With the September 2009 opening of the new Wright Stop Plaza RTA Transfer Hub, the congestion is gone and the drug-dealing and violence has lessened somewhat.
Maj. Larry Faulkner, then a lieutenant commanding the Central Business District, was tasked with putting a lid on Third and Main and finding a better way to deal with the problem.
Stepped-up police presence did not appear to deter the problems.
“There were people there doing bad things then blending in with the bus riders,” Faulkner recalled.
Initially, police operated on the assumption the troublemakers were among the 800,000 juveniles who use the RTA annually. But when Faulkner did a precise analysis of the crime reports, a different population emerged. It turned out that many of the serious offenders were in the 18 to 25 age range.
“Dayton Public Schools always said if the kids just get to school, things would be fine,” Faulkner said. “Dayton schools was spot on.”
With hundreds of people crowding the sidewalks at Third and Main, neither the police department nor the RTA could solve it alone. Much of the activity took place on public sidewalks where RTA had little or no influence.
“There was no security. I wouldn’t bring my kids down there. My grandmother got shoved around in the crowd,” said Alisha D’Amico, a frequent bus rider.
The Third and Main Community Task Force was created in 2004 to bring together police, schools and downtown businesses to address the seemingly unsolvable issues.
The solution was not to simply move the crime from one area of the city to another,” said Art Jipson, University of Dayton associate professor of sociology and director of the school’s Criminal Justice Studies Program.
“What you want to do is eradicate the problem on the block and hope that the positives of that would diffuse throughout the neighborhood,” he said. “Not many police departments are good at that. Dayton has been good about seeing that whatever they do is good for a neighborhood and not just to move problems from one neighborhood to another.”
With all that in mind, the task force made a list of improvements needed, including getting the RTA buses and riders off the streets and sidewalks. The Wright Plaza Hub has an open design with capacity for several hundred riders to wait in a heated or cooled environment. The buses pull up to off-street bays for boardings, and riders can keep track of their buses on display boards.
“We created a facility where we had more control of the buses and the people, and it is on our property,” said Frank Ecklar, RTA director of planning and marketing. “Because it’s our property, we have a better opportunity to establish for our riders our expectations and rules.”
Security is able to step in and have police remove those who cannot or will not obey the rules. In 2006, when RTA operated out of a corner storefront, police issued 59 criminal trespasses citations. In 2010, the first full year of the new hub’s operation, police issued 177 trespass citations with repeat offenders going to Montgomery County Regional Jail for a night’s stay.
“What we found was, in many cases, it was the same people committing the same crimes over and over again,” Faulkner.
From there, the police department sat down with the municipal court judges, and city and county juvenile and adult probation officers to talk about the problem.
“Juvenile probation really pulled the wagon,” Faulkner said.
Conversations with juvenile and adults on probation and deferred jail sentences convinced many that Third and Main was not a place they should hang out. Or, if they did, they should behave themselves, Faulkner said.
“Before, the misdemeanor charges may not have been a big deal to a judge. Now, they take a look at it as part of the whole problem. They’ve made a big difference on the repeat offenders,” Faulkner said.
RTA’s Ecklar points to the positive environment created by the hub’s structure and services, what he called “placemaking.” The term was first coined by architects and urban planners in 1970 to describe the process of turning a public space into a welcoming area by watching, listening and asking people who use the space. From that, a common vision is created from which all design and improvements flow.
The new hub “gives a greater sense of order and convenience, a great sense of place,” Ecklar said.
Many riders described the hub as comfortable .
“It’s a comfortable place. It’s a lot better than waiting out in the cold,” Dominic Simmons said as he sat at a table chatting with Alisha D’Amico. The two met while waiting for their respective buses. Soon, Keisha Gray, a friends of Simmons, joined them as they talked about how improved the environment was compared to the old Third and Main location.
Roy Hollis, Dayton Public Schools security chief, said principals all received a tour of the new hub and a copy of the conduct policy. Those expectations were passed on to students. In addition, school administrators are at the hub daily during the first days of the school year and when the weather gets warm.
“There are still drug sales,” Faulkner said. “Just like there are drug sales all over the city. There is no ‘magic bullet’ that will solve all the problems. But the hanging out at Third and Main is just not happening.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2290 or dpage@ daytondailynews.com.
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