Here is a breakdown of these adjacent properties shown as a graph:

Among the Bad News here is the repeat appearances by 1300 Coalter, 200 Ladies Mile, 1400 Harwood, and 1700 Southlawn.  The really Bad News is the ongoing problem at RRHA.

More bad news is reappearance of the 4000 block of Midlo Tpk., which is dominated by the Midlothian Village Apartments.  They are sixth this year, up from 37th in 2007.  The owners of this complex have been working with the Old South Neighborhood Team (even after the Mayor abolished the Team in late 2005); they brought major physical and management improvement, notably removing tenants who harbor drug activity and other antisocial behavior.  Yet the early improvement looks to be fading (and to be de-emphasized by the Citywide improvement in 2008).

These data show (again) the vice activity in Richmond to be concentrated at identifiable property, almost always rental property.  State law declares this activity to be a nuisance and provides abundant criminal and civil authority to abate it.  Indeed, the CAPS program has demonstrated that the City can abate drug activity. 

Indeed, as discussed at length elsewhere, nuisance abatement (generally directed at the property owner) is the sole strategy that can be shown scientifically to control drug dealing and related crime at private rental places.^[1] 

As these pages also discuss elsewhere, RRHA is maintaining the largest drug nuisance in the City.  The RRHA Commissioners have demonstrated that they are unwilling or unable to properly run the organization.  Despite a short tour with a new Executive Director who is smart and honest and capable, that Director now is gone and many of the the Commissioners who fostered the mess at RRHA still are in office.  It is past time for a housecleaning at RRHA.

[1] A 1998 National Institute of Justice report to Congress discusses the place-bound nature of crime as follows: “Most places have no crimes and most crime is highly concentrated in and around a relatively small number of places. If we can prevent crime at these high crime places, then we might be able to reduce total crime.  [The] findings suggest that something about a few places facilitates crimes and something about most places prevents crimes.”      Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, What’s Promising, http://www.ncjrs.org/works/chapter7.htm.  Of course, the something about most property that prevents crimes is an owner (and neighbors) who will not tolerate disorder.  In my view, the focus of community policing should be to encourage and assist the law-abiding landowners and to target the others.

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