ARLINGTON -- Stories of gangs, drug dealers and gunshots sprang to Sgt. Jay Robinson's mind when he learned he was being promoted to oversee a north Arlington area crowded with 19 apartment complexes.
"I came in going 'This is going to be the wild, wild West,'" Robinson said.His first couple of weeks, there was gunfire between rival gangs at two of the complexes in the Lamar Boulevard and Collins Street area. Police also dealt with reports of food delivery drivers being called to complexes only to be ambushed by robbers. Most of the calls for police service at the area's complexes, though, involve property crimes where apartment residents are the victims -- burglars smashing car windows or kicking in apartment doors to snatch jewelry, flat-screen televisions and video game systems.Police say the area has seen a drop in crime because of increased enforcement and a variety of outreach efforts with the apartment community. But the crime rate in the north Arlington area, which has the highest concentration of apartment complexes in the city, with 220, is a key issue in the runoff election between Charlie Parker and Bill Verkest, candidates vying for the District 1l seat on the City Council.Both candidates say the city needs to do more to make apartments safer for tenants and the surrounding neighborhoods.Among their proposals are more stringent code inspections, additional fines against owners of problem complexes, and even city acquisition and demolition of the worst properties.The candidates say that would help address the apartments' impact on the district's crime rate, school performance and property values."We have gunshots at all hours of the night. We have prostitution and drugs, and we have gangs," Parker said. "All the residents in neighborhoods in the area have to contend with this type of behavior. Why do they have to do that? So somebody can have a cash cow? Well, not on my watch."Problem complexesMany apartment residents say they, too, are weary of substandard conditions and crime at the complexes.Last year, Arlington officers responded to 43 major incidents at the Forest Hills Apartments, more than any other complex in that beat, according to police records.Cecil Freeman, who lives at the complex, attended a Crime Watch meeting last month after someone smashed his living room window late one night. He and other tenants at the meeting told officers that they were concerned about people hanging out in the stairwells and parking lots of the Lincoln Drive complex past the 11 p.m. curfew. Freeman told officers he doesn't feel safe leaving his apartment at night."It can be scary when you are watching TV and all the sudden someone throws a brick through your window," Freeman said.Broken windows are a regular problem at the complex, said owners Monika and Greg Malone, who bought the complex in 2006. Kids collect balls from the nearby Ditto Golf Course to throw through windows and sliding glass doors. The complex also recently evicted tenants for smashing each others' windows in a Hatfield-McCoy-style feud."As soon as you find out who the bad element is, you get rid of them. We don't want them here," Monika Malone said. "We want this place to be nice, family oriented."Robinson said that for the past six months he has concentrated on improving communication and police presence at complexes with the highest calls for service. Officers are now meeting with apartment management weekly to discuss problem tenants and trespassers, and community watch groups are being established at high-crime properties, including Forest Hills."We started focusing on those problem people we could identify -- suspected gang members and drug dealers that drive most of the crime," Robinson said. "We've started pushing the bad element out."Police are also encouraging management to hire private security, improve parking lot lighting, evict tenants after felony arrests and participate in the Safe Leasing program and screen applicants for outstanding warrants."If you have a reputation of being a dangerous complex, nobody is going to want to come here but dangerous people," Robinson said.Inspection proposalSubstandard conditions at north Arlington's aging apartment complexes are common complaints that Parker and Verkest have encountered on the campaign trail. City officials say they are trying to strike a balance, working with property owners but drawing a line with the worst offenders.Parker, a retired airline pilot and former Navy commander, proposes implementation of an inspection program used by other cities, including Raleigh, N.C., that makes it more difficult for complexes with chronic violations to do business. Under his proposal, the city would be able to levy fines against the owners of apartment properties with multiple calls for service, and it would also require code inspections on all vacant units up for lease."Not being a good neighbor is going to cost," Parker said.Arlington typically conducts an annual inspection of 5 to 10 percent of an apartment property's units, which are selected at random, city officials said. All but two of the 19 apartment complexes in police beat 240 have passed their most recent inspections, according to city records.Verkest, a licensed engineer and retired Air Force colonel, said he supports increased inspections and additional regulations to bring apartment complexes up to city code, not only for aesthetic reasons but for the safety of the tenants. He said the city and Municipal Court have been too lenient on some of the problem complexes."The courts would give the owner the opportunity to fix something, and then if he didn't get it done in time then they would give an extension. That's wrong," Verkest said. "It comes down to 'You either fix it or we put you out of business.'"The city is working with the owners of Forest Hills Apartments, agreeing in April to hold off on additional code enforcement activities to give the owners two months to focus on correcting multiple violations, said Mike Bass, code compliance services assistant director.Exterior conditions at Forest Hills have been addressed, and an inspection is scheduled to ensure that interior code violations have also been corrected, he said. Those inspection results will help determine whether the city moves forward with a dangerous and substandard structure case, which can force the owners under court order to make repairs by a certain time. If the deadline isn't met, the city could issue civil penalties or demolish the property.DemolitionVerkest said he would urge the city to seek federal or state grants or other funding sources to buy and tear down the worst apartment properties to make way for higher-quality, private development. Arlington has already created special zoning in the Lamar-Collins area designed to encourage private developers to scrap existing complexes and replace them with higher-density, mixed-use developments. That hasn't happened yet, and property values for some apartment complexes in the area have declined in recent years.Forest Hills, for example, saw its taxable value drop from $7.4 million in 2007 to $4.3 million this year, according to the Tarrant Appraisal District.Monika Malone said competition from surrounding apartments is forcing her to keep rents low, which brings in less money to invest in the 35-year-old complex. Fines from the city's code compliance office aren't helping either."They are extorting money from us. We have a stack of tickets this high," Malone said. "We spent thousands of dollars on fines that I could have spent to make things better for my tenants."If the city offered the right price to buy and tear down her complex, Malone said, "I'll bring my own bulldozer."Susan Schrock, 817-709-7578Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
