Mayor: Cleanup first, then maybe substation in apartment complex Aug 31, 2012

The city of Springfield won’t consider opening a police substation at the MacArthur Park Apartments until the complex is cleaned up, Mayor Mike Houston said Friday. During a Friday afternoon press conference, Houston said he doesn’t think a police substation will keep tenants and visitors from further damaging the apartments. Currently, there are more than 1,200 code violations at 26 of the complex’s buildings, he said.

“The owner of this apartment (complex) has given us no indication, given the past history of the operation of these apartments, that this is somebody that we should work with,” Houston said. “When they demonstrate that they have corrected their violations, then we will in fact work with them.”

The city has inspected 38 of the complex’s 48 buildings, the mayor said. Violations at 11 of the buildings have been corrected and the buildings have received certificates of occupancy from the city. Another building was demolished.

The mayor also took issue with a Friday morning radio report during which Houston said Craven claimed that crime at the complex has prohibited repairs. That claim, Houston said, “is simply false.”

“What I said was that much of the damage noted in the inspections last year was caused by criminal damage,” he said.

Eight neighborhood police officers are assigned to various areas of the city. None of them have offices within an apartment complex, according to the police chief.

Read the full article at sj-r.com…