New police station opens in Allentown
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Zone 3 police station on East Warrington Avenue in Allentown.
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Pittsburgh's Zone 3 police station moved quietly this week from the South Side to Allentown, where it's hard to miss.
The four-story building at Warrington and Arlington avenues is surrounded by bright lights and eye-catching signs, a contrast from the previous location at 1725 Mary St., about a mile away. Thursday was the first roll call at the new station, which still smells of fresh paint.
The station switch was Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's response to a rash of violence last summer on the Hilltop. Some South Side residents lamented the move as a loss yesterday, and police and neighbors questioned whether a station's location can really have an impact on crime.
"I can't say I'm happy to see it go," said Virginia Carik, a board member of the South Side Community Council. Police visibility on East Carson Street has been a concern for some residents since the move. Others, like Ms. Carik, are worried about slower police response to the bar fights and rowdy crowds that are a daily reality on the bar-clogged strip.
"A few minutes away can mean a lot," she said.
Zone 3 Cmdr. Catherine McNeilly, whose zone stretches from Mount Washington to Arlington Heights and from Banksville to Carrick, said response times won't change.
Police officers leave the station after roll call to patrol smaller sections of the precinct, responding to incidents from wherever their squad cars are located, she said.
"We're more efficient when we're mobile," she said. "I realize the community feels safer with us on the South Side, but the fact of the matter is it doesn't matter where we are."
Meanwhile, crime-weary residents on the Hilltop said the building's mere presence has lifted morale for a community familiar with shootings, blight and other social ills. Judy Hackel, head of the Allentown Community Redevelopment Corporation, called the building a "beautiful gateway to the Hilltop," though she acknowledged it won't completely cure crime.
Passers-by yesterday paused to gaze at the station, some peering through the glass door.
"There's already been people stopping by to thank us for being here," Detective Stephen B. Kramer said.
For police, the Allentown accommodations are, by most measures, an improvement. The building, once a youth hostel, offers a workout room, a large conference room, rooms for filing reports and rooms for taking breaks.
It's more secure than the previous station, as visitors must be buzzed in for access. The Mary Street station was smaller and problematic; the state mandated costly repairs last year after inspections revealed a cockroach infestation, water leaks, mold in the basement, thick dust on ventilation grills, and concerns about lead in a basement area that was once a firing range.
Parking for squad cars and officers' personal vehicles is scarce, but "we'll make it work," Cmdr. McNeilly said.
Across the street from the new station, Amjad Mehmood, who works at Dairy Mart, wondered whether the move would make the convenience store safer. He said clerks there have been robbed at gunpoint many times in recent months.
"Now they're here," he said. "So I hope things will change."
First Published April 18, 2009 12:00 am
