CRIME, DEBT, AND BROKEN JUSTICE: Wallop Local Apartments

COLUMBIA, 2/26/09 (Beat Byte) -- Between crime, debt, lax rental standards, and our badly broken justice system, Columbia's law-abiding apartment dwellers don't stand a chance.

Take Gatehouse Apartments, 2401 W. Broadway, where fallout from the nationwide credit crunch and repeat offenders who should be in prison may be behind an explosion of assaults, gun violence, SWAT busts, and kidnapping. From drug dealers to child pornographers, Columbia's Sodom-on-the-Hinkson has kept cops arresting, bailers bonding, and courts releasing day in and day out in recent months.

Just last week, Gatehouse resident Eric Kegler Lambert, 21, out on bond for a forgery violation two weeks earlier, was arrested again for probation and parole violations.

Lambert's had breaks by the bushel. In 2005, he faced 1st degree burglary and armed criminal action charges, later plea-bargained to 2nd degree burglary. After a stretch of -- not jail time but "home detention" at 1322 Raleigh Drive -- Boone County Judge Ellen Roper suspended Lambert's five-year prison sentence and placed him on probation. But after Lambert failed to show up for drug rehab at Reality House, Roper revoked his probation and reinstated his 5-year prison sentence.

That was in October 2006. It's February 2009, and for some reason, Eric Kegler Lambert is living, not at the Big House, but at Gatehouse.

On the debt front, Co-Star, a commercial real estate information service, reported in October that a group of Columbia apartments, including Gatehouse, had fallen on hard times. Totaling 874 units, the apartments include 301 Tiger Lane; 109 N. Stadium Blvd.; 2401 W. Broadway; and 2206 Whitegate Drive, Columbia, MO.

"The loan payments were seven to 10 months delinquent," Co-Star 's Property Watch List reported. "Special servicer is considering combining as a four-property portfolio for future disposition to begin this month."

For Bank of America Commercial Mortgage (BACM), Florida-based LNR Partners is acting as the "special servicer," a term from commercial mortgage lexicon. "Upon the occurrence of certain specified events, primarily a default, the administration of the loan is transferred to the Special Servicer," according to Wikipedia. "Besides handling defaulted loans, the Special Servicer also has approval authority over material servicing actions, such as loan assumptions."

Records on file with the Boone County recorder indicate BACM recently took a greater ownership interest in the properties from RD Columbia Associates, part of the Acadia Realty Trust of Delaware, which has owned the properties for over a decade.
Cohen and Esrey of Kansas City now manage the troubled apartment portfolio -- Gatehouse, Holiday House, The Colony, and Tiger Village -- once managed by Homkor Companies. Earlier facing foreclosure, the portfolio is presently for sale.

The Boone County assessor listed Homkor, owned by Jim Wiss and Ellen Webber-Wiss, as manager of the properties last year. Ellen Wiss informs the Columbia Heart Beat that her firm has not managed the apartments since the end of 2007.

Once a prominent central city improvement advocate and former Intersection board member, Webber-Wiss founded an organization called PRIDE that in 2006 sought to build a $4 million central city community center.

Arrests at Gatehouse Apartments, Jan 2008 to Feb. 2009 (virtually all released on bond):
(from the Columbia Daily Tribune Arrest Reports)

Joshua Allen Macomber, 22, of 2401 W. Broadway, use or possession of drug paraphernalia.

Eryka Lynne McDonald, 19, of 2401 E. Broadway Apt. 109, failure to appear in court, $216.50 bond.

Benito Mendez, 34, of 2401 W. Broadway, first-degree trespassing.
Lyndia Marriette Lambert, 35, of 2401 W. Broadway, obstruction of government operations
Shengwu Lin, 31, of 2401 Broadway, selling alcohol to a minor.
Daron Martez Peal, 21, of 2401 Broadway, driving without a license
Christopher Edward Standley, 19, of 2401 W. Broadway Apt. 926, third-degree domestic assault
Alisha Danielle Cozart, 22, of 2401 W. Broadway, stealing.
Sam Gbor, 51, of 2401 W. Broadway, third-degree domestic assault
Brandi Lateash Myers, 18, of 2401 W. Broadway, first-degree trespassing.
Sarah G. Turpin, 28, of 2401 Broadway W., driving while license is suspended or revoked, possession of drug paraphernalia.
John Andrew Griffith, 31, of 2401 W. Broadway, second-degree statutory sodomy, furnishing child pornography
Brandi Lateash Myers, 18, of 2401 Broadway Apt. 710, assault, peace disturbance, stealing
Jordan Bradley Smarr, 21, of 2401 W. Broadway, driving while intoxicated, failure to drive on roadway.
Obryan Lyshawn Blackwell, 19, of 2401 W. Broadway, out-of-county warrant, no bond set.
Tarik M. Muzughi, 22, of 2401 W. Broadway, two misdemeanor warrants.
James Robert Thompson, 19, of 2401 W. Broadway, Apt. 224, stealing
Jason Daniel Groharing, 34, of 2401 W. Broadway, driving while intoxicated
Jonathan Michael Williams, 28, of 2401 W. Broadway, Apt. 1104, stealing
Chelsea M. Vishnefske, 19, of 2401 W. Broadway, fraudulent use of a credit device, stealing.
Ronald Leroy Smith, 27, of 2401 W. Broadway, Apt. 711, second-degree child endangerment
Vaid Yunusovich Aliyev, 17, of 2401 W. Broadway, failure to appear in court
Dustin R. Hall, 25, of 2401 W. Broadway, driving while license is suspended or revoked.
Daniel Paul Irwin, 24, of 2401 W. Broadway, possession of drug paraphernalia.
Harrison Keith Shrum, 20, of 2401 W. Broadway, possession of 35 grams or less of marijuana
Micah Andrew Schafer, 21, of 2401 Broadway, distribution, manufacture, possession of a controlled substance
Katherine Lynn Scott, 24, of 2401 W. Broadway, Apt. 602, third-degree domestic assault
Reuben Nathaniel L. Smith, 18, of 2401 W. Broadway, stealing
Jacob Alan McClelland, 23, of 2401 Broadway, driving while intoxicated
Timothy James Blackwell, 18, of 2401 W. Broadway, littering
Ashleigh Brooke Early, 18, of 2401 W. Broadway, noise violation
Linnie Michelle Standley, 44, of 2401 W. Broadway, harassment
Christopher Eugene Berry, 30, of 2401 W. Broadway, noise violation
Deangelo Nicholas Porter, 17, of 2401 Broadway, second-degree property damage, first-degree child endangerment, third-degree domestic assault

 

Daron Martez Peal, 21, of 2401 W. Broadway, unlawful use of a weapon, armed criminal action, third-degree assault, $80,000 bond.

Daron Martez Peal, 21, of 2401 W. Broadway, distribution, manufacture or possession of a controlled substance, first-degree trespassing, $500 bond.

Eric Kegler Lambert, 21, of 2401 W. Broadway Apt. 112, probation and parole violation, no bond set.

Eric Kegler Lambert, 21, of 2401 W. Broadway Apt. 112, forgery, $4,500 bond.
Aaron Lee Warren, 29, of 2401 W. Broadway, peace disturbance
Aaron Lee Warren, 28, of 2401 W. Broadway, forgery, driving while intoxicated
Derrick Resean Ford, 29, of 2401 W. Broadway, kidnapping
Derrick Resean Ford, 29, of 2401 W. Broadway, felonious restraint, second-degree assault, armed criminal action
Walter Lee Rainey, 34, of 2401 W. Broadway, probation-and-parole violation
Walter Lee Rainey, 35, of 2401 W. Broadway, stealing, ex parte violation
Benjamin Terrell Prince, 23, of 2401 W. Broadway, possession of 35 grams or less of marijuana.
Benjamin Terrell Prince, 23, of 2401 W. Broadway, resisting arrest, third-degree assault on an officer
Sean Kirk Pringle, 29, of 2401 W. Broadway Apt. 212, driving while license is suspended or revoked
Sean Kirk Pringle, 29, of 2401 W. Broadway, failure to display license plates, driving while license is suspended or revoked.

CRIME AT GATEHOUSE, New stories -- Jan. 2008 to Feb. 2009
 

Gatehouse is again a SWAT target

Four adults arrested in Gatehouse bust

Man jailed after domestic dispute

Local man accused of sodomy, pornography

Suspect in robbery surrenders to police

Argument triggers stabbing: Assault occurred after victim dumped soda.

Four people robbed at gunpoint, police say
 

Three arrested on suspicion of dealing crack cocaine
 

Gatehouse shots part of a trend: Police seize drugs from one apartment.

BEAT BYTE: Crime and Arrests Plague Grasslands Apartments

BEAT BYTES: News Briefs from the Columbia Heartbeat
_______________________________________________

1) Crime and Arrests Plague Grasslands Apartments
2) Popular Reporter Heavin Leavin' Tribune
3) Thornhill and Phillips Kick Off Campaigns/Voter Forums Set
4) Housing (and Tax) News from Bank of Missouri's Tom Stone
_______________________________________________

1) Crime and Arrests Plague Grasslands Apartments

COLUMBIA, 2/18/09 (Beat Byte) -- On a pleasant afternoon last Fall, Grasslands neighbor Brian Struchtemeyer wanted to let his two young boys, ages 2 and 4, ride their tricycles in the driveway of his home on Burnam Road. But what he describes as a "boorish, abhorrent refrain" from a "repetitive and vulgar song" kept his children in the house and brought him out to his deck. The lyrics -- from “Back that Azz Up” by the rapper Juvenile -- were loud enough that Struchtemeyer wrote them down.

CAUTION: not for little readers.

"Girl you workin with some ass, yeah. Hoes frown when you pass, yeah. I be slingin wood yeah, out the hood yeah. Got a nigga schemin large, on the hard, yeah. A smooth little broad from out the projects, yeah . A nigga do a trick yeah, on the dick, yeah. I'm a big tymer nigga yeah, pull the trigger yeah. You'se a fine motherfucker, won't you back that azz up. Call me big daddy when you back that azz up. Hoe, who is you playin wit? Back that azz up."

The blaring song turned out to be another unpleasant encounter with tenants from a recently-opened apartment community on nearby Clarkson Road, where twelve arrests, 38 police calls, and a violent free-for-all last September have locked edgy neighbors in an ongoing battle with the apartment's owners, a three-way partnership that includes Columbia Orthopedic Group surgeon Dr. Peter Buchert and KOMU newscaster Sarah Hill.

(Tenants from 22-24 Clarkson Road arrested Sept. 12)

Loud parties, profanity, and people fleeing the law through neighboring yards are now part of life on Clarkson and Burnam, Struchtemeyer has noted in letters to Grasslands Rentals, LLC, a partnership that includes Hill, Buchert, Greg Logsdon, and their spouses.

"Problems started the week those apartments opened and haven't stopped," Grasslands resident and Columbia Business Times co-owner Dave Baugher told the Heart Beat. "Tenants and visitors have been involved in everything from drinking and fighting to burglary and assault."

The public record bears out Baugher's claims. Tenants from the Clarkson Rd. complex started appearing on the police blotter in late August of last year. Though neighbors say nuisance parties, underage drinking, and peace disturbances cause the most distress, CPD officers have also made arrests for assault, trespassing, property damage, burglary, and pending charges from out-of-area warrants.

The Grasslands Neighborhood Association stepped in after residents in the immediate area weren't able to resolve matters with Logsdon, Hill, and Buchert.

"The neighborhood association continues to discuss the Clarkson problem, both formally and informally," said association board member Tootie Burns, a Grasslands resident for 14 years. "Email, U.S. mail, telephone, planned meetings, and casual encounters are all ways we have had contact with the apartment's owners. But still, the problems continue."

Calling the neighborhood association's account "incomplete information," Sarah Hill referred this reporter to husband Rob. With Greg and Rachel Logsdon, the Hills also own the 82-unit Log Hill Run Apartments south of Corporate Lake, and the 84-unit Walnut Brook Apartments south of Old Plank Road.

"I'm not too concerned about the 'minor in possession' charges," Rob Hill told the Heart Beat. "Several residents who were arrested are no longer with us, and we do employ an off-duty police officer, Scott Decker, for security on the premises."

Maintaining that Decker himself made several arrests, Hill emphasized that "we evict folks that get into serious trouble." He also said that, since many of his tenants are students, tenant screening is problematic. "Students don't have much of a credit history, or any kind of history, to screen."

Of 38 "calls for service" since August 29, which may or may not involve an arrest, Columbia Police Department records indicate that Scott Decker, off duty, responded to fourteen calls.

"But to the best of my knowledge, Officer Decker is not the officer that has been making arrests," said CPD crime free programs coordinator Tim Thomason. "The arrests I am aware of are from our patrol officers handling complaints from the neighborhood when off duty officers are not present. It sounds as if the neighbors are giving an accurate account to you."

Mutual tensions have been building for months, Baugher said, and Hill agrees. "We received profanity laced phone calls with the clear message that 'I will call you and call you and call you until you do what I want you to do,'" Hill said. "Where the neighborhood association is concerned, what we do is never enough. We've had contact with them, a couple of letters and a couple of meetings, but we've never been invited to join the association. We were told that membership was only open to people who live in the Grasslands."

Neighborhood association member Jacki Verdun, Baugher's wife, disputes that account. "If they would join the neighborhood association, we would say hallelujah!" Verdun said. "We would absolutely welcome their involvement."

A neighborhood of upscale, older houses that many of Columbia's most prominent citizens, including former congressman Kenny Hulshof and MU athletic director Mike Alden, call home, the Grasslands is bounded by Providence Road to the east and an oddly-situated strip of multi-family and student housing to the north.

"We knew when we moved here that the campus and Greek town would have an impact, but we have rarely had any complaints and I have enjoyed interacting with students," said Tootie Burns. But trash, broken glass, and illegally parked cars are clear evidence, she says, that things have changed. "I know of people I suspect have moved because of recent problems, and others that are impacted almost daily by noise, trespassing, and loud parties."

-- Mike Martin for the Columbia Heart Beat

[Disclosure: As an independent freelancer, I write a column for the Columbia Business Times, Citizen Journalist.]

RELATED:
http://archive.showmenews.com/2008/sep/20080912news005.asp
http://archive.showmenews.com/2007/jan/20070127busi003.asp

CAUTION: Not for little listeners
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=624964744
_______________________________________________

Resident Arrests since August 29, 2008 -- 18-28 Clarkson Road, The Grasslands

Timothy Michael Cain, 19, of 24 Clarkson Road, first-degree burglary, false identification, resisting arrest, third-degree assault
Kyle Joseph Alley, 19, of 22 Clarkson Road, false identification, first-degree property damage, first-degree trespassing
Justin Christopher Graf, 20, of 18 E. Clarkson Road, nuisance Party
Matthew W. Feldhaus, 23, of 20 Clarkson Road, open alcohol container
Jeffrey Kyle Bertram, 21, of 28 Clarkson Road, public nuisance

Timothy Randall Rowe, 22, of 20 Clarkson Road, out-of-county warrants, $1,000 bond
Timothy Randall Rowe, 22, of 20 Clarkson Road, out-of-county warrant, $122 bond

Brandon Michael Dale Guerin, 19, of 22 E. Clarkson Road, purchase or possession of alcohol by a minor
Brandon Michael Dale Guerin, 19, of 22 Clarkson Road, driving while intoxicated, $500 bond

Sean M. Melton, 19, of 24 E. Clarkson Road, purchase or possession of alcohol by a minor
Stephen Kyle Maurer, 20, of 28 Clarkson Road, false identification, manner of walking along roadways
Zachary Ryan Holtmeier-Brasier, 19, of 22 Clarkson Road, minor in possession of alcohol, unlisted municipal charge, first-degree property damage, first-degree trespassing, $5,405 bond
_______________________________________________

CPD Calls for Service since August 29, 2008 -- 18-32 Clarkson Road, The Grasslands

1 2008163161 08/29 08:55 19 CLARKSON RD E-CO PARKING 7 1181
2 2008163594 08/29 20:49 27 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1140
3 2008165783 09/02 18:43 19 CLARKSON RD E-CO 911 CHE 2 391
4 2008168668 09/06 20:48 27 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1140
5 2008168778 09/06 22:45 27 CLARKSON RD E-CO 911 CHE 2 280
6 2008171989 09/11 20:58 27 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1140
7 2008172037 09/11 22:16 28 CLARKSON RD E-CO SUSP VE NR 1140
8 2008172677 09/12 20:56 27 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1140
9 2008173552 09/14 07:33 22 CLARKSON RD E-CO PARKING 2 186
10 2008176606 09/19 02:59 32 CLARKSON RD E-CO SUSP VE 2 1140
11 2008186161 10/03 02:16 30 BLK CLARKSON RD ELARCENY 2 400
12 2008186825 10/03 23:27 20 BLK CLARKSON RD ESPECIAL 2 1546
13 2008186962 10/04 03:03 22 CLARKSON RD E-CO CHECK S 2 1546
14 2008187432 10/04 22:03 18 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1546
15 2008199518 10/22 23:38 22 CLARKSON RD E-CO PEACE D 1 310 485
16 2008200308 10/24 02:07 28 CLARKSON RD E-CO PEACE D 2 415
17 2008200680 10/24 16:13 28 CLARKSON RD E-CO PEACE D R 250 821
18 2008202565 10/27 13:49 22 CLARKSON RD E-CO HARASSM NR 270
19 2008204303 10/30 00:12 24 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1546
20 2008205105 10/30 23:35 22 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1546
21 2008205167 10/31 01:30 22 CLARKSON RD E-CO C&I DRI 2 1546
22 2008205487 10/31 15:16 22 CLARKSON RD E-CO LARCENY 2 156
23 2008205611 10/31 16:57 22 CLARKSON RD E-CO FOLLOW 2 355
24 2008205680 10/31 19:20 22 CLARKSON RD E-CO FRAUD 2 355
25 2008205847 10/31 22:54 24 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1546
26 2008206508 11/01 21:44 22 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1140
27 2008209328 11/05 22:34 22 CLARKSON RD E-CO FOLLOW 2 486
28 2008210100 11/06 22:15 28 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1108
29 2008210785 11/07 22:16 24 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1546
30 2008211444 11/08 22:30 24 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1546
31 2008211686 11/09 09:15 18 CLARKSON RD E-CO PARKING C 186
32 2008216061 11/15 22:48 26 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1108
33 2008218490 11/19 22:25 24 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1546
34 2008220401 11/22 22:11 32 CLARKSON RD E-CO SPECIAL 2 1546
35 2009014458 01/23 09:59 24 CLARKSON RD E-CO LITTERI 2 170
36 2009015529 01/24 22:43 18 CLARKSON RD E-CO PEACE D 2 471
37 2009015598 01/25 00:43 18 CLARKSON RD E-CO PEACE D 1 471 430
38 2009015706 01/25 07:59 30 CLARKSON RD E-CO PARKING 2 170
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2) Popular Reporter Heavin Leavin' Tribune



COLUMBIA, 2/18/09 (Beat Byte) -- She cracked the communications glass ceiling at Columbia Public Schools; helped bring Sunshine to the halls of the Worley Street administration building; and helped make blogging in Columbia a popular way to give and get news. Now reporter Janese Heavin is leaving the Columbia Daily Tribune, she announced yesterday on the blog once called "Class Notes."

"I'm no longer covering state government," Heavin wrote on the Tribune's Homeroom blog. "I'm on general assignment until I leave the Trib next month."

"Janese is LEAVING????? I hope for greener pastures," wrote blogger cpsparentcpsgrad. "How sad Columbia might be losing one of our very best all time reporters. HJWIII [publisher Hank Waters], I hope you are smelling the beginnings of coffee brewing here."

Heavin told readers that she would still be in Columbia. "So you're likely not hearing, seeing the last of me."
_______________________________________________

3) Thornhill and Phillips Kick Off Campaigns/Voter Forums Set

2nd Ward City Council Candidate Jason Thornhill is kicking off his campaign March 6th from 5:30-8:30 at the Eagles Lodge on North Stadium Dr. He's announced a website, www.ThornhillForCouncil.net ; email address:
LetsTalk@ThornhillForCouncil.net and Facebook Group: Thornhill For Council.

Columbia school board candidate Sam Phillips is kicking off his campaign Monday, February 23, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at Shakespeare's Pizza downtown.

Thornhill also notes that two voter forums are scheduled:

March 19th – 6:30 – The League of Women’s Voters
Friends Room at the Columbia Public Library

March 20th – 12:00 – Muleskinners
The Upper Crust Ballroom In the District – Elm St.
_______________________________________________

4) Housing (and Tax) News from Bank of Missouri's Tom Stone

This week I want to focus on tax time and in the newsletter there are some helpful tips to help you maximize your deductions. The tax code is cumbersome and as I prepared for my meeting with the CPA over the weekend, I picked up on a few things that could help. Read the rest here:

http://www.mmgweekly.com/w/index.html?SID=dbec0010cebb295ffb1d96b0af9d77f8

-- Mike Martin for the Columbia Heart Beat

REPEAT OFFENDER: Jailed at "Home Sweet Home"

COLUMBIA, 12/11/08 (Beat Byte) -- Melissa Guerra is in jail right now, but not where you'd think.  After a string of offenses including forgery, theft, and hangin' with felons while on probation, Melissa is doing time -- next door to you and me, at a house she rents in Columbia. 

It all started back in 2004, with an arrest, conviction, and suspended sentence for felony forgery. Boone County Circuit Judge Gene Hamilton ordered 5 years probation for Melissa.

Three years later, in August 2008, Melissa was arrested for theft; found IN VIOLATION OF CONDITIONS OF PROBATION and ordered to appear in court.  Although Boone County prosecutor Richard Hicks showed up, Melissa blew it off.  Judge Hamilton issued a warrant for her arrest and set bond at $20,000.00.

Two days later, Melissa filed a letter with the court, asking that the warrant be "recalled." It was.  A new trial was set for two weeks later.  Melissa failed to show up -- again.

Judge Hamilton issued another round of warrants. Two more weeks passed.  Melissa finally appeared in court with public defender Michael Byrne.  From Casenet, DEFENDANT ADMITS VIOLATION. COURT FINDS DEFT IS IN VIOLATION BY NEW ARREST, BY ASSOCIATION WITH FELON AND USE OF MARIJUANA.

Melissa was freed on bond IN THE AMOUNT OF $30,000 POSTED BY TINA M. BOZARTH BAIL BONDS for two more months.   Then in November 2008, Judge Hamilton ordered PROBATION REVOKED.   PUNISHMENT FIXED AT 4 YEARS Missouri Department of Corrections.

Finally. Melissa was going to jail. But wait!

Judge Hamilton ordered EXECUTION OF SENTENCE SUSPENDED AND DEFT.  PLACED ON PROBATION FOR 5 YEARS.

Huh?  Wasn't Melissa just on probation for five years?  And didn't she just violate it?

Then there's the theft charge.   Arrested by Columbia PD, Melissa pleaded guilty.  Judge Hamilton sentenced her to INCARCERATION for LENGTH: 30 DAYS at BCJ (Boone County Jail) two weeks ago.

Finally. Melissa was going to jail. But wait! 

HOME DETENTION STUDY ORDERED. STATE NOT OPPOSED, the State in this case being Andrew Scholz, Boone County Assistant Prosecutor, and Manuel Tatayon, Boone County Public Defender.

One day before Melissa was due to appear for her 30 day jail sentence, she got the good news!  HOME DETENTION GRANTED IN LIEU OF SERVING 30 DAYS IN JAIL.

Ah, Home Sweet Jail.  Or is it, Jail Sweet Home?

4 -YEAR OLD GHETTO: Columbia's Affordable Housing Trap

Ask virtually any realtor to locate Columbia’s most affordable neighborhoods and you’re likely to hear “just north of town.”

Go north on Range Line Street, past Smiley Lane, and in no time you’ll find acres of newer, affordable homes. From uncompleted condos to stubbed-in utility lines, affordable housing in Columbia, Mo. looks every bit the growth industry, with the sticker price of a three bedroom, two-bath north Columbia home hovering around $100,000.

Contrast this scene with a “roundtable discussion” a year ago next week, when then-First Ward councilwoman Almeta Crayton gathered some 50 people to talk about the lack of affordable housing. Shortly before that, Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman convened an “affordable housing commission” that later recommended subsidies and other incentives to encourage low-income development.

But Columbia doesn’t need to encourage low-income development. We’re overbuilt by almost every measure. Asking prices and market rents have fallen, significantly in some quarters. If low-income housing still seems like a policy pipedream, it isn’t for lack of stock.

The pipes in the dream lay in a closer look at some of those newer, affordable neighborhoods. The three-year-old house with a broken window and peeling paint. The concrete curbs crumbling at the edges. The loose siding. The brown, weed-riddled lawns and trash blowing in the street.

Something has happened, and like the Andromeda strain, stricken an entire community. Just listen to one of the neighbors talking to the Columbia Daily Tribune:

Kristen Conner, 26, heard the gunfire. She has lived on Bold Ruler Court, north of Derby Ridge and Smiley Lane, for about one and a half years. “It sounded like semiautomatic gunfire. It sounded very rapid,” she said.

Conner said she stopped an officer patrolling her neighborhood yesterday morning to ask about the incident and he told her police believe the incident at Falling Leaf Lane is related to the incident near her neighborhood. Conner said the police officer advised her to move to a safer part of town. “He said if I can get out of this neighborhood, I should,” she said.

Conner said the neighborhood has declined in the past seven months. “I used to take my dog for walks on Derby Ridge,” she said. “I won’t walk there anymore.”

Won’t walk there anymore because an uninvited neighbor named “crime” moved in, ravaging street after street with each passing shot. By attracting lawbreakers and creating hazards, crime is one neighbor that can destroy an entire neighborhood, old or new.

Like Michael Crichton’s interstellar virus, crime can be reduced, if not altogether eliminated. Yet, in Columbia it continues to surge and spread, the offspring of a confounding, counterproductive, and surprisingly widespread attitude:

In low-income neighborhoods, some level of crime is expected and even okay.

For many leaders, landlords and, residents even, crime is an inevitable by-product of low-income life. It comes with the territory, and so long as it’s reasonably quarantined, needn’t present any fiscal or policy priorities. I’ve even heard local anti-poverty advocates argue that some crime is good! “The first step toward gentrification is reducing crime,” went one argument. “Crime keeps property values down,” went a second. “It helps keep housing affordable.”

True, most proponents of low-income housing would consider such reasoning absurd. But for them, crime remains a low priority. Crime prevention was noticeably absent from the Columbia affordable housing commission’s recommendations, which focused instead on reducing permit impediments and abating code deficiencies.

In a town whose smoking ban and red-light cameras reflect a picayune pleasure in minor prohibitions, it seems mysterious that serious criminal activity gets such a pass. But to a wizened pair of Columbia police officers, who characterized much of northern Columbia as a “4-year-old ghetto” best avoided at night, the mystery isn’t that hard to explain.

“The people who could change it don’t live it,” one officer told me. “All we can really say is, if you live in a high-crime neighborhood, move out. And if you don’t have much money, move out of town.”

THE GUNFIRE DAYCARE: 710 Washington Street

Gunshots seem to have a way of going off around 710 Washington Ave., a Paul Hinshaw-owned house, children's daycare (!), and most recently, home to Javonte Dangelo Roy, the alleged shooter in an October 27 incident that led to a Grant Elementary school lockdown.

In 1998, 710 Washington resident and daycare worker Ronald Brown was arrested on drug and weapons charges.
http://columbiatribune.com/1998/dec/19981219news04r.htm

Then on 9/11/2007, neighbors reported "two people shooting handguns at one another" on the property. Witness Mark Brown said, "All I heard was a shooting coming out of the daycare. I just saw a man running down the street saying out loud, 'I got shot in the leg.'"
http://columbiatribune.com/2007/sep/20070911news051.asp

Asked about it later, daycare operator Robin Ricketts said she was watching cartoons and taking care of three 2- and 3-year-olds (comforting thought). Police came to her door at 710 Washington Ave., closing off traffic between Wilkes Boulevard and Pecan Streets.

"I never heard anything," Ricketts said. "My dryer was on." (Since when does noise from a clothes dryer muffle multiple gunshots?)
http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2007/sep/20070913news004.asp

About a month later, 710 Washington was reportedly the home of the infamous Malcolm D. Redmon, who's made revolving in and out jail cells a public joke and who was involved in this latest shooting near Grant. Last year, he hit the streets in another October gunfire blast:

"The suspected gunman in a shooting that wounded two people as a fistfight erupted in gunfire Tuesday is on parole for four felony convictions. Police also have linked Malcolm D. Redmon, 24, of 710 Washington Ave. to at least two other shootings since 2000, according to Tribune archives.
http://columbiatribune.com/2007/oct/20071013news004.asp

Javonte Roy has been arrested five times since December 2007, each time providing 710 Washington Avenue as his address of record, which means landlord Paul Hinshaw receives a report on the arrests from CPD officer Tim Thomason.

And that's not all. The daycare at 710 Washington has logged some 18 arrests in the past few years, according to Columbia Tribune archives. They include longtime resident Ronald Elwood Brown for possession of a controlled substance, forgery, drug dealing, possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest, third-degree assault, and just yesterday (November 10), driving while intoxicated.