Clean up underway in neighborhood near railroad tracks
By Pete Knutson
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TULSA (KJRH) — Down a Tulsa street, where 7th meets Yorktown, neighbors say they face a growing menace, a threat that even makes the children who live here, like Anaiyah and Julissa… take notice.
“It’s kind of scary,” one says.
“I think we should call the police,” says the other.
Ethan Cook moved into the neighborhood 4 years ago.
“It became much worse this last year, much, much worse.”
He’s noticed each of those years, more and more trash, mattresses, and tents on the property that dead ends at the Union Pacific railroad tracks.
Ethan says he sometimes fears for his family’s safety.
He says there are the homeless and drug dealers and those with mental illness.
Some live on that property at the end of their street, and they wander the sidewalks, says Diana Downing.
“We’ve actually had people show up at our house that were having mental issues, and on drugs. One walked into our home at 1:15 in the morning. Oh, it was scary, I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night.”
Or many other nights since then, Diana says.
And her kids and grandkids? She struggles how to teach them to be safe… when all they want to do is play in the front yard.
She says they don’t have the freedom to do that.
Then, there are the fires started by those who sleep down there on that property.
The noxious smoke that drifts into their homes … and the fear of fire raging out of control.
“It’s quite awful.”
At issue, neighbors say, is who owns the property … the city or the railroad?
And who’s responsible for cleanup and law enforcement?
They’ve called both, they say, more times, than they can remember.
“It’s like running into a wall over and over and over,” Diana says.
After the Problem Solvers talked to the folks who live in this neighborhood, we got in touch with the city to get the cleanup rolling. They confirmed, most of the property does belong to the railroad. So we got in touch with them as well.
“ Well, I was smiling all the way down the street.,“ is what Ethan told us on the morning when crews with heavy equipment showed up to clean up the property.
Neighbors now have a newfound, although cautious optimism.
“They’re cleaning out all the trees and all the trash, and getting rid of this dump, so, couldn’t be better. Very happy to see this, very happy to see the action you’ve been able to get on this, very happy. “
While neighbors say this is a great first sign, more still needs to be done, and Union Pacific says it’s committed to working with the city to continue to find ways to address the ongoing issues, so families can live and children can play in the safety of their own neighborhood… where 7th meets Yorktown.
Union Pacific tells the Problem Solvers … “Despite efforts to keep our tracks clear and safe, unlawful encampments are set up on our property, putting lives at risk and resulting in some people treating our property as a dump site. We have been working with the City of Tulsa to clean up the site… and have removed individuals from this site several times over the past six months.”
Neighbors hope future plans will include regular patrols by railroad police, and a security fence separating the property from the neighborhood.
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