In the continuing saga of crime, abandonment, blight and vandalism in city neighborhoods, today's chapter features Sheraden, where anger and frustration has reached fever-pitch in recent weeks.

The usual handful of community activists has swollen to dozens, catalyzed by the Pittsburgh Housing Authority's interest in buying 10 homes, scattered through the neighborhood, for low-income clients. At a large and uproarious meeting with authority officials recently, more than 75 people turned out to protest.

	Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Nicole Flemister debates with Helen O'Donnell, left, at a community meeting. -- "Some people are judging everyone [who's black] for the actions of a few." Click photo for larger image.

They say the neighborhood will deteriorate further with more public housing. They also say the city neglects them and cite a rise in crime, more youth hanging out on the streets and building-code violations.

Pittsburgh's 15th largest neighborhood has about 5,800 people.

Councilman Dan Deasy's District 2 has the least public housing of any -- 4.7 percent. But in Sheraden itself, 10 percent of the occupied housing is owned by the Housing Authority or by landlords who accept subsidy vouchers from its clients.

Justified or not, much discussion at community meetings links subsidized housing to quality of life issues, from drug dealing and gunshots to garbage in the streets. As a counterpoint to that attitude, quality of life is what the Housing Authority is trying to offer its clients with scattered-site homes instead of isolating them in complexes once known as projects.

A. Fulton Meachem Jr., executive director of the authority, said his agency is required to find decent housing for 29 households that were flooded out of Broadhead Manor, in nearby Fairywood, in 2004.

"Where are low-income families supposed to live?" he said, defending his agency's clients. "The vast majority are great people."

The Housing Authority estimates that more than half its clients work and pay taxes. It investigates complaints and takes action if its tenants are violating its rules, said Mr. Meachem.

Sheraden resident Ginny Hamer-Kropf said her neighborhood has absorbed more than its fair share of subsidized tenants and is losing its population of home owners.

Joe Krobot said he is losing so much business at the Sheraden Market, a former Foodland, that he is considering closing. He has worked in that store since his father bought it in the 1960s.

"We have a terrible problem with stealing," he said. "I'm losing a lot of money. I'd like to sell, and I've talked to people [in the grocery business], but no one has responded."

In spite of everything, some of Sheraden's statistics don't look so bad. According to the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research, it falls between Point Breeze and Highland Park in the number of owner occupied housing units, with 1,608. Its vacancy rate is 9 percent. Fifty-seven of 90 neighborhoods have more vacancies.

	Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Ginny Hamer-Kropf says her neighborhood has absorbed more than its fair share of subsidized tenants and is losing its population of home owners. Click photo for larger image.

Debora Whitfield said the neighborhood has "good things. The community council is active, and they do a lot of good." Sheraden has baseball and softball associations and Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.

"There are things for kids to do," she said, "but they might not be things kids want to do. The community can provide, but parents have to follow through on their end."

Her four grown children were her family's fifth generation to have graduated from Langley High School. She said she is certain the line will end there.

"If we don't start taking responsibility for our neighborhood, we're not going to have our neighborhood."

Joanna Doven, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's spokeswoman, said most calls to the mayor's 311 hotline from Sheraden are about building code violations. The Bureau of Building Inspection has written thousands of citations on properties in Sheraden, but enforcement goes wanting in housing court, city officials say.

At a recent meeting with the Post-Gazette, 32 people turned out on a day's notice to plead for attention. They were all white. Nicole Flemister came in toward the end and spoke as a black resident who shares the same concerns.

"Some people are judging everyone [who's black] for the actions of a few," she said. "I graduated from Langley, too. I have three small children, and I don't let them go out. My air conditioner got hit twice [with bullets]." During the meeting, a rock hit the window.

John Roell said he has been sending photos of building-code violations to the city for years. "The same addresses, the same problems every time," he said. "We have dangerous sidewalks, abandoned cars and houses, vandalism. I called Zone 3 and was cautioned I was being irate. We are so disgusted and fed up, making appeal after appeal. They let us rant and promise to ride around. Then we're swept under the carpet."

Any neighborhood plagued by slumlords "has to ask itself why," said Michelle Jackson-Washington, deputy director of the Housing Authority. "An active community will grab control." Residents who are unified can pressure new tenants "to adhere to the rules and regulations the street adheres to."

"No one wants to see gangs of kids hanging out and drug dealing on their corner," said Officer Christine Luffey, who attends many community meetings. "That's hard to swallow. I don't want to see that in my neighborhood, either."

Brian Uansa has lived for 40 years in Sheraden and said he sees preteen children "going around breaking windows. When the police come, they say they can't do anything about it. Is there any reason we should put up with this?"

Residents say the city's removal of the West End police station four years ago was devastating.

"I wish public urination and drunk college kids were our worst problem," said one woman at a meeting. She was referring to the South Side, where the Zone 3 station is now. Its officers are responsible for covering the entire portion of the city south and west of the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers except Lincoln Place and New Homestead. The Zone 3 area is roughly the size of the chunk of city inside the rivers, which is covered by three zone stations.

Councilman Deasy said police attention has not been adequate in Sheraden because of the demands on Zone 3. "We need to get that [West End] station reopened, but we need more officers before we can."

With guidance from Kim Graziani, the mayor's director of neighborhood initiatives, eight of Mr. Deasy's district neighborhoods have applied as one group for Weed and Seed designation from the U.S. Department of Justice and a potential $1 million over five years.

The decision is expected soon.

Federal Weed and Seed money pays for additional policing to "weed out" criminal elements and blight and "seed" human services and intervention efforts. It has oversight of the local U.S. attorney.

As president of the Sheraden Community Council, Sam Palombini sits on the Weed and Seed task force.

"We have a lot of empty houses," he said. "Building inspection can only do so much. Then in housing court, you get postponements, or the judge throws it out."

The Rev. Donald Buchleitner, pastor of the Church of Holy Innocents, said last week someone tried to break into the gymnasium and that kids and teenagers throwing balls have damaged the church's stained glass windows to the tune of about $5,000 and broken windows in the convent.

"Who is running this insane asylum we're living in?" asked Mr. Roell. "If you wanted to design a way to destroy a neighborhood, you'd come up with something like what's happening here."