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East side neighbors frustrated with Mayor’s Action Center

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Neighbors in one east side community say they’re frustrated with graffiti and trash by their homes.

They say calls to the City of Indianapolis Mayor’s Action Center for help have gone unanswered.

They live in the area near the intersection of Denny Street and English Avenue.

Pam Harp has a long history with her east side neighborhood.

“I grew up down the street. My oldest sister is 71 and we were all raised in this neighborhood,” she said.

But she’s afraid this year might mark the end of an era.

“We’re looking at apartments. We’re looking to leave our home,” she said.

She said petty crime has left her scared to be at home.

She even bought a guard dog.

She said there’s also the graffiti issue.

“This has been here for quite a while, about a year or more,” she said.

She said she’s made dozens of calls to the Mayor’s Action Center.

“And it never changed anything,” she said.

Her neighbor Sarah Russell feels the same frustration with the center.

“You can call them and call them all you want, they’ll get to you when they want to,” she said.

Russell said she’s called about the graffiti, as well as overgrown grass in her neighbor’s yard and hasn’t seen results.

“Come out, take care of this stuff,” she said, “I mean people are paying to live in these houses and paying their taxes, they want a nice neighborhood,”

Harp doesn’t want to leave the neighborhood she’s loved for decades but her home value has dropped so much, she thinks it’s time to cut her losses.

“We try to keep our house up as best we can, but we’re not willing to put any more money into it because we’d never get it back,” she said.

WISH-TV contacted the Mayor’s Action Center Tuesday about the number of requests in that area.

They sent us to an attorney with the city for records requests.

After speaking with Harp and Russell, we asked that attorney if the city has a response for their claims about not getting results from their requests.

That was after business hours so she hasn’t responded, but WISH-TV will keep you updated.

Earlier, she did send WISH-TV two reports with cases they said have been closed.

There are at least five police reports near the intersection of English Avenue and Denny Street from the last year of crimes like burglary and vandalism.

However IMPD doesn’t consider it an area of growing concern.

WISH-TV asked the residents about reporting crimes and they said they’ve gotten to a point of frustration where they don’t call the police for minor issues.