Workers and passersby to the scene said the neighborhood is mostly quiet, but general issues with poverty, housing and substance abuse occasionally create problems.
At a McDonald’s restaurant across from the strip mall, workers said people often loiter at the intersection. Gunshots are rare, they said, but fights break out from time to time, sometimes inside the restaurant.
The situation grew bad enough that last year that the restaurant closed its seating area and bathrooms to the public by walling them off from the order counter. Employees now use the spacious seating area as a coat and break room.
Police sometimes force loiterers to move along, but they often return within minutes, said Pamela Gray, a worker at the restaurant.
She said she hasn’t noticed the city helping with the situation in any other capacity.
“I don’t think they do enough,” she said.
Source link
