
{"id":11823,"date":"2010-08-05T09:42:52","date_gmt":"2010-08-05T17:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=11823"},"modified":"2010-08-05T09:42:52","modified_gmt":"2010-08-05T17:42:52","slug":"residents-police-seek-abbey-court-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/08\/05\/residents-police-seek-abbey-court-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents, police seek Abbey Court changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\nCARRBORO  \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The largely immigrant resident population at Abbey Court Apartments has certainly faced its share of obstacles over the years, from conflicts with management over parking issues and towed cars to disagreements regarding a nearby day-laborer station where workers, many from the complex\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s immigrant community, wait to be picked up for construction jobs. But recently, issues have come from within the resident community, with an average of nearly two calls a day to the police this spring. <\/p>\n<p>From April 1 to May 17, the Carrboro Police Department received 82 calls for assistance at the Jones Ferry Road apartment complex, with complaints ranging from loud music and public intoxication to breaking and entering and assault. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It gets the most attention of any piece of property in town,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Carrboro Police Capt. J.G. Booker said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a large apartment complex, and a lot of what we get is more like your nuisance type calls for service.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just seeing drinking and hooting and hollering and things like that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Abbey Court residents have complained to police, but many of the complaints have to do with broken rules, not law breaking, Booker said, and because the complex is private property, there is little the police can do unless people are breaking the law. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of difference in enforcing rules and enforcing the law,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You can come to us until the cows come home and say things are out of whack, but unless we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a violation of the law &#8230; we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to step off sides on that. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to follow the law. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to violate somebody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rights.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>To complicate matters, there are about 40 different property owners of the units at Abbey Court, Booker said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that many, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to gain control,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustrating if you live out there.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>For the past month, Abbey Court management has employed off-duty Carrboro police officers to enforce the complex\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rules. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It looks like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s starting to take some effect,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Booker said, adding that the complex had previously employed Carrboro police officers in a similar effort. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Once we leave and the word gets out, then folks come back out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>In addition, the department\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s community services division is planning to locate a satellite police office on Abbey Court property and is working with the Human Rights Center at the complex to launch a number of different programs to get the community involved. <\/p>\n<p>Roy Tripp, community services officer with the Carrboro Police, said he hopes to get the plans worked out for the satellite office by the end of the month. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re hoping to work in conjunction with all the groups that are there &#8230; and make it a better place for everyone,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. With the office located at the complex, Tripp said officers will be able to maintain a steadier relationship with members of the community and get a better sense of what is going on there. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ninety-five percent of the people that are there are good folks. They deserve a better quality of life than what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Tripp said. <\/p>\n<p>Judith Blau, director of the Human Rights Center, which is located at Abbey Court, said that despite the complaints the situation at the apartment complex is in fact improving. <\/p>\n<p>The center runs a number of programs at the complex, including English as a second language classes, computer classes and after-school programs. Programs are tailored to the diverse population of Abbey Court residents, which includes many Latinos and Burmese refugees.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everything is getting better and better in spite of the terrible economy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Blau said. She attributed the incidents to the poor economy and lack of day labor as well as to outside residents coming through the complex.<\/p>\n<p>Through the center\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s efforts, Blau said she hopes to bring the communities together and make people feel included, and thus improve the overall situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The drinking continues; the social networks are getting better.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And, she said, while the economy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not getting better, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell at all from the little kids who come [to the after-school program] Monday through Thursday. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so happy and so responsive.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The largely immigrant resident population at Abbey Court Apartments has certainly faced its share of obstacles over the years, from conflicts with management over parking issues and towed cars to disagreements regarding a nearby day-laborer station where workers, many from the complex\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s immigrant community, wait to be picked up for construction jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11823"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11849,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823\/revisions\/11849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}