Chester violence clouds soccer stadium's opener

Just as Chester prepares to bask in the national spotlight, the city finds itself fighting the imposing shadow of a stubborn image further intensified by a recent rash of violence.

On the weekend before the Philadelphia Union is to play its first game at its brand-new soccer stadium in the city's West End - the centerpiece of a hoped-for $500 million riverfront revival - Mayor Wendell N. Butler Jr. on Saturday declared a state of emergency after four shooting deaths in an eight-day period.

While some residents and business owners interviewed supported the mayor's action, which include beefed-up police patrols and 9 p.m. curfews in high-crime areas, others questioned why it took a soccer game to kick-start the city's response to what they viewed as a long-standing crime crisis.

"We've been in a state of emergency for the past four, five years," said Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland (D., Delaware), who lives three blocks from where a 2-year-old boy was shot and killed on June 13.

Kirkland underlines his point by driving a Dodge Durango with a bullet hole in its front - his personal reminder of the dangers of living in Chester.

"There is a state of emergency now because there is a soccer stadium opening up on Sunday, and we want to make sure the people coming in here feel safe," said Kirkland, a nine-term legislator. "And I understand that. But we've been trying to feel safe around here for a long time."

Tina Johnson said officials were overreacting. "It can't be lost on anyone that the stadium will open in a week," said Johnson, president of Chester Community Grocery Co-op. "We've had other murders when we didn't know when they were going to stop."

For Butler's part, he said he had assumed the violence would abate after the death of 2-year-old Terrence Webster. When it didn't, "I just felt I had to move to action," the mayor said.

"Unfortunately, we've had murders in our town even when I came on the police force back in the 1960s," Butler said.

This year, 11 homicides have occurred in the city, police said, compared with seven in the same period last year. This year's total does not appear extreme. Based on available statistics, the city has averaged about 20 homicides annually since 2004.

The numbers notwithstanding, some Chesterites and merchants interviewed applauded the state of emergency. "I think it's a real good thing," said Manny Gonzalez, who works at his brother's hot dog stand, John's Doggie Shop, a downtown fixture since 1948. "It should have been done a long time ago."

"I don't see how it can hurt anything," said Lisa Witomski, whose family has owned T. Frank McCall's Inc., a janitorial supply company on Madison Street, since 1957.

For at least one businessman, the curfew posed a dilemma. The owner of a 24-hour convenience store in one of the target neighborhoods, he asked that his name and location not be published, saying he had received threats from young drug dealers who frequent the area. He said he routinely calls police to come by so he can leave work.

Guns, as cheap as $10 to $15, are what he sees as the problem. "The marijuana sellers - the young guys - they have the guns," the store owner said, speaking from behind protective Plexiglas.

Still, he said he hopes the state of emergency ends soon. He says business is off about $500 a day since it began.

While it is too early to tell if the state of emergency is having an effect, Police Maj. John E. Gretsky said the last few nights have been quiet.

Officers are patrolling "hot spots" with help from Delaware County sheriff's deputies, the state police, and U.S. marshals. Gretsky said the slayings appeared drug-related.

Police identified the latest homicide victim as Diamere Reed, 20, of New Castle County, Del., who was found in a kneeling position and leaning against an abandoned front porch on Rose Street on Saturday. He had been shot many times, according to police.

State police have been working with Chester for months, said Lt. Myra Taylor, a spokeswoman. She said that if needed, state police would send in helicopters, drug dogs, tactical bicycle units, and undercover operations.

Philadelphia Union officials said the recent crimes would have no effect on the team's sold-out Sunday game. At PPL Park, the only commotion was the noise of construction and the whirr of drills. The team said it planned no added security measures.

The slayings and the attendant publicity have been setbacks for a city that has fallen precipitously from its days as an industrial powerhouse but lately has shown some signs of ascendancy.

Along with the soccer stadium near the Commodore Barry Bridge, the riverfront also is the venue for a Harrah's casino. It rises on the site of the old Sun shipyard, once one of the world's most prolific builders of ships. At its peak in World War II, the company employed as many as 34,000 workers. Since 1950, Chester's population has fallen from about 66,000 to fewer than 37,000.

Other employers once included Scott Paper Co. and Ford Motor Co. But the war's end and a changing economy ravaged the city's riverfront industries and, ultimately, the city, itself. Motorists getting off I-95 to head to the casino pass dilapidated housing and vacant lots.

Witomski said the city's problems with violence were not easily solved. "There are some negative aspects of Chester that are so insidious, and so difficult to correct," she said. "They are generational, and so deep."

Johnson, who runs the grocery co-op, likened the waterfront development to painting a deteriorated house.

"If the foundation is cracked," she said, "it doesn't matter how pretty it looks."

That said, some see cause for optimism in the city. Said Witomski, the McCall's owner: "Wonderful things have been happening in Chester."