North Commerce Avenue: Street of pain

Five months into the year, police calls to North Commerce Avenue in Waynesboro already total 140, an average of roughly one a day.

The shootings, stabbings, fights and domestic disputes raise thorny questions for officials, who remain divided about a neighborhood where people say they’re too paralyzed to act on their own.

It’s only a brief window into another year on the even-numbered side of Commerce, a street regarded for trouble and a factory for grim headlines.

Last month, a man was shot in the foot while police conducted a security patrol. Nine days ago, John Kelley Miller, 44, who lived at 260 N. Commerce Ave., was found dead in the South River.

The reputation spawned by stories such as those wrongfully stains both sides of a street split by railroad tracks and a struggle to escape crime’s grip.

Sitting on the porch of 239 N. Commerce Ave. on Friday, Carolyn Hewitt, 63, looked across the street at two other apartment buildings. Loiterers stood in doorways and children ran in the street.

Hewitt shook her head. No one knows what to expect over there, she said. Not in the daylight and not after nightfall, when some pizza shops refuse to deliver on Commerce.

“You’re gonna have trouble anywhere you go, but it’s just ridiculous down there,” Hewitt said. “I’d like to see it come back and be a part of the town, but I don’t know if it ever will."

‘We’re not the problem’
Most of the flare-ups along the street occur at two adjacent buildings owned by Bobby Jardine, of Augusta County. Dispatches referring to the addresses, 260 and 280 N. Commerce, commonly crackle across police scanner waves.

Jardine, 31, vowed last year to crack down on problem tenants and keep away visitors who bring trouble. But the reputation clings.

“It is what it is,” Jardine said. “These are lower-income rentals.”

A landlord across the street, Lewis Price, said he and his tenants have grown weary of being lumped into the stereotype generated by their neighbors’ run-ins with the law.

LeAne Ratliff said she used to live at 260 N. Commerce before choosing to move across the street.

“People who mess around and cause trouble, they don’t stay here,” she said of her building. “Lewis runs ‘em on outta here.”

Police this year have responded calls at 260 N. Commerce 105 times, according to department records. They responded to 280 N. Commerce 32 times. In 2009, police responded to 260 N. Commerce almost 300 times, records show.

Across the tracks, tenants had to search their memories to recall the three times police responded to their building.

The blight along the avenue shows few signs of the social hub Commerce used to be. Pictures from the 1940s show restaurants, a busy sidewalk and few vacant parking spots.

“I’d like to see some kind of restaurant,” Hewitt said. “Or a clothing store. You know, I don’t think that’ll ever happen again, They’ve let this go. It’s unreal."

Lacking direction
The churn of crime on Commerce has prompted the Waynesboro Police Department to incorporate daily foot patrols and occasional Clean Team efforts, police Chief Doug Davis said.

“I think we need to build a partnership with those who live there,” the chief said.

Capt. Charlie Coker said trespassing and lack of street lighting are two big problems along the street.

Members of the City Council pointed in different directions for solutions.

Ward D Councilwoman Lorie Smith said the first step is gathering stakeholders around the same table. That group would include Davis, the council, city staff and business owners, she said.

“It is going to take a coalition, it’s going to take people who want their neighborhood back,” she said.

Councilman Bruce Allen said he’s familiar with the problems on Commerce because he uses several businesses along the street. He proposed more police intervention.

“I am interested in going to pursue anything,” he said. “Especially if it supports the police department trying to fix that problem.”

Even with more saturated patrols, Davis said, the police department’s role is mostly reactionary. That makes it difficult to initiate long-term solutions, he said.

Pointing fingers
Commerce Avenue sits in Ward A, represented by Mayor Tim Williams. No resident with whom The News Virginian spoke for this story could identify him. Jardine said he’s never seen the mayor along Commerce.

Williams did not return phone calls from The News Virginian.

If the mayor won’t offer solutions, Mike Harris, who will take over Smith’s seat in Ward D when the new council term begins, said he’d help lead the charge.

“The community’s going to have to come together,” said Harris, a former state police lieutenant. “What I would encourage them to do is try to get in touch with their representative. If that fails, then I’m available. And it should happen on their turf. They should not necessarily have to come to City Hall.”

Harris suggested starting a neighborhood watch program, setting up a meeting with Williams and landlords and providing tenants reason to feel empowered.

Commerce Avenue business owners Vicky and J.R. Ferreira said solutions rest in the hands of government and landlords.

“The problem is a paradox,” Vicky Ferreira said. “It’s between state regulation and the quality of life that society tolerates.”

The Ferreiras placed most of the blame on Jardine. He “bit off more than he could chew” when he bought the buildings last year, they said.

“There is such a thing as a credit check,” Vicky Ferreira said. “Why are you continuing to bring that sect of people in?”

Jardine said his biggest problems arrive with people who don’t live at the buildings.

“They come over and assume they can move in with a tenant,” he said.

Even worse, the process for removing a non-paying tenant is the same as removing a paying tenant. It takes up to two months to complete, he said.

Waiting for partnership
Assistant City Manager Jim Shaw said Commerce Avenue sits in a designated city revitalization area. The location, next to Route 340 and in the corridor down Afton Mountain, is potentially a prime spot for business, he said. Still, real change will occur when the tenants stand up for themselves, Shaw said.

“They have to want to create a better environment for themselves,” he said. “I think the city has a role there. Obviously, we’re sending police there. But there has to be a partnership. A lot of times local government is run by the people who show up.”

Shaw said a 1990s movement in the Tree Streets district helped mobilize a change in zoning. But that involved many homeowners with a vested interest in their property, he said. Many people living along Commerce are renters, he said.

“I feel sympathetic to the plight of someone who feels stuck, but I’m unsure how to get them unstuck,” Shaw said.

Sitting on her porch with a glass of iced tea, Carolyn Hewitt reminisced about better times.

“I wish we had some kind of businesses over here,” Hewitt said, staring across the street. “I’d like to see it how it used to be.”