08/29/2014
VICTIMS NO MORE
July 21, 1997 - Albuquerque Journal
Page: 1
Patrick Armijo Journal Staff Writer
RETAIL
* Merchants throughout the city take steps to fight crime. Every month Larry Rainosek, owner of the Frontier Restaurant in Albuquerque, writes checks intended to keep crime at bay.The checks roll out -- $500 here, $700 there, and a big one for $3,000 to pay for private security at his landmark restaurant on Central across from the University of New Mexico.The Frontier [also an Employers Protective Services Client] budgets about $5,000 a month to prevent crime or to deal with the after-effects of things like vandalism and graffiti.Rainosek is not alone when it comes to hefty expenditures to fight crime. Retailers across the city are spending plenty to get more sophisticated and aggressive in dealing with the problem.While there may be an initial financial outlay for crime prevention, most merchants agree it pays off in the end.Among the programs in place to fight crime:* The Nob Hill Shopping Center and the Old Town Merchants Association have hired private security. The patrols cruise the areas to prevent trouble.* The Downtown Action Team has organized a lighting audit in an effort to brighten the area and eliminate dark trouble spots.* Old Town merchants initiated police bike patrols in the early 1990s. The patrols have spread to the UNM area, Nob Hill, Downtown and portions of the Northeast Heights.* Members of the Old Town Merchants Association meet monthly with their private security firm and police to compare notes on crime and talk about new approaches. They also have started a crime hot line, or phone tree, to quickly alert each other if a shoplifter or quick-change artist is working the area.Although merchants say they don't have statistics to prove an actual decrease in crime, their sense is that increased crime-fighting efforts appear to be paying off."What happens if you show any tolerance for the little things like panhandling and graffiti is that eventually you become a gathering place for a bad crowd," Rainosek said. "If you're a soft touch, the folks who aren't the most savory characters will be around. Eventually, it will kill you."Crime statistics from the Albuquerque Police Department show that larceny was down from 1995 to 1996 in three of the five bigger retail areas of the city. Property damage and vandalism, however, were up a bit in all five of the areas.Old Town origins. In Old Town, Jim Hoffsis, owner of the Treasure House on the Plaza, was one of the leaders behind a push that led the city to put officers on bikes."Two officers who were into biking came up to me, and they gave me some literature about other cities trying this," he said.To Hoffsis, Old Town's narrow streets, nooks and crannies seemed ideal for bikes. However, the city had no budget for the operation.Hoffsis went around to merchants and collected $1,300 to pay for two bikes.Six years later, Hoffsis said, "I've been here for 25 years, and this is the best crime deterrent I've ever seen."The city agrees and now foots the bill for the operation -- which has spread well beyond Old Town.Hoffsis said being on bikes allows officers to become more knowledgeable about the daily problems merchants might be dealing with."There's a personal contact you have with the bike patrols that you don't get with a car," he said.If a community is focused and committed to reducing crime, Hoffsis said, results can be obtained.Tom Moses, owner of Nizoni Moses just off the Plaza, said catching shoplifters was rare in the past.But recently several shoplifters have been caught, he said, and a good deal of the credit goes to the cooperative efforts to fight crime.Nob Hill revival. Nob Hill may be the Albuquerque model for how to clean out hooligans and turn around a deteriorating retail scene."I haven't seen a pr******te in years," said Jean Bernstein, owner of the Double Rainbow. "Back in 1987, when I started, I stood on the street with a woman and a bum came up to us and panhandled. Then a ho**er walked by in her evening wear. The woman turned to me and said, 'Are you sure this is where you want to open?' ''The key to turning around Nob Hill, said Bernstein, was strong neighborhoods around the area."Ten years ago, we lived in the neighborhood, and we saw the demographics of the neighborhood change," she said. "A lot of younger families were moving in, and we also had all these nifty store fronts."Bernstein figured a nice bakery and restaurant would appeal to a more adventurous, younger crowd."Simultaneously, Scalo (Italian restaurant) was opening up, so we weren't the only ones with the idea," she said.A symbiotic relationship developed between the area's neighborhoods and emerging businesses, and the outgrowth was one of the city's most thriving small-business communities.Ed Smith of CB Metro Realtors said business owners aren't the only ones to benefit from Nob Hill's revitalization.Home owners are benefiting, too."In a soft market like the one we're experiencing, you don't see the slackness you see in other parts of the city. I have listings I'm sitting on all over the city, but the two houses I had in Nob Hill turned over (sold) right away."From the end of 1993 to the end of 1996 the average home price in Albuquerque jumped 17.7 percent. For the same period, the average home price in Nob Hill jumped 37.4 percent, based on numbers from and the Albuquerque Board of Realtors.Mike McCoun, owner of the Nob Hill Shopping Center, said the economics of Nob Hill are working to help fight crime."I think there's a critical-mass issue here," he said. "As Nob Hill has gotten more popular, it attracts more people, and that gives patrons a feeling of security. Criminals don't like to operate where there's a lot of people around."But that doesn't mean there isn't a place for security, said McCoun, who hired Employers Protective Service to help put a dent in broken windows, graffiti and vandalism."I don't think this is an end-all or anything. There's no real magic wand you can wave to improve things, but graffiti and vandalism are down," he said.Downtown action. Anna Muller, president of the Downtown Action Team, also sees the relationship between increased business activity and reduced crime."We've got to move from being viewed as marginal to being viewed as a vibrant business economy. It's all about the confidence game," she said.She said crimes like the vicious Halloween night attack on Bryan Patterson by a group of skinheads in an alley off Gold Street don't help because they scare off customers."I shudder every time a Bryan story comes out," Muller said.Right now, much of the activity associated with Downtown in the evening hours comes from the nightclubs that populate Central and Gold.But adding retailers and keeping major employers from relocating their offices out of the area would broaden that economic base, Muller said.She said the hard work is already paying off with the opening of small cafes and specialty shops.For years, the Downtown Action Team has worked to attract a name retailer, and Muller said the group probably will make "some major announcement" by the end of the year."I wouldn't want Downtown to be filled with Banana Republics and Gaps -- but getting one or two sure would be sweet," she said.Muller said even before the beating that left Patterson in a coma, merchants and club owners Downtown knew the area was too dark.A lighting audit, done with the help of the city and Public Service Company of New Mexico, is under way.Already, Muller said, it has led to better lights at the crosswalk at Fourth and Tijeras and other lighting changes on Central.Eventually, a representative of the Downtown Action Team will go to each business in the audit, asking if they'll improve their lighting based on recommendations made by PNM.Not all business operators in the area are as confident as Muller about bringing a turnaround.Stuart Dunlap, owner of The Man's Hat Shop at 511 Central SW, remembers in the early 1960s when evening shoppers began disappearing from Downtown.As far as he is concerned it still doesn't make sense for Downtown retailers to have evening hours after employees in the area have gone home.Dunlap's bread-and-butter comes from regular customers, who've spent decades getting hats, repairing them and cleaning them at his shop."I'd like to see the retail scene improve," he said. "But I don't see it happening in the near future."UNM challenge. Margaret Dye, owner of the Lyceum, a UNM-area gift shop, said she deals with plenty of crime problems at her business. If the UNM-area crime situation has improved from the 1970s and 1980s, she said she's glad she wasn't around to see it then.In the past year, she's dealt with four smashed windows. Within a three-week period in May, she had two break-ins."My insurance company is looking at me funny. I guess you really can't blame them after I put in so many claims. I guess I'd begin to wonder, too," she said.Dye just upgraded the security system at her 21/2-year-old store at 2312 Central SE. She also plans to put burglar bars on the inside of her windows.Drug dealing in the university-area also remains a problem, Dye said."We're dealing with drug addicts who are out of control," she said.Rainosek said he, too, would like to see more done to reduce crime around the Frontier, because that would make it easier to attract shoppers from all over the city.He said in addition to his monthly $5,000 payout to fight crime, he spends $16,562 annually for general business-liability insurance. The policy includes protection should an employee or a customer be injured in a crime committed at the restaurant.He believes his efforts have paid off in less graffiti and fewer incidences of vandalism and other problems.But a drop in serious offenses doesn't warrant cutting back on crime-prevention efforts, Rainosek said. In fact, he expects his deterrence efforts to grow.The Frontier has never had a robbery, but Rainosek said he'll probably add a $10,000 security camera to deter any would-be robbers."I think I owe it to my employees. If something happens, at least we'll have a record of it," he said. "This is becoming the standard if you want to stay in business."And Rainosek is committed to the area to the point that he has begun buying commercial property in the area."We're confident the area is going in the right direction," he said. "We think we can lease the property back to people who want to build good businesses."PHOTOS BY: JUN Y. HYUN/JOURNALPHOTO: Color. SHOPPERS' SENTRY: Richard Mathews, left, a security guard with Employers Protective Service, talks on his radio to company headquarters. The company provides security to Nob Hill Shopping Center.PHOTO: ColorKNOWS THE 'HOOD: Albuquerque police officer Duffy Ryan knows all the shortcuts in the University of New Mexico area. As part of his afternoon bike patrol duty, he's checking out the Frontier Restaurant's parking lot.All content copyright © 1995-2004 Albuquerque Journal and may not be republished without permission.
Send comments or questions to newslibrary@newsbank.com
