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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > November > 24
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Editorial: Razing the trestle might not work
Last month’s stabbing of a Miami Valley Hospital nurse by a homeless sex offender has people legitimately concerned about a group of squatters living outdoors near Stewart Street and Patterson Boulevard.
But using a wrecking ball to solve problems of crime or homelessness probably won’t work and may result in something valuable being torn down.
Dayton officials said last week they were in talks with the Norfolk Southern Railway Corp. about demolishing an unused railroad trestle that crosses over Patterson Boulevard just north of Stewart Street. When notified that some homeless individuals are living on the trestle in tents, railway officials told the city they are open to razing it.
But would that really fix the problem?
Homeless people live all around the area of the trestle, including in the woods on the west side of the road between Patterson Boulevard and the Great Miami River. Even if taking out the trestle chases them away, they’ll move some place else, probably nearby.
Periodically police have forced them from the secluded area, only to have them return. It’s also hard to see how demolition of the railroad bridge would reduce crime. James Cundiff, 42, the suspect in the nurse’s stabbing, reportedly lived on the bridge. Who’s to say he wouldn’t still have been in the area, even without the trestle?
For the sake of its employees, patients and visitors who were upset by the incident, Miami Valley has every right to be concerned about people loitering near its campus or intimidating people in the vicinity. That, of course, is why security details, lighting, fencing, and other precautions are essential at any hospital where people are coming and going at all hours, but all the more so at an urban campus.
Dealing with the homeless is difficult. Some can be directed toward shelters that can help get them back on their feet and off the streets. But many reject any sort of helping hand.
Sometimes they’re mentally ill; sometimes they’re addicted to alcohol or drugs. A good step would be to try to coax those living outdoors to go to a shelter. If that doesn’t work, police have to act. You don’t get to build a home on public land or private land that’s not yours just because it’s out of the way.
As for tearing down the trestle, city officials have to think this through. The bridge is in a useful location, not far from the former NCR property that the University of Dayton hopes to develop into a “west campus.”
On the other side of Patterson Boulevard is the river corridor, which includes a popular bikeway and other recreational opportunities. There’s an unused veterans park and parking nearby.
Rather than demolish the bridge, could the area be redeveloped as an attractive connector from the burgeoning Brown Street marketplace, the Fairgrounds neighborhood and the future UD west campus to the river corridor?
It could be a crossing point over busy Patterson Boulevard that wouldn’t require pedestrians or cyclists to navigate a busy intersection at Stewart Street. Improvements and increased activity will permanently discourage the homeless from setting up because what they’re looking for is seclusion.
Though the trestle is dilapidated, once it’s down, recreating something like it would be expensive. Some day soon a bridge could be an important piece of infrastructure. The worst thing to happen would be for the trestle to be torn down and for the homeless still to be congregating in places where they don’t belong. Before the wrecking ball is brought in, people need to be confident that the trestle itself is the problem.
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