Fresh optimism rises in Albany’s West Hill
By Paul Grondahl
Updated 6:33 am, Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Albany
Source: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Fresh-optimism-rises-in-Albany'-s-West-Hill-4696739.php
They are dancing in the streets of West Hill.
At least they do on Saturday afternoons, when North Lake
Avenue is blocked off between Clinton Avenue and First
Street and more than 100 people move and groove to a
salsa and merengue beat in Zumba dance fitness sessions.
Such a public display of buoyant spirits would have been
unthinkable just a few years ago. Residents were long
fearful of walking streets hijacked by gang-bangers and
thugs, where drug deals and gunshots dominated the
atmosphere of lawlessness.
“I couldn’t park my car over there for a long time because
there was so much prostitution and crack dealing going
on,” Dr. Bob Paeglow said. He pointed to a parking lot
across from Koinonia Primary Care at the corner of North
Lake and Clinton avenues.
But lately, Paeglow, who opened the health clinic in 2001
and has lived in the neighborhood with his family for most
of the past 12 years, has been feeling optimistic about West
Hill.
“I feel a new wind blowing through West Hill,” he said. “I
see a fresh optimism. People are taking back their streets.
They’re not afraid anymore. There is a joy that is infectious,
and it seems to be spreading.”
During a walk around the neighborhood on Tuesday,
Paeglow pointed out positive new developments, spurred
by a “Take Back Your Street” community initiative. It is
organized by the health clinic’s Healthy Hearts on the Hill
wellness program, co-sponsored with the University at
Albany’s School of Social Welfare. New metal signs placed
on utility poles along Clinton Avenue and other
thoroughfares mark a two-mile walking loop.
It addresses rising rates of obesity, high blood pressure,
heart disease and diabetes among Paeglow’s patients.
“Our goal is to increase physical activity but also to break
down fears,” Paeglow said. “It’s a way of saying you no
longer have to be afraid to walk in our neighborhood.”
That was not always so. The symbol of everything wrong
with West Hill was the May 29, 2008 shooting death of 10year-old Kathina Thomas. She was killed by a stray bullet as
she played on the sidewalk in front of her house on First
Street just off North Lake Avenue. Thomas was shot by 15year-old Jermayne Timmons, who used a so-called
“community gun” that he took from a hiding spot under a
shed and fired in a feud with other teens. Timmons is
serving a prison sentence of 15 years to life.
“That galvanized the neighborhood and brought everyone
together. Things started to change after that,” he said.
An around-the-clock police presence from Operation
IMPACT, a state-funded crime-fighting program that pairs
city cops with State Police, reduced crime. So did a federal
racketeering case that rounded up dozens of members of
West Hill’s Jungle Junkies gang, took them off the street
and put them behind bars. A gun violence task force made
inroads. Cops walking the beat under a new community
policing initiative also contributed to public safety.
“The police and neighbors trust each other more than in
the past,” said Ron Bailey, Common Council member who
represents the 3rd Ward and has been working in West Hill
for the past 15 years. “It’s better than I’ve ever seen it. West
Hill is picking up and moving forward.”
He pointed to the recent restoration of derelict houses on
Second Street by Mark Robinson, who served six years in
prison for running a large marijuana enterprise. My
colleague Brendan Lyons profiled his rehab project in
Sunday’s Times Union. Robinson is emblematic of the
turnaround under way in long-neglected West Hill, which
continues to struggle with poverty and crime.
“The Robinsons are transforming the block that used to be
ground zero for drugs and violence,” Bailey said. “They’ve
invested their own blood, sweat and tears.”
The West Hill Neighborhood Association, moribund for
several years, has been revived and now draws about 20
people to a monthly meeting. “People are waking up and
taking action,” said Marcy Bibens, president of the group
for the past year. She and her husband, Roy, live in the
large red-brick building that houses Paeglow’s health clinic.
Volunteers pick up trash and clean up neighborhood
pocket parks. They are trying to tackle abandoned
buildings, urging absentee landlords to improve their
properties and encouraging small businesses to bring jobs
to West Hill.
Residents praised the work of police officers Daniel Biette
and Marco Mancini, who run a community engagement
unit based in the health clinic building. Bibens said there
has been a 30 percent reduction in crime since Biette and
Mancini began walking the beat.
“Business is picking up and people like that we’re here,”
said Waheeb Nagi, an employee at K’n’A Discount Beauty,
a beauty supply shop that opened two months ago at the
corner of Clinton Avenue and Judson Street. It is owned by
his uncle Anter Nagi, who is from Yemen.
A block away, on Second Street near Judson, Egdren
Willocks sells coconuts, sugar cane, mangoes, plantains and
other tropical fruit from a shed in front of his house,
purchased with a grant from Healthy Hearts on the Hill.
“We all keep an eye on the neighborhood and don’t allow
any ruckus,” said Willocks, who is Jamaican. “It’s not a
ghetto anymore. People are taking pride in West Hill.”
Stephanie Paniagua, who is from the Dominican Republic,
lives downtown and drove up to purchase sugar cane. “I
wouldn’t come to West Hill five years ago because of the
drugs and the thugs,” she said. “It feels safer now.”
Contact Paul Grondahl at 518-454-5623 or email
pgrondahl@timesunion.com
Dr. Paeglow talks to Egdren Willocks, right, outside Willocks’ fruit stand in
the West Hill neighborhood.
Dr. Bob Paeglow, a long-time resident and family care
doctor at Koinonia Primary Health Care in West Hill, talks
about the new walking paths and other improvements that
give him fresh optimism for the troubled neighborhood.
Dr. Paeglow stands under one of the new walking signs.
All photos by Lori Van Buren / Times Union
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Albany, New York