http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-nor.police3may14,0,5251144.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines

Police HQ seen as a good neighbor

By Matt Breslow
Staff Writer

May 14, 2006

NORWALK -- Businesses are opening in a neighborhood once notorious for drug selling.

Instead of loiterers, the sidewalks have more traffic from pedestrians, including shoppers and train passengers walking to and from the South Norwalk station.

If the new Norwalk police headquarters has helped clean up surrounding blocks in the figurative sense, it also has done so literally, as owners are taking better care of their properties and litter is reduced.

These are observations several people, each with a stake in the South Norwalk neighborhood around South Main and Monroe streets, shared last week. Before the police department moved into a $24 million three-story brick building at the corner a year ago, drug activity, robbery and theft were not uncommon. Several shootings had occurred on nearby blocks in recent years.

"Since the police (department) came, the neighborhood has cleaned up tremendously," said Renee "Diva" Davis of Diva's Hair Salon at 71 S. Main St.

Davis considered leaving the street a year after arriving in 2002. Every day, she said, she was sweeping the sidewalks and telling loiterers to move away from the front of her salon.

"I went through the storm," Davis said. "I hated it over here -- I hated it. But now I'm glad I stayed."

Debbie Goffredo, 46, who has lived in an apartment above a South Main Street restaurant for nearly two years, said far fewer people are hanging out on the street. Loiterers used to fight and yell, but the area is much quieter now, she said.

"I just feel safer now, I really do," Goffredo said.

Police Chief Harry Rilling said people have noticed a decrease in drug activity and loitering on streets around the headquarters.

"I notice that people are much more likely to take the train and walk through this area now," he said in an interview at his third-floor office.

Police headquarters is directly between the train station and SoNo's shops, restaurants and clubs.

Besides crime, Rilling said the immediate area several years ago was marked by vacant buildings and contaminated properties that likely wouldn't have been sold and redeveloped. The police station was built on a once-polluted site after an environmental cleanup.

"You notice that some businesses are starting to open up," Rilling said. "I think people are more inclined to invest in the area knowing there's a police department nearby."

Don Finch, owner of Finch's Lock Service at 79 S. Main St., said he likes telling callers that he's a block south of the police station. Customers previously asked him whether it was safe to visit his store, Finch said. He said he saw people "very openly" selling drugs, stopping cars in the middle of the street.

"Now you don't see (drug activity) as much anymore," said Finch, who has been on South Main almost 16 years.

Bob Virgulak, president of DVB Commercial Realty in Norwalk, said he's "very bullish" on the neighborhood. The former Common Council member believes it will be the next part of the city to be revitalized, even without a major redevelopment project involving public money.

Property values have risen and homeowners are investing in improvements, Virgulak said. New housing is being built on South Main Street, where the stretch north of Concord Street is "totally being refurbished," he said.

Though the area near the new police headquarters is safer, Rilling said other areas of the city may have seen an increase in crime, but they don't have numbers yet. "Obviously there's been a bit of displacement," he said.

But Community Policing Division Sgt. Paul Vinett said nearby Ryan Park is calmer and he doesn't believe crime has increased farther down South Main or on nearby Woodward Avenue. Vinett described the neighborhood as "more vibrant," citing a large increase in pedestrian traffic and new housing and businesses.

"Economically it's thriving better, I think," Vinett said. "It looks cleaner. It feels safer. Well, it is safer."