Laurel Lane residents say teens harassing them, leading to 47 police calls in two yearsBy Matthew Graham
The Oregon City News, Feb 26, 2009
The residents along the last block of Laurel Lane are tired of the anxiety they’re forced to feel every time they come home.
They’re tired of wondering what kind of obscenity-strewn verbal barrage they’ll be subject to when driving down their road, tucked between a middle school and a cemetery and just a couple blocks from city hall. They’re tired of wondering what new graffiti they’ll find, whether their house will be egged. They’re tired of simple things like bringing in the groceries turning into a struggle not to be victimized.
The spark that caused the blaze seems minuscule given the outcome; two and a half years ago some young men in their late teens and early twenties were skateboarding on Laurel Lane, which backs up to the Oregon City Terrace Apartments, with younger and lower income inhabitants.
“There were two of them out there one day and my wife and I were trying to work in our front yard and these people were 50 feet away from us and their language was incredible,” said one resident, who wanted his name withheld for fear of retaliation. “It’s as if they can’t speak without using bad language. So I walked over and I said, ‘hey, can you guys do me a favor? Would you please not cuss.’ And the one guy was fairly accepting, but the other one completely went off the deep end.”
The skateboarders hanging out there wasn’t uncommon, the residents just wanted a little less profanity.
“We were dealing with six or eight kids coming over into our neighborhood, skateboarding for hours on end through this gate that separates us from these apartments and because we had a brand new street, they thought that was an ideal place to skateboard and they’ve kind of adopted it as their home away from home/gang hang out/skate park,” he said.
After that initial incident, though, things have gotten progressively worse. It’s gone from six or eight of them to 15. They started screaming profanities at the houses. The resident claims they do drugs and have sex on the path between the neighborhood and the middle school.
When he finally called the police, they egged his house.
“They made an attempt to injure my cat by kicking it,” the man said. “Fortunately the cat got away … When we bring our groceries in from the store we back into the garage because we’ve had neighbors have things stolen out of their car as they were unloading or loading them … Three in the morning the neighbors dog starts barking, I get up, because vehicles on our street have been broken into.”
The police have been called more than 45 times since March 2007. Most of those calls are for juvenile problems or criminal mischief, but they also include theft, reckless burning, breaking into a vehicle and drugs.
“We on the street have lived in fear and anger for two-and-a-half years and the weight of that is just incredible,” he said. “You go to work, the street’s really nice. You come home, but you know before you even get there that you’re going to be facing something terrible and so you’re just completely apprehensive before you even turn on the street.”
Three families along the block finally turned to the city commission last week, begging for help. They’re convinced that by closing the gate from the neighborhood to the school, they’ll cut off the kids’ access and reason for coming over onto Laurel Lane.
“When the mayor said they were unanimously in favor of closing the gate, I almost cried,” the man said. “It was a giant weight that’s been lifted off us. Two and a half years we’ve been dealing with these kids.”
City leaders acknowledged that something needed to be done. “This is a situation that I think if we do not get a remedy, somebody’s going to get hurt out there,” said City Manager Larry Patterson.
But they weren’t all convinced that closing the gate would do it; Police Chief Mike Conrad is worried they’ll just migrate somewhere else.
“We are somewhat limited in what we can do,” Conrad said. “There are no loitering laws in Oregon. We have taken a zero-tolerance policy … but we can’t be there all the time. These teenagers are going to congregate somewhere.”
The city has already taken a number of steps in that direction: the “ringleader” was evicted from the apartments and isn’t allowed back; police have installed a security camera that officers can check from their squad cars; police have increased patrols of the area; and more.
But it hasn’t been entirely effective. When the Oregon City News called one resident Friday, she was on the phone with police. She said they arrested a young man that night.
Mayor Alice Norris said the city needed to help the residents of Laurel Lane, and quickly.
“We can’t have a neighborhood being held hostage by juveniles,” she said.
What a bunch of Bob Costas! Grab a kid, have them call their parent(s) and get it dealt with. I know that parents in my neighborhood did that whenever my friends and stepped out of line.
+
