Discouraging News In Lea's Woods

No less than a week after I praised the upcoming improvements to the Lea's Woods neighborhood, discouraging news was delivered to my doorstep yesterday. A concerned neighbor was going door-to-door to let everyone know about the recent crime spree in the area. Completely obliviously to this sort of activity, I was shocked to hear that there were at least six homes broken into on near by streets in the past week. That's right...6!!!

It sounds like its time to reorganize the Neighborhood Watch program in the area. We also need to increase the police presence in the area. The crimes haven't been violent, but this kind of behavior should be stopped before things get out of hand. Residents in nearby neighborhoods like Cooper-Young and Downtown have noticed a reduction in crime with the more officers on patrol and more community involvement.

A recent movement that I've been impressed with is Residents For A Safer Downtown Memphis. Fed up with the increased criminal activity (one of the founder's was mugged), they formed this group to heighten awareness and to push Memphis Police to patrol their Downtown neighborhoods. From all accounts, this has been a success so far.

I'm not saying that we have to go as far as having a neighborhood website, but a daily e-mail blast or blog posting with neighborhood updates wouldn't be a bad thing. Combined with a watch program and more police patrols, this could help push the criminal activity out.