Byron Ostergren peers through his wire-rimmed sunglasses at the red brick condominium building on the corner of Laurel and Farmington and pronounces "The Willoughby is on its way up."

Built in 1920, the four-story Willoughby houses some 50 units and a few street level stores. Ostergren, standing at the mailbox on the northwest corner of Farmington and Laurel, points to Brenda McCumber's flower garden, happy in the summer sun, as a main reason he considers the corner in a crescendo.

Ostergren serves in the thankless role of condominium association president, a job he's held for four years. He owns his unit in the Willoughby, so he knows the complaints the residents lodge.

The elevator hasn't worked in almost two months. The lock on the front door, or the glass on the door itself mysteriously break monthly. Homeless people sleep in the laundry room, sometimes stealing clothes.

Prostitutes and johns break the locks on the steel fire doors, turn their tricks in the stairwells, and leave dirty condoms behind. At least they protect themselves.

Druggies use the entrance, stash their bags in radiators and light up or shoot up, or sneak into an apartment where an addict lives to partake in their substances.

Condo association bylaws make eviction difficult, Ostergren says, and absentee landlords don't help the situation. Hiring a management company to collect back condo fees has helped, Ostergren says, but the condo association can't afford a security service, and the on-site super moved away years ago.

The cleaning company, hired by Tom Shelto, the landlord who owns more than 10 units in the complex, fails to keep up with the dirty rubbers, vodka bottles and urine smells.

Last week, I reported that Shelto owed $7,900 in back taxes on six units in the Willoughby (paid taxes = better city services, like police?). I showed Ostergren a copy of the city's list of delinquent taxpayers. Ostergren knows he's on there with a $240 debt. He pointed out Shelto owns four more Willoughby units, which owe $1,425 in back taxes for a total of $9,325. Shelto was unavailable for comment.

Yet just as Ostergren says the problems inside and those outside on the corner of Farmington and Laurel are interchangeable, Willoughby resident Steve Hesse agrees. Hesse has lived in the Willoughby eight years.

"I don't want to trash the building," Hesse says. "The problems with the building are the problems with the neighborhood. Once the neighborhood is cleaned up, then the problems with the building will disappear."

Would a police substation on the corner, where the National Guard recruiting center was, help?

"There is an empty desk in the hall of the Willoughby, and it would be perfect for our community service officer to do paperwork at," Hesse says.

The police have keys to the building, and some officers have told residents they are interested in the substation, says resident Stephen Bishop.

"The problems in the Willoughby would go away if the cops were there," Bishop says.

Resident Carmen Hernandez, who lives in a unit owned by absentee landlord Paul Cruz (who owes $240 in back taxes), isn't so sure police presence would help.

"People are gonna do whatever they're gonna do, no matter what," Hernandez says.

If there is a sign on the door and no police there, a substation would be useless, Ostergren says. Plus, he says a substation might simply create a shifting tendency, and he points to the migration of dealers further west down Farmington. The move, Ostergren claims, has happened because of McCumber's garden.

"I don't know that police would help the building," he says. "They can't see every entrance and exit, so the police would never know. And the drug dealing would just move down the street."

Ideally, Ostergren would like to see businesses that operate only on a 9 to 5 basis in the front of the Willoughby. That way, anyone hanging around after hours you know would be up to no good.

When the dealers shuffle their trade down the street, someone else must deal with it. Ostergren says legalization and medicalization wouldn't help. He maintains a black market will always exist.

Just as prostitution has always and will always exist.

Which is why I think we must overcome the hypocrisy of Hester Prynne country. Visitors from afar note the shameful stocks still standing in front of the Old State House.

Hartford must explore how the city Ð its people, its health, its economy -- might benefit from the establishment of an Amsterdam-styled, well-policed, medically supervised red light/drug-usage district.

Otherwise, we'll clean up the Willoughby, and South Marshall will worsen. And we'll tidy up South Marshall, and Forrest will deteriorate. And we'll fix Forrest, and Gillette will sink into the illegal sex and drug morass. It stops when we change the laws and deal with these issues with compassion.

8/10/05

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"The problems with the building are the problems with the neighborhood. Once the neighborhood is cleaned up, then the problems with the building will disappear."

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"The problems with the building are the problems with the neighborhood. Once the neighborhood is cleaned up, then the problems with the building will disappear."