty, discriminatory practices and the lack of inclusion is your problem, get rid of it and you'll find many of your complaints will vanish in the wind. Revitalization goes beyond bricks and mortar.  Do dogs warrant a park more than the children of the East End? It is obvious some think they do.  !!!!P.L.E.A.S.E.!!!!!

No loitering on the corners or on business properties!

City should fix broken sidewalks/curbs along east end, not just the north side of the east end...i.e. ruffner avenue.

Economic development is a basic need.  If people have jobs they will not to steal and will not usually hang around the street corners.  This must include job training as well as job development.  An important area is jobs and job training for adolescents.  Also, mentorship programs so that adolescents see that there is a reason to achieve educationally.

I agree that moving the problems from one side of Charleston to another is not the answer. But a point must be made. I also agree that alcoholism is a disease. I find a comparison to AIDS inappropriate and rude actually. We are talking about public intoxication. If an AIDS patient were passing out samples of their body fluid in front of my house, yes I would say move on. When these drunks urinate, puke, throw trash, used condoms and used feminine napkins in your yard what is the difference? As we renovate, I have offered work to my neighbors. I got ripped off and no work done. Jobs are refused daily. This is not a case of poor looking for work. We are talking drinking drugging, and drunk at 7am and "M-F'ing" everything loudly all day. 
Someone asked if these men had ever hurt anyone Yes, a teenager was shot at Washington and Ruffner about six weeks ago. A girl was shot on the east side last month. Little kids going and coming from school see the gold draped, well dressed, cell phone/walkie talkie holding, street business folk and wonder why their parents are working so hard and still struggling. That is hurt. Children don't need that confusion. And this is NOT a racial issue it is a behavior issue. More than one race is well represented.
The people I am talking about think it is ok to yell at 3am, throw trash in your yard, yell racial slurs at you when you check your mail, to use foul language constantly. I do not have virgin ears but when you hear negative yelling and cussing all day and into the night it takes a toll. So yes these people may have rights too, but that does not include what I have described above. These people have no self respect so none for anyone else either. Like I said not a racial issue, a behavior issue. Unacceptable behavior is just that, unacceptable!

There are 18 Registered Sex Offenders living in the East End. I am far more concerned about them than the so-called bums.
The empty beer bottles in my yard are not nearly as dangerous to my kids as the two sex offenders living on my block.

Hey all, we should appreciate this opportunity to speak our minds on the crime problems around us, but let's not use this as a sounding board to point fingers.  We can't cure the overwhelming social ills of poverty, addiction, etc. through an internet forum, even if they are the root causes of the criminal activity.  However, we can inspire each other to have some faith in the "good" neighbors, business owners, police and elected officials who do share the concerns and work positively to improve the city's image and reduce victimization and fear of crime.  We need to attract more permanent residents who take pride in their neighborhood, and the first steps to attract people is to clean up the trash, abandoned properties, and the "abandoned people" we see around.  Each resident & business owner can take steps to make physical security improvements (lights, locks, fences, alarms) to deter crime, and they don't have to be costly.  There are so many who are elderly, disabled or impoverished, and we should be ashamed that they may be forced this winter to choose whether they go without or heat, food, or medication.  Concerned neighbors should pitch in to help them rather than look the other way.  This Christmas, think about the gift of some nice heavy curtains over a leaky window, or a quilted comforter for someone's bed, it may be the most comforting gift a neighbor could receive.  Merry
Christmas. 

Common sense and common courtesy would do a lot to improve Charleston, especially if our residents practiced more of both. Littering is another problem too. I agree more street lights and police patrols will help too. We can add to that by adding lights to our property and aiding the police by more communication.

I think this is great! To see ideas exchanged and in the direction of improving Charleston is wonderful. Lets keep it going and not drop the ball on our city!

In high activity areas maybe we should try what Huntington is doing. Use cameras and let the criminal element know that activity will not be tolerated. The vagrants and drunks we can better identify and maybe even learn how to motivate these people back into a more productive involvement.

Close down the "household" stores! These people charge high prices thus making those already financially hurt, even more so. They also do not pay taxes, or card for age. A neighborhood problem and threat! How do these guys get away with selling booze, cigarettes, and drugs from their home like a walk up store? What can we do to stop this?

I agree moving the problems around the city will not help. maybe a community service program for repeat violators would at least get them back into a productive area of the community. Thus not filling up the jails and encouraging more responsibility.

Why don't we get the media involved in this effort? The local news programs could use more pertinent content on local needs? Maybe a few nights of film cameras in the neighborhood "hot spots" could send a message out that the area is being watched. This may also get others active. The more we have active in a plan to improve our city the better! If the residents don't get involved then it will be the decisions of politicians and our own fault.

Another weekend of noise from the late night partiers from the Elizabeth Street bars - mainly the one that is called NAME REMOVED here. Drunks and junkies - in the bar and the house upstairs. How long is it to continue?

I called the police regarding a disturbance in 1997 - they haven't shown up yet.

Asking for more police patrols is not necessarily a complaint. It is a request. There is a real need for strong police visibility in Charleston. In both the East and West ends. We all have rights which need to be protected, but like many I have read in here, I do not believe those rights include lurking in front of my house to do questionable business or be sick from too much of something. There is no reason for three to four or more people to be standing by my home at 2:00am. No busses, not a main street either. I do not want my children to be next on the list of sex offenders or gun crimes. So lets stop the whine and get busy and make our city great!

More street lights and make the landowners maintain the property they own. Any chance of publishing a list of the owners of the vacant and abandoned properties. I think if a landowner is negligent in maintaining property or worse yet they leave it abandoned, we should boycott any other business they have until they correct the problems with their properties.

We all need to get in on this action. We know who the dangerous ones in our neighborhoods are, so lets start making it difficult for these dangerous ones to act in our areas. Light up your property, watch out for each other, call in reports of suspicious activities. There seems to a gang type activity starting. We do not even want that to get a hold. I have lived where gangs rule the streets and it is very scary. Maybe we need to think about something to offer these obviously bored and unemployed other than crime.

It's all fine, well and good to complain about the poor drug and alcohol abusers on the corner of Washington & Ruffner and yet ignore the middle class drug and alcohol abusers on Elizabeth Street. Could it be because the ones on the street corner are black?

Increased street lighting, increase police patrols, active reporting by Charleston citizens. Rental property owners should be held accountable in cases where the property owner has been informed of illegal activity on the part of tenants, and the owner chooses to allow the continued illegal activity.

I see posts here indicating that race is an issue when making complaints. I live near Ruffner and Washington and the problems are created by multi-races. I don't think it is racial. I think it is very bad, illegal, and unacceptable behavior on the part of some residents. It is not a right to litter, yell obscenities, deal in drugs, prostitute, fight, or drink on the streets. Let's face it in some areas Charleston streets are just an embarrassing urban situation often ignored and or excused away by too many citizens and officials.

Businesses should be required to clean up after their clientel. Way too much trash is left laying on the street outside various establishments. There should be an enforced fine or punishment for littering the streets of Charleston. Respect has to start somewhere.

More police patrols, active enforcement of public intoxication laws and check out suspicious activities would be a good start.

First off, make sure that you have your property lit. Good lighting deters the criminal element. They don't like to be seen. If you see suspicious behavior in your neighborhood, report it. We need more police that aren't afraid to arrest a drunk. Growing up in Charleston, I knew that if you got drunk in public, you were going to jail. I agree that alcoholism is a disease, but, public intoxication IS a crime. Just having a patrol car drive down the street when there is criminal activity going on and the criminals just move back in the shadows, till the patrol car drives by. The patrol cars need to stop and the police need to get out and check out the area. We need more walking beat cops. Especially in the evenings. A walking beat cop in the day is great. But, after he gets off duty at 5, that's when the criminals come out if full force. Making a drunk pour out his/her booze and then just letting them stay where they are is silly. They just get more when the officer is gone.
We need laws that make it illegal to loiter. Just hanging out on a city street all day isn't productive. If these people can't figure out what to do with their time give them something productive to do. Why not pick up the drunks on the east end and put them on a work detail, cleaning the streets that they have messed up with empty beer bottles and such. If these people that just hang out and do nothing with their time, stop their food stamps and government checks. Give that money to the working people of WV.

What a good neighbor that has a "Pimpin' Christmas Party" on Christmas Eve. This Elizabeth Street establishment continues to disturb the neighborhood and contributes greatly to the drug and other problems on the East End. If we have establishments that promotes drugs, promote violence towards women and glamorize street activity than we will get people in the East End who will do drugs, be violent to women and participate in street crime.

Walking around my neighborhood is depressing. More and more people are moving out, for sale and for rent signs increase along with abandoned property. Why? Well the few I have asked have given the same answer, "giving up on the hope of neighborhood improvement. Tired of fighting alone, not much help from city officials and the police department, but the same have lots of reasons, excuses, and of course the rights of the street element must be protected."
     Having experienced this too, I can relate. But will not give up. It seems politicians these days get better at being indignant when they are questioned about a policy. Instead of asking the constituent why they are on opposite thoughts it seems asking for a constituent's credentials is the answer. To answer that, my credential is my vote and my residency. Maybe we should start doing the same to the politicians next election.
    As residents of Charleston we are ALL accountable and responsible for our city. That does include the elected officials and police department as well. We the citizens need to hold elected officials to their promises, or vote them out. We the citizens need to take action for ourselves.
    Don't walk by trash on the street, pick it up. Call the police on ALL disturbances, suspicious activity and illegal activity. Complain to the Mayor's office about problems and issues. Safeguard our properties, owner or rental with lights, locks, cameras, and alarms. Don't accept "Get used to it" from elected officials and or police. When hearing, "get used to it" file a complaint with the offending agency.
    We can tack back our city and the streets if we work together. If we realize the answer is not just incarceration but also an educational and opportunity issue. We need to understand and empathize with underprivileged, but not empower unacceptable behavior.
   I for one am not going to give up. This survey is a good idea. We need to start the action at the citizen level. We need to let our elected officials know that if they do not address the problems they will be unemployed. We need the local press on our streets taking films and pictures and reporting on the issues.
    Take action, be a part of your city. Care!

More police presence and more community interest, action, and involvement.

We can be pro-active and re-active to the problems in our city. Stop moving the criminal element from one end of the city to the next. Let the criminal and destructive element know they are not welcome in our city! Check out what Huntington is doing. Lets see some cameras in the problem areas of Charleston.

Happy New Year Charleston! Lets give ourselves a really great New Year by getting involved. Don't ignore, report.

Middle-class drug use promoted and marketed at Elizabeth Street establishments needs to be addressed. Now with the addition of an "eatery" the Elizabeth Street drug cartel continues to feed our good neighbors appetite for drugs. It is racist to only address the drug problem on Ruffner Street while ignoring the sales and distribution happening at Elizabeth Street.

Some really good points and ideas have been posted here. I hope that any plan would also provide for separating the homeless from the more problematic law breaking types. Other than that, let's do it! Now can we get our Charleston elected officials to take action?

Seems to me that bad behavior is bad behavior. It shouldn't matter whether the problem is at Elizabeth or Ruffner. I have seen lots of problems in both areas. I hope this goes somewhere. I would like to be able to entertain without having my guests hit up for money, cigarettes, and drugs entering and leaving my house. Any ideas on how to stop the harassment I and my guests experience outside my own home?

Register to vote! Then get out there and actually vote! Hold the elected officials to the promises they make. Place your vote based on actual results, not by party or invented smoke screen.

I live on the west side and am increasingly concerned over what looks like gang type gathering on our streets.

We can form neighborhood groups, report problems and track results. Also be active in clean-up campaigns around our neighborhoods and let the crime element know they will not be tolerated.

I live on the West Side and I actually grew up on the West Side of Charleston. After 20 years, I moved back to Charleston's West Side after living in Dunbar, Winfield, Nitro and Kanawha County. The neighborhood I live in is almost a war zone, as I hear gunfire regularly. They may just be shooting a gun in the ground or in the air, but the projectile must end up somewhere. The violence we hear and see on the news almost on a daily basis, should give every property owner the thought of selling and moving.

As most of the property on the west side seems to be rental property, its no wonder the City takes very little care to see that the vacant landlords are held accountable for the condition of the properties they own. The city is not bashful about sending letters and bills to resident property owners. However, why are they so hesitant to treat these absent property owners the same way?

The City of Charleston has ordinances about when to set your trash out and how, and I still see alleyways with bags of ripped open trash and refuse on the sidewalks and alleyways, on days after trash pick up or days before pickup. All leading to the lowering of property values, until another slumlord picks up the property at a tax sale because the owner or their descendant's could not sell the property.

 I for one do not believe a new ballpark is more important to the city, than I do the quality and safety of the citizens. Sidewalk repair and street repair on the west side is atrocious,  you walk one block and the city has redone the sidewalk on both sides of the street then they skip a block that's in need of repair and completely redo the side walk in front of a church and a vacant lot across the street.

Police patrol is only as good as the reason they are in the neighborhoods. I have found that as most employees' even police officers have a tendency to stand around the water cooler. Sitting side by side talking, just like a group of teachers in the teachers lounge at schools. If your are going to stop and park together for what ever reason, fine, but park in the neighborhoods where the crimes or complaints are taking place, Not on some vacant lot so far removed from the hot spots you couldn't hear the gun shots or screams of our citizens.

I wonder how many of our council people own multiple pieces of property in the city, not in their neighborhood. I wonder how many would live rent-free on the Westside down in  THE HOOD.

Drugs, violence, theft, and the plethora of other crimes are not the cause for all of the above; they are the result of letting the City to allow theses elements to bring our City to the level it has lowered too. I hope the City and the residents can band together to address these issues, at least I have finally had the opportunity to vent a few of my concerns.

I see Metro Government in the near future, the City's are already talking about sharing emergency services, and most already have a mutual aid agreement in place anyway.

Wow, I'm surprised that I haven't read anything about the prostitutes that hang out on Washington St around the car dealership. I have driven through that area many times and have seen them. I've had one come up to my car and proposition me. Around the same area is where I see the bums and drunks. There is one older man I see all the time who has never failed to ask me for money when I am at the stoplight beside Gino's pizza.

People need to respect each other.  Don't let others deal drugs to your kids. We need to be very tough in this aggressive culture. Work hard every day and most of it you want notice it. Its a shame the way all of us good citizens let the getto run over the rest of us. I give them the cold shoulder but I respect them You have no choice. I hate loud music. Rude kids. This is a great state with some bad apples. Lets live the American Dream by coming together and understanding each other. I look at the streets like a jungle and you need to show your kids all the tools to be safe. First stay away from danger if possible. Second be able to defend yourself if needed. Lets be the culture we want to be not the culture the kids in the getto give us. I avoid drug dealers at all means. All the gangsters are getting worst than ever. Save your kids and make sure their not at the wrong school. I could say so much more but I am going to cut it short. America is screwed up and I know West Virginia has the heart to fix its own communities. Lets start by going after the bad guys and giveing them no mercy.

The city needs to return to our values as a great, clean and decent place to live. This can only be done through the involvement of the people of Charleston in the city and county government.
We need a mayor that cares about all not just the wealthy citizens of Charleston. One who is willing to take on the hard issues and start a new growth in the city all over. One he does not favor South Hills and Kanawha City for improvements. One he sees the big picture of new jobs, programs and such for the city not baseball fields and auditoriums.
Along with this we need to look at who represents the wards of Charleston. These men and women should be keeping the mayor and his people in check but more often then not are part of the problem.
It is time that the city housing authority quits using the west side as their dumping ground. It is time to spread the wealth as they say by building low income housing on South Hills, Kanawha City and other high rent districts.
It is time to clean out the mayors office, his appointees and the city council and replace them with decent every day people who understand what the city needs to survive.

This is great! Seems the city or PD should be doing something like this. But as long as someone is, we are headed in the right direction.
Better lights in alleys and some streets is a good place to start. I also have been approached by the prostitutes on E. Washington St near the car dealerships on several occasions. Last week with a patrol car right across the street. I like that you have a register to vote link on the website too. Agreed that is a big first step, register and vote!

I have lit up my house. Outside lights do work to keep the prowler away. More patrols in my neighborhood, west side, would be a big help. Fixing the streets and sidewalks in all the west side should be a priority too!

The more I see about getting the property owners to hold some kind of responsibility for their tenants, the more I like the idea. Couldn't it be added to a lease that if the tenant is arrested for drug trafficking that they will have to vacate? I think setting down some simple rules to renters is a good idea. Not all renters are bad, but with rules and an "understanding" that illegal activity will result in eviction may make a difference.

Bravo! I do not like what I see either. Thank you for taking this action to help our city. The littering in Charleston, all over, is just shameful. That starts the image of a bad city - dirty.
The drunks could be in a day program helping pick up all the garbage couldn't they? That would not increase pressure on jails, but get the drunks doing something productive.

I would like to see some regulations regarding panhandling, loitering, and vagrancy put in place. If homeless is the problem, let's help these people. But just understanding they are homeless and leaving them on the streets is cruel. These are our residents.
If the problem is crime like drugs and prostitution, then community service could be an answer to jail. I read about a program somewhere, that prostitutes had to do volunteer work in hospital ER and AIDS service centers. Maybe they would learn something there, and help out at the same time.

Can't we do something about all the begging at stores in Charleston? I have offered food on more than one occasion, but was refused. They wanted money. Yep for drugs and booze! I also think that carry out stores should not be able to sell individual servings. Maybe clerks should be like bartenders, get someone too drunk and they hurt someone then the seller may have to pay a fine.

Get these empty boarded houses repaired and occupied. The slum lords who rent below standard property and the owners of the boarded houses should be identified and like I read in the posts, if they own other businesses, boycott them untill they clean up the properties. I hope your efforts bring some solutions. Thanks for caring about Charleston!

If more of the residents attended the meetings of the neighborhood groups we could get more done. We are either a part of the problem or a part of the solution. Make a choice, and yes register and vote!!!!

My apartment was broken into and my fathers on the West Side.  I am fighting back and protecting my home. I hope one of them gets shot because they ask for it. Lets gain a new set of values that helps us all grow into the 21st century. Its time to close this non worthy citizens down and shut them out of bussiness forever.

Crime will be solved when people decide not to do it. We need cameras and be right on them guys down their on Washington street. Its not a problem them hanging down their after all they are human beings. Its what they are involved with thats a problem and a threat to us all. I will not give any of them money. And I wont roll my windows down for those bums they aint going to bother me because I dont owe them anything and never asked any body for nothing even when I had nothing many times. They either want to do it or they dont. I made it from the shelter over time by doing the right things.

Here's a written invitation for those unable to do the research on their own.

Go to a site such as Supercircuits.com.

It doesn't take a lot of time, effort, or money to purchase a camera system which would act to: observe, record, and even deter certain kinds of activity. Can the city afford not to get a system where each camera would be far under 1k?? One could also use cameras in a type of shell game and move them from place to place.

Keep some of the cameras as highly visible, and others completely covert. Sit back (as usual) and watch what happens.

Having been one of the "bums" on the streets of Charleston - homeless and slept on the streets in a parking area - I have a few questions of the good citizens who want the "bums" driven away everywhere or arrested.  By the way, I was not homeless due to substance abuse or choice and I once upon a time made an excellant living before I became too ill to work.

How do you propose that people who fall through the safety nets of society exist if asking for help should be a crime?  Should they all simply kill themselves simply because circumstances have caused them to become destitute and homeless?  What should they do other than loitering - when they have no where to go and no family to help?  The answer cannot simply be to arrest them or drive them off.  The answer also cannot be to simply rely on the shelters available in this town - there was no space in them when I found myself on the streets here.

Yes, some of these people cause problems and promote crime.  The same is true of others in our society who are not homeless and destitute.  Arresting some one for circumstances which are beyond their control - for bad luck or calamity, is a pretty dumb idea as far as I am concerned.  Here is a novel idea - how about extending some kindness to them and helping them to change their circumstances?

How about giving people the chance to change their lives and become productive members of society once more?  How about doing this even if they have a criminal history or a substance abuse problem?

How about being part of the solution instead of being so judgmental?

My two cents....

A thank you should go to Len Rogers for his efforts to design and promote this website.  Good job on Channel 3 News last week, I heard many positive comments, let's hope it generates more interest in the forum - it's your chance to take action to improve your community! 

I am all for free enterprise.  After all, this is a great nation!  However, I also feel that we need to do something about the Landlords and what they could be doing to help.  In our area (Indiana Avenue), we have mostly rentals.  There are wonderful people here who make valiant efforts to keep things looking nice.  But we have one landlord in particular who rents to people who do drugs, sell drugs, prostitute themselves and generally reek havoc.  How do I (we) know this?  The police force and the drug enforcement unit practically live here.  THis landlord has provided tenants with super-duper barricades for their doors and black out materials for their windows.  He allows sub-standard and below standard wiring, plumbing, etc. in his units.  He has been cited for housing violations, but he still does business.  If he were more pre-disposed to tenant screening, then we would not have this transient element here.  We are a multi-class, multi-racial neighborhood.  I look around and see older citizens who can't afford to move, and I see some younger families, who will move once they realize the "element" that is all around us.

Drugs were being sold on the corner of Elizabeth Street last Thursday night during the nude exhibit.

It is apparently perfectly legal to cuss and threaten to fight citizens of Charleston, according to Charleston Police. It is also, apparently, not a violation of the law to kick a friendly dog, tresspass to assult or disturb an otherwise very quiet little piece of Charleston.
We must, as property owners and citizens, hold CPD responsible for officers so poorly trained that they do not even know the code that they enforce. If, when we call upon the police to assist us as citizens in defending our persons, property and rights and the police can not or will not (often the latter in my experience) take the appropriate action to protect the individual and the public, what good is it to have called them? Or pay them? Or have them?
When an irresponsible, out of town landlord, rents to a succesession of criminals - known to the police by CPD admission- we as home owners and responsible citizens must have some protection.
A request to Responsible Citizens and Home Owners of Charleston :
REMAIN PEACEFUL AND CONFIDENT IN YOUR RIGHTS.
MAINTAIN VIGILANCE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD AND REPORT CRIME YOU WITNESS.
WHEN THE POLICE RESPOND TO YOUR COMPLAINT REMAIN AS CALM AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN -YOUR THE VICTIM, BUT THEY WILL TREAT YOU LIKE A CRIMINAL IF YOU ARE TOO EMOTIONAL.
DO FOLLOW UP WITH LANDLORDS ABOUT PROBLEM RENTERS EVERY TIME THERE IS AN INCIDENT, MAYBE THEY WILL GET THE POINT.
 Communities do not become blighted overnight. Home prices drop. Capitalist investors buy home's to rent. The anti-social low lifes move in. Law enforcement is impotent to the issues. Irresponsible land lords care only about their financial investment and refuse to remedy problems. Responsible and practical citizens, when they realize that the law and the courts are ineffective at maintaining peaceful communities, and that reason escapes the land lords, must make the choice to either move away or to stay and fight - fight with the low-lifes, fight with the police and courts, fight with the land lords. Why must we fight with anyone? Landlords can do background checks and respond appropriatly to neighborhood complaints. Cops can be professional and polite - even when faced with difficult social situations like violent crime.
 Sorry to rant, and I don't have a problem with renters who are good neighbors, I was one for many years. But if you have read this far, thanks.
Take back our neighborhoods from the thugs, innebriates, polluters, out-of-town land owners and others that would ruin our peaceful persuit of happiness. Is that too much to ask?     peace

I think Charleston could be saffer if there were more street lights and that they would a higher light intensity.  On Quarrier St. there street lights on every other pole and only on the north side of the street. In addition, they are a low intensity light therefore not providing a well lit areas.  Though that may have been sufficient lighting for the fifties and sixties it is not for the 2000's.

There are more drug terrorist gang members driving old cop cars (Chevy Caprice/Ford Crown Victoria with cool paint job, tinted windows, fancy rims, and maybe even an old cop spotlight) than there are cops. They have completely taken over this city. They rule most of the popular bars after midnight, including the one on Elizabeth Street. An unbelievable number of Charlestonians, the poor and the powerful, have succumbed to cocaine addiction. Our police are not dumb enough or paid well enough to wiggle a stick in that beehive. Quit blaming the dealers for your neighbors and children's support of them. Besides, they are often a great deal friendlier than the police.

For those who have been ranting about some actions of the Charleston Police, you do have a place to make a complaint, (as well as a compliment, if you fell it's deserved), and your opinion is taken seriously.  The Professional Standards Unit wants to hear about specific incidents which they will investigate and address.  It is their job, and whether you know it or not, most CPD officers want the dept. to have a good reputation.  You can call 348-6826, or fill out a compliment & complaint form from the Professional Standards Unit section of the CPD website www.charlestonwvpolice.org

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