Alas, this is another area, where the government really needs to spend more money. Being a good cop, who follows the law, while still being effective, is a very high skilled job. You are not going to get the quality of cops you want, paying them 30K to start or whatever. That's the goal of the police chief in Hudson. He wants to try to shut down a few locations which are high crime, and take up half the time of the police force, so that he can cut in half the number of cops, and increase their pay commensurately. We are fortunate to have him.
And how exactly does he propose "shutting them down"? And how does he propose to keep from being a case of whack-a-mole that leads to them setting up either elsewhere in Hudson, or in Greenport?
You just stay on top the hot spots, hit the landlord with code violations, and pressure the landlord to kick the tenants out, and in general, make it in the best interests of the perps to relocate elsewhere, outside of Hudson. As I say, it is only about 6 buildings, all owned by private slumlords rather than public housing, or housing run by non profits (we have that in Hudson), which are well managed, and where the tenants are expected to behave, and which are regularly inspected. A couple of the hotspots have been recently sold, and the tenants will be evicted over time, so that the buildings can be fixed up. In an gentrifying town like Hudson, and the pace of that is really picking up now, with projects going on here, there and everywhere, this strategy is viable.
Since moving to Hudson, I have a much more favorable opinion of government housing and housing owned by non profits, that is affordable, or housing privately owned with tax rebates and rules to follow than formerly. I have been very impressed by how well run they are, and how they are careful in selecting tenants. Little Hudson has expanded my horizons in so many ways. I feel so very fortunate.
I must say, that in general, I am impressed at just how well NY manages its subsidy programs, at least with respect to housing. It's much better than in CA.
