A major crime sweep should make life a bit safer for residents in the Pittsburgh community, just south of downtown Atlanta.
On Thursday, authorities announced the results of their 3-month-long effort, called Operation Steel Curtain: the arrest of 105 people for crimes that include being fugitives, involvement in street gangs, probation violations, burglaries, carjackings, drugs and homicides.
Also taken off the streets were 45 firearms, including handguns and assault rifles, officials said. Almost $4,000 cash and more than $81,000 in drugs were seized.
“It’s about time the city got serious about turning around the neighborhood,” said 81-year-old Wendell Pyron, his arms shaking with barely pent-up emotion. The retired Southern Bell employee has lived in Pittsburgh most of his life.
“What happened here should have happened long ago,” Pyron said. “What Pittsburgh needs is a clean community….If you sell drugs, we don’t want you here!”
Several law enforcement agencies, including the Atlanta Police Department, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, took part in the sweep.
The neighborhood was founded in 1883 as a black working-class suburb alongside the Pegram rail shops. Today, Pittsburgh is relatively poor and underdeveloped, but many see hope for an economic renewal for the area. Community leaders say it will start when people feel the area is safe.
Before a late-morning press conference to announce results of the sweep, former state Rep. Doug Dean said such efforts are “key” to improving the community’s image and attracting new residents.
“If people don’t believe it’s safe, nobody will move into the community,” Dean said. Likewise, some residents need to get beyond their “anti-police attitude,” he said.
“The only thing that’s going to make a difference is the involvement in the community with the police,” the representative said.
Residents have participated in neighborhood trash pickups and several events to increase citizen and police visibility. They have joined police in conducting a “streetlight inventory” to document lights that are not working, said APD spokesman Carlos Campos.
LaShawn Hoffman, CEO of the Pittsburgh Community Improvement Association, called the combination of extra police patrols, neighborhood clean-ups and home renovations with federal backing a “holistic approach” that is helping to reverse the neighborhood’s decline.
“We want to provide quality affordable homes that people can move into,” Hoffman said. “All this work supports this effort.”
He said the community organization recently completed makeovers of two of the dozens of houses it has acquired with federal grant money, and has received about 60 rental inquiries. “People now feel a little safer,” he said.
The Pittsburgh community made headlines earlier this year when two young men were sentenced to five years in prison and five years on probation for the YouTube-recorded beating of Brandon White, a gay man, as he exited a convenience store in the Pittsburgh community.
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