Residents met with city officials at a Sumner Avenue church to discuss ways to reduce crime in the neighborhood.
SPRINGFIELD — The sprawling, multi-ethnic Forest Park section of Springfield, home to some of the city's finest architecture, is a study in contrasts.
On the one hand, it's home to a burgeoning Asian population that lives alongside the neighborhood's long-established Jewish community and other ethnic groups. On the other, it's the community that leads the city in homicides so far this year.
Despite the well-preserved Colonial, Queen Anne and Tudor Revival homes that line streets in the Forest Park Heights Historic District, which was cited by This Old House as one of the "Best Old House Neighborhoods" in the Northeast, crime weighs heavily on the minds of some neighborhood residents.
On Tuesday evening, residents hoping to see their neighborhood lick its reputation as a hotspot for crimes ranging from shootings to armed robberies gathered at Faith United Church on Sumner Avenue for a discussion with city officials, including Springfield Police Commissioner William Fitchet and members of the City Council's public health and safety committee.
"This is our neighborhood and we need to take it back," Brenda Hodge told CBS 3 Springfield, media partner of The Republican/MassLive.com.
Hodge was among those who voiced concerns about crimes small and large, from simple quality-of-life issues to an increase in gunfire, which has already killed three neighborhood residents since late May.
Hodge, a 30-year resident of Forest Park, said she has no plans to move from her Riverview Street home, but she's seeking solutions from the officials and police who govern and patrol her neighborhood, respectively. "It's scary to wake up and look out your window and see something like that happening outside your house," she told the TV station.
Officials and residents discussed various crime-fighting options, from creating neighborhood watch groups to better harnessing technology to deter and solve crimes. The BADGE unit, a special police deployment in the neighborhood, has made its presence felt by conducting regular foot patrols in the business district, and about 20 new police officers are soon expected to be on the job.
But more needs to be done, according to some crime-weary residents.
High-crime pockets include the stretch of lower Belmont Avenue heading toward the South End and streets surrounding the "X" commercial district, which is near the geographic center of the neighborhood. But even quieter sections of the community, including streets south and east of the "X," are now experiencing an uptick in gun crimes, upending conventional wisdom about what areas to avoid.
Recent shootings include back-to-back gunfire early Saturday morning on Johnson Street, about four blocks northwest of the "X." There were no reported injuries, but police found ample evidence of an apparent gun battle that damaged vehicles and the front of a triple-decker apartment building near the corner of Johnson and Dickinson streets.
And just last week, two people narrowly avoided injury when the car they were in was shot up on lower Belmont near Woodside Terrace.
"I love Forest Park," Hodge said, vowing to continue to come to community meetings to brainstorm ways to rid the neighborhood of crime.
"I think it's a great neighborhood," she said. "Great people live here, it's very diverse and I like that about it, and I refuse to give it up."
Material from CBS 3 Springfield and The Republican was used in this report.