BY ROBERT SANCHEZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Even after a meeting Saturday with a senior White House drug analyst, some Cincinnati neighborhood leaders said authorities still aren't taking them seriously in their fight against crime.
Communities United for Action, an 18-year-old coalition of six community groups in the Mill Creek Valley, met for about two hours with Sandra Owens Lawson, senior policy analyst for White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey.
"I think there's an increased effort to get information and know the concerns of neighborhoods," Ms. Owens Lawson said to an audience of about 70 community leaders and residents. "If we didn't have these meetings, I'm afraid people's voices will be lost."
Lawson The meeting at St. Pius School in South Cumminsville was the first stop on Ms. Owens Lawson's 10-city national tour to discuss drug and crime problems in big-city neighborhoods. Her next stop is Indianapolis.
Ms. Owens Lawson said she would help direct residents' efforts to create a drug czar position in Cincinnati. The new official would coordinate local efforts to find money for programs.
Throughout the meeting, residents made their message clear: Citizens want more control over the policies and procedures in their communities.
"We want the state to deal with the people who are doing the job," Linda Briscoe, president of the Winton Hills Citizen Action Association, told Ms. Owens Lawson. "We know where to look for help, but they don't want to deal with us. They're scared to come out here."
Still, Ms. Owens Lawson said the meeting was productive.
"The effort to make neighborhoods safer really takes courage," she said. "It's good to see that there are people in this country who are concerned about crime and where they live."
But after the meeting, some organizers were disappointed with the message.
"I think Ms. Lawson lives in a Utopia," said Gordon Mayer, a spokesman for National People's Action, an Illinois-based organization that encompasses 302 neighborhood associations across the country. "We need to bring people out here so they can find out what people think, not what Washington thinks."
Others said the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gen. McCaffrey's department, does not understand the problems of Mill Creek residents.
"They don't seem to know what's out here," said James Evans, 44, who lives in Northside. "We're not taken seriously, because they think we're poor."
