Residents, organizations give the dirt on life in South Oakland

Almost every day, Nathan Hart walks through South Oakland. A seven-year resident of Oakland… Almost every day, Nathan Hart walks through South Oakland. A seven-year resident of Oakland Square, Hart has noticed the changes in the area since he moved there. Unfortunately, those changes are not good ones.

In walking through both South and Central Oakland, there is noticeable dilapidation, he said. Trash lies around in larger quantities than when he first moved to the neighborhood, and more parties spill out onto the sidewalks and streets. While the area is still comparatively quiet, he said, noise has increased noticeably during the last few years.

These changes led Hart to become president of the Oakland Community Council, an organization that fights to make Oakland the way Hart remembers it — and, he hopes, to dispel the conception that South Oakland is “dirty.”

“We are fighting to keep the area good,” Hart said. “Ninety percent of the students are fine — only 10 percent are a problem, and they give the other 90 percent a bad name.”

According to Hart, the biggest problem in South Oakland is absentee landlords, and this is where the Oakland Community Council comes in. The Council wants to act as a voice for the students, become a force against absentee landlords and ensure code enforcement for the entire Oakland area, according to Hart.

South Oakland is defined as the area on the opposite side — away from Pitt — of the Boulevard of the Allies, stretching from the Swinburne Bridge by Greenfield over toward the Oakland entrance to the parkway.

Many students seem to think that South Oakland is dirty, unsafe and infested with pests. While some students have good experiences with their landlords, others don’t even know the people to whom they pay rent.

Ellonda Green, a 20-year-old psychology major, has lived on Joncaire Street since last May. According to Green, she has never met her landlord, nor has she signed a lease.

“I keep calling my landlord,” Green says. “The city has come and complained about the trash, and when I moved in, [the landlord] promised the kitchen and bathroom would be renovated.”

According to Green, the landlord doesn’t shovel her sidewalks, either, leaving sheets of ice that Green and her fellow tenants slide down, onto the street. Though she said her landlord has mentioned possible rent increases, Green said she refuses to pay more.

In addition to the potentially growing rent, Green said she must pay $45 a month for parking, as well as gas and electric bills.

In contrast, Leah Wenger, a 21-year-old social work major, does not have a problem with an absentee landlord.

“I have an amazing landlord who is very attentive to any of our needs,” Wenger said. “My apartment is well-maintained, and he provides an exterminator every few months to make sure that the apartment stays clean and bug-free.”

Wenger’s experience living in South Oakland has been pleasant, but she does recognize that there are problems with the area.

“The cleanliness in South Oakland is not the greatest,” she said. “I was unfortunate enough to have a huge trash bag on the roof outside my window for a few months, until I bravely climbed out the window to knock the bag off. I think that the littering and trash in [South Oakland] is the worst problem here, other than the run-down apartments and houses.”

Many residents, including Wenger, believe one problem arises from trash being collected on Friday mornings, just after the unofficial beginning of the weekend.

“On Thursday nights, when people go out, they often throw the trash around that is on the street,” she said.

Like Nathan Hart, Wenger has had experiences in South Oakland that led her to become more involved in improving the community. She is a member of the Off-Campus Housing Committee, which aids students in matters concerning off-campus housing.

The general dirtiness of South Oakland is an issue for many of its inhabitants. Problems with the tenant’s property should be directed to the landlord, but if there is an absentee landlord, tenants can report problems to the Allegheny County Health Department.

Guillermo Cole is the public information officer for the Allegheny Country Health Department. He takes complaints for tenants, usually concerning Housing Code violations, structural problems and other substandard conditions. He has also had cases where a neighbor or landlord files a complaint against an individual, while usually involves housekeeping, trash control or vermin.

Overall, Cole says, South Oakland isn’t a problem.

“There is not much variation in complaints over recent years in South Oakland,” he said. “South Oakland is no worse than other rental areas like Shadyside, Central Oakland, Squirrel Hill or the South Side.”

“The reason there are problems in South Oakland is because of the extremely high density of rentals,” he added.

But rented properties do not take up the majority of space in South Oakland. According to Kelly Hoffman, community organizer for the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation, South Oakland is composed of approximately 50 percent rentals and 50 percent long-term residents. Neighboring Central Oakland — often loosely referred to by Pitt students as “South Oakland,” Central Oakland runs from Fifth Avenue to the Boulevard of the Allies — is 90 percent rentals and 10 percent long-term residents.

The OPDC’s Community Organizing Program is just one of three programs offered to residents, but for college students in off-campus housing, it may be the most important offered. The corporation works with students and long-term residents to keep the area clean and work against absentee landlords. They offer educational information on tenants’ rights, and they also sponsor various programs, such as Keep It Clean Oakland and Adopt-a-block, to keep the area clean.

According to Hoffman, the biggest part of the problem with housing in South Oakland is that tenants don’t report problems.

“Many students don’t know what is legal and what’s not,” Hoffman said. “They don’t know what is and isn’t a code violation.”

Hoffman explained that the corporation has seen incidents of severe over-occupancy, safety threats like bedrooms without windows, and a lack of a fire escape, as well as the normal complaints concerning cleanliness.

“South Oakland is ridiculously overpriced,” Hoffman said. “South Oakland is no better than other areas. The thing is, there is a lack of reporting [of violations] in South Oakland.”

With an equal ratio of long-term residents to students, respect has become an issue.

“The problems many long-term residents have with the students is that they are most interested in partying, and not concerned with their neighbors,” Hoffman explained.

Along with the cleanliness issues, crime has become a concern for South Oakland residents. According to the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Crime Analysis Unit, there was a 26.3 percent increase in crime between 2002 and 2003. The most notable increases were in aggravated assaults, murder and robbery.

In 2003, robbery went up 300 percent, with an increase from three to 12 incidents. There were no murders in 2002, but two in 2003. Aggravated assault had perhaps the most notable rise, increasing from seven incidents in 2002 to 25 in 2003.

Officer Ashley Thompson, of the city police, is the crime prevention officer for South Oakland. According to Thompson, most of the increases are a result of isolated incidents, rather than an overall decrease in the safety of the area.

“There was a case with a couple of knuckleheads beating up people and robbing them,” Thompson said.

“We arrested them,” Thompson adding, explaining that the incident accounted for a large part of the increase in assaults.

Despite the fact that these increases are related to specific events, it may not keep students from feeling less safe in South Oakland. Leah Wenger has never had an issue with crime, but she is still on guard.

“Simply because I have never experienced any crime, I definitely don’t take it for granted,” Wenger explained. “I am very careful when and where I walk when alone. I also frequent Safe Rider.”

Ellonda Green said she feels similarly.

“I think it’s relatively safe,” Green replied, when asked about crime in South Oakland. “I think there’s just a general safety issue.”

Green explained that, while she doesn’t feel threatened, she, like Wenger, is careful.

As a result of these crime issues, various organizations, including the Pittsburgh Police Department and OPDC, have attempted to take action.

OPDC has many programs in place to clean up Oakland, and also to educate tenants as to what is legal and what is not legal for landlords. It, along with the Oakland Community Council, want to help improve the standards for living in South Oakland, as well as decrease the number of absentee landlords.

The city police department works with both of these groups, along with the Pittsburgh Business Improvement District, to help decrease the crime levels in South Oakland as well as other regions of Oakland. They have set up different block parties, fingerprinting children and making prevention materials available to the residents.

According to Thompson, there is a twofold plan of action for South Oakland. When necessary, hot spots will be identified where crime is occurring, prompting officers to patrol those regions more often, and in plain clothes. The second is the implementation of preventative actions, such as block watches. Thompson feels the block watch would help officers locate offenders and be more aware of the crime going on in the area.