---

Leaders of the The Asbury Park Community Action Network [AP CAN] hosted a bus tour of the city’s West Side Friday.

AP CAN is a grassroots initiative led by faith-based groups in the city. It was started in November of last year in response to a spate of shootings that occurred in the city. The bus tour was organized by members of AP CAN’s housing and law enforcement committees.

The tour is meant for organizers and city officials to begin to take inventory of properties to discern whether they are rented or owned, and what can be done as a collaborative effort to work with the landlords to increase the quality of life for residents.

Those on the tour included Pastor Derinzer Johnson, co-chair of AP CAN, other members of the city’s clergy, Mayor Myra Campbell, Councilman John Moor, City Manager John “Jack” Kelly, Social Services Director Anthony Nuccio, Police Chief Mark Kinmon, Capt. Anthony Salerno, Patrick Durkin, director of real estate development for Interfaith Neighbors, city resident Daniel Harris, who sits on the housing committee for AP CAN, and other members of the AP CAN initiative.

The just under 2-hour tour kicked off at St. Stephen’s AME Zion Church and covered most of the southwest quadrant of the city. It started on a positive note, with the bus halting in front of the future site of Springwood Avenue Park.

From there, the tour stopped in the area of Ridge Avenue and Ivy Place along the Asbury Park and Neptune border, where several shootings have taken place within the past months and a city woman was a recently robbed at gunpoint.

Homes in the area are allegedly used as hideouts for drug dealers and gang members, according to resident Daniel Harris. The groups travel between the borders of the two municipalities through back yards of homes in the area, he said.

Although police monitor the area, along with other areas the bus traveled through, the people who are selling drugs conduct counter surveillance and there is no regular pattern set up for police to track, which makes it difficult for police to track, Chief Kinmon said. However, the police department is working to get more cameras installed in the areas and the cameras will be tied into a system that will allow both Neptune and Asbury Park police access to view them, he said.

The packed Asbury Park Senior Center bus also traveled down Washington Avenue, an area of high crime, DeWitt Avenue, portions of Bangs Avenue and the end of Mattison Avenue with discussions taking place about several of the properties the bus stopped in front of along the way.

Problems of slum landlords and code enforcement were discussed several times.

Part of the issue with slum landlords and other property owners are that they operate under Limited Liability Corporations, which gives them the ability to change the name of the corporation and stay in operation without any personal liability if the LLC. is issued several summonses or fines, Capt. Salerno said. Salerno heads up the code enforcement department.

One of the last stops on the tour was the building that once housed the old Turf Club, located across from the Springwood Center on Sprongwood Avenue. The yellow building has been closed for some time and the exterior facade shows it.

“The fact that it is allowed to sit there with peeling paint and everyone who travels this main throroughfare sees that … that building has been able to sit like that for years,” said Partick Durkin, director of real estate development for Interfaith Neighbors.

City Manager John “Jack” Kelly took notes for follow-up, noting the locations and apparent problems of the properties discussed.

In order to cover all areas of the city for comparison, subsequent tours will be organized by AP CAN, Pastor Johnson said.

[Photo at top shows two abandoned homes in the 1500 block of Springwood Ave. Photo at right shows an abandoned home in the 1400 block of Mattison Ave.]

————————————————————

Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook and Twitter.

---