LEWISTON – It’s a downtown riddle: What is the difference between Howe and Horton streets?
They run side by side through the downtown. Each has mostly tenement buildings. At first glance, the streets are nearly identical.
But the number of serious crimes reported on Horton Street is nearly six times higher than on Howe, just a hundred feet away.
“Why is Howe Street almost immune to the types of problems that are happening just a block away?” Lewiston Police Officer Tom Murphy asked a group of downtown community action members this week.
Murphy believes he has figured out the answer to the riddle. But he wanted the three dozen activists to figure it out on their own before a possible solution was discussed.
Bad rap
At a meeting at the Multi-Purpose Center on Tuesday night, Murphy and other officers shared their ideas about cleaning up sections of the downtown area. As they have been for several years, police are working on making improvements neighborhood by neighborhood.
Those involved say crime figures stand as proof of the effectiveness of the project. Knox Street, for example, has shown a sharp decline in the number of police calls since efforts were made to get the community involved in a cleanup.
“There was a time you could not walk down Knox Street without being offered drugs,” said Police Chief William Welch. “I couldn’t drive in an unmarked car without being propositioned by hookers.”
Yet, over the past 10 years, the crime rate has fallen dramatically in Lewiston. Knox Street is no longer considered one of the meanest streets in the state, although Lewiston’s nasty reputation tends to linger.
“Whenever you tell someone you’re from Lewiston, the reaction is the same. You can’t walk the streets here. It’s the drug capital of the state,” Welch said. “You could believe that in the late ’80s or early ’90s, but things have changed. We are safer by far than Bangor. We are safer by far than Portland.”
Murphy is heading the community action group, and has involved neighbors, business owners and city officials. It has become one of the most well-attended community meetings in the city.
Welch, a guest speaker Tuesday, told members about several things police are considering to improve the city even more. Questionnaires sent out to random citizens may help generate new ideas, he said. And police administrators are looking for candidates from various ethnic groups to join the force.
“We’re looking to make our police department look more like our community,” Welch said.
For now, Murphy has his group looking into the Horton vs. Howe mystery. Over a period of months earlier this year, there were five reported serious crimes on Howe Street. In the same period, 31 similar incidents were reported on Horton.
The group had plenty of guesses. Are there more people on Horton Street? More teens, perhaps?
Possibly, Murphy said. But that does not explain why Horton Street has been labeled “Mug Me Street” by some local folks.
The answer
In the end, the answer to the riddle had many parts. Photos of both streets revealed far more trees on Horton Street than on Howe. The trees hang low over sidewalks and create pockets of shadows where criminals do their work in darkness, Murphy said.
There are also many more buildings there with overgrown yards, junk piling up in front of tenements, bad sidewalks and unkempt buildings.
In the science of crime, the phenomenon is known as the “broken-window syndrome.” If you allow one window in a building to remain broken, according to the philosophy, all the rest will become broken, too. Soon, an entire block has the appearance of a ghetto, and where there is a ghetto there is crime.
“We’re going to talk to the landlords. We’re going to get them to fix the buildings that are in disrepair,” Murphy said. “We’re going to talk to public works about cutting back some of those trees and letting a little light in there.”
By the end of the meeting, Murphy was rounding up volunteers to help with the work. Chief Welch promised to monitor the progress over coming weeks.
“If they get that area cleaned up,” Welch said, “I’ll host a block party myself.”
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