Yo, Matt Meyer, John Cartier, and the County Cops: Help Knollwood!!
I’m writing this on behalf of one of the finest people I know. And on behalf of the residents of Knollwood who are desperately trying to rid their community of major ongoing drug dealing there. Dealing that has gone on for years. You are all aware of it. And only you can change it. You could and should have addressed it by now. But you haven’t. Please step up!
Well, not Cartier. Personal to ‘Councilman’ Cartier: Quit. Retire. Your career-long failure/unwillingness to do ANYTHING to help the people of Knollwood won’t change until you GTFO. Your office NEVER has done shit when it comes to constituent services other than to explain why they can’t/won’t provide them. Your inaction is causing real heartache for the people who live in Knollwood, and placing them in jeopardy. Stick your oversized checks where the sun don’t shine, and retire to collect your ill-deserved pension.
Matt Meyer: You made a big deal about how you were gonna help Knollwood. Remember? Wasn’t that long ago. Get sidetracked by political ambitions, or didn’t you ever intend to follow through? Detecting a pattern here. Fulfill your promises. But most importantly, have the County cops leave prospective challengers to Franklin Cooke alone, and make them clean out the drug houses up there, shut them down, and, if they can, lock up the slumlords. Like, do it today! Everybody knows which houses are the drug houses. Except seemingly the county cops. Maybe they should, you know, ask somebody??!!
To Larry Lambert and Kyle Evans Gay: I know that you have just had Knollwood added to your districts due to the recent redistricting. I love you both. Now’s the time to insist that all this Alphonse/Gaston crap up there has to stop. Insist that the buck-passing cease, and that those responsible for addressing the issues there actually address them. Except, of course, for Cartier, who has retired but continues to collect a paycheck.
If I sound angry, it’s because I am. The person who I referenced earlier is not only one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, but I have never seen this person openly depressed or despondent. Until now. Until tonight. It’s the government’s failure to provide help that has made this person feel that there is next to no hope. Time is running out. Do what you were elected to do: Help the people who need help.
in my view two words define the current view of Knollwood, “Gentrification target’. The game as I see it is to NOT fix the problems to drive prices down to give speculators an opportunity to suck up property and play the medium, long game until the community becomes walking distance to the new development across the street. Then as quick as you can say BPG there will be a “redevelopment” complete with west center city style private cops. The neighborhood will then get “fixed” by driving out the community of folks that need an affordable place to live!
This can and must NOT be the result!
I echo all these sentiments. It’s awful how we allow whole neighborhoods to deteriorate while we look the other way.
One quibble. I’m very very skeptical of the idea the NCCo police can do anything helpful or good.
I second that quibble.
A quibble about your quibbles. (Man, ‘quibble’ is a great word.)
They CAN, it’s not the toughest thing to do.
History has demonstrated that they WON’T.
If the neighbors ban together and make multiple and daily anonymous complaints to the police about the suspect residences, then action will be taken on these nuisance properties….unless the police are told to stand down.
Trust me–they have. Over and over again. This has been ongoing for years.
Maybe Joe’s right–make conditions untenable there so that developers can swoop in.
Really? So it’s impossible to SWAT someone in Delaware?
Oh, wait, you mean they’ve called to complain it’s a drug house. No, no, no, no, no. You call and say there’s a guy with a gun holding hostages in there.
Most SWATing is simple revenge. Imagine how pleased the cops will be to actually find a drug operation instead.
In my case, I spoke with the local police. The police suggested I make multiple complaints over time about the nuisance property. The police in this particular case forwarded the complaints to the landlord and the offending individual was evicted. It wasn’t a SWAT just legitimate complaints and thus a low-level drug dealer and his clientele were expelled from the neighborhood. This, however, is within a mostly gentrifying (poor whites to rich whites) community.
Here is the promise Matt Meyer made to the residents of Knollwood back in March of this year:
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2022/03/17/new-castle-county-delaware-targets-knollwood-new-effort-help-communities/7063634001/
A quote:
“Building Better Communities will first focus on Claymont’s Knollwood community, then be rolled out to other areas across the county. Meyer called the program a “historic opportunity to reimagine the communities in which we live.”
He added that the initiative will “address problems that arose in recent months and divisions that have festered for decades.”
Matt Meyer didn’t follow through on his promise. Perhaps never intended to. Word on the street is that he’s moved on to other communities, peddling the same promises as he gears up for a run for Governor.
I wrote about this in glowing terms when it was first introduced. I never dreamed that he didn’t mean a word he said. But, it seems like he didn’t. Until he proves otherwise, he’s a phony, at least in my eyes.
To the author. Thank you! I’m a homeowner in Knollwood and have made calls, sent pictures, emailed, and requested meetings but would be canceled at the last minute because”something” came up on their end. The ongoing drug dealing all hours of the day and night with NO arrests or raids have only gotten worse, slumlords do as they please with no consequences seen, a fake civic association was set up and money given to them so they can have a community event but the only people there were all related to the drug dealers and slumlord, people walk around with phones to warn when the cops are in the neighborhood, the drug dealing is happening while their children are only a matter of feet away from them so how is that not considered child abuse, the drug addicts are used for cheap labor by the drug dealers AND from people outside of the community, people are sleeping outside and you don’t know if they’re sleeping or overdosed. Trust me when I say EVERYBODY knows whats going on in knollwood.
A fake civic association huh?
Well as someone that’s a part of the knollwood civic association I must say this person is clearly talking out their ass on multiple points because we had a massive turnout for the 102 year celebration and was only given enough funds to help offset the cost of all that was there. Oh, and almost the entire neighborhood came out that could so these references that only drug dealers and their families attended is way off from any truth. The civic association has also worked extremely hard to end the needle exchange that used to be weekly in there and are happy to see it discontinued.
So I agree that more must be done by law enforcement and landlords seeing strict precedents and principles that will not be gone against without immediate action to remove them from the community…
But I also agree this neighborhood has been given so much that it takes for granted that even when efforts are made to improve it, folks like above don’t help only complain and it’s left to a core group of people that don’t live there or just moved in! So who’s really letting down who? I see it as ALL sides needing to do better for their neighborhood. And we will through actions, not words, as we have been for the past year. Come see for yourself or talk to me. I’m not afraid of anything or anyone on the hill nor do I need to hide my name. My actions speak.
Politicians lie to get elected! Police are unable to do their jobs, and judges will not impose the sentences to deter crime!
Sadly this type of activity is rampant in states and cities controlled by Democrats.Only a change of political parties will effect change.Only look so far as the president who came from Delaware and his lack of concern on crime nation wide.I worked in CLAYMONT for the last seventeen years of my work career and found Delaware residents kind and respectful.It’s a shame the politicans can’t do their job their being paid for.
Sadly it’s even more rampant in states and cities controlled by Republicans. You could look it up if you knew how.
Republicans are not serious about violent crime. Sadly there has been an increase in gun violence, using guns sponsored by Republicans. It is a shame that Republican politicians are unwilling to protect us, and block all efforts to reduce the crimes caused by unregulated access to guns.
Really you think maybe Judges should impose harsher sentences to deter crime? Cops are tired of them just getting right back on the streets putting their lives in danger as well as the public. Drugs are illegal did that stop them from being available? Ban guns and only the criminals will have them. Doesn’t solve our problem. Stop drugs from coming into this Country would be a good start.
If guns in private hands stopped crime, the USA would be a crime free paradise. It isn’t.
I just ate a handful of rainbow fentanyl candy
“Lappy” the laptop ™ invented rainbow fentanyl in Nancy Pelosi’s kitchen!
That little scamp!!
I just touched it and almost died like what happens to cops.
No, that is “excited delirium.” Excited about getting three paid days off.