A Call to Action : West Adams Wants Outdoor Pay Phones Removed in War on Drugs

Stereotypical tools of the trade for street drug dealers used to include just a safe hiding place for the contraband and fast shoes, but some residents and merchants of the West Adams area of Los Angeles claim that definition now leaves out one very important item--the pay telephone.

As a result, and largely because of the efforts of Coy Sallis, a 52-year-old retired contractor who moved here from Barbados five years ago, homeowners and shopkeepers in the southwest Los Angeles community have banded together to oversee the removal of pay phones from Adams Boulevard between Crenshaw Boulevard and La Brea Avenue.

Already, nine pay phones have been removed and if Sallis has his way, at least two more will soon ring for the last time.

Street crime in the area has gotten so bad, Sallis explains, that many residents who don’t have phones in their homes are afraid to use the area’s 850 pay phones for fear of confronting the drug dealers and prostitutes who congregate around them.

Rather than keep large quantities of drugs with them, merchants say, West Adams drug dealers ply their illegal wares on street corners until their supply runs low, and then use the phones to replenish their stocks. Similarly, they say, prostitutes use the phones as their home base for quick access to customers or pimps.

Used Phones as Headquarters

“They (drug peddlers) were using these phones as their headquarters and were selling dope like they were selling hamburgers. The people who didn’t have phones weren’t using them and were afraid to go use them,” said Sallis, the president of the 60-member West Adams Neighborhood Watch Club.

Add to that the fact that local businessmen have complained that customers have been scared away by the drug dealers, and what emerges is a picture of a community fighting to regain its own streets.

Not that everyone thinks that removing the phones will solve the crime problem. Los Angeles police maintain that the phones are necessary for public use and their 911 emergency capabilities. And Pacific Bell agrees, though the company is willing to go along with residents’ wishes.

West Adams is a transitional community with scores of historic, mansion-sized homes which has been attracting more affluent residents and, along with them, some resentment from old-timers who are afraid they will be priced out of their homes. There has been feuding between the two groups, but removal of pay phones seems to transcend the differences.

Jerry Mendelsohn, president of the West Adams Heritage Assn., said his group backs Sallis’ drive to rid the neighborhood of “undesirable elements” but suggested that an alternative to removing the phones might be to move them inside stores or to the middle of residential blocks rather than busy corners.

Police acknowledge that crime--and especially drug dealing--is a serious problem in West Adams, but say they are doing the best job possible, given what they consider a shortage of manpower.

Enforce Laws Evenly

“We are certainly out there making a number of arrests for prostitution and drug sales,” said Capt. Maurice Moore, commanding officer of the LAPD’s Southwest Division, “but we’ve got to enforce the laws evenly throughout the community.”

Although Pacific Bell is “very supportive” of the Neighborhood Watch program, Pacific Bell sales manager John Sowers said, “The public telephone is not the culprit.”

“Where does it stop? Do we remove all the phones in Los Angeles because the potential for crime exists?” Sowers asked. “The bottom line is that the problem is not the public telephone at all, it’s a matter of policing the neighborhood.”

And even though Pacific Bell has cooperated in removing phones targeted by Sallis, there has been some confusion. For instance, the clean-up fight was dealt a blow last week when Pacific Bell installed a new pay phone at one nearby bus shelter. Sallis complained to the company, and Pacific Bell said the phone would likely be removed within a week.

Helped His Business

Jung Kim, who has owned Sid’s Liquor store on Adams Boulevard for a year, said the disappearance a month ago of two phones next to his store has helped his business.

“Since we got rid of the phone booths, the (criminals) have moved away,” Kim said. “But still these guys are around. Sure it’s hurting my business--we’ve got a lot of nice neighbors, but they’re afraid to come out.”

Kim mentioned one problem with the phone-removal effort: Now the dealers just walk down to the next corner, place their calls and return.

Anna Lin, who has owned the nearby Hi Hat Motel with her husband for the last eight years, is also impressed by the remove-the-phones campaign. Lin said the neighborhood had been deteriorating for a few years, so much so that four months ago she hired a security guard. But thanks in large part to Sallis’ efforts, she said, the streets are now getting safer.

No More ‘Bad Persons’

“Before we moved the phones, we weren’t sure, but we thought they were the cause,” Lin said. “We moved the phones and now we don’t have to worry about the bad persons using them.”

Several merchants groused that the police never seem to be around when they’re needed.

“The police pass by, and every now and then they stop and try to make a bust. But they never find anything,” one businesswoman said.

Kim of Sid’s Liquor agreed: “We’re lucky if we see two black and whites a day out here (on Adams Boulevard).”

Capt. Moore responded: “Every citizen in this community deserves a crime-free area, and we’re going to do everything we can to get them that. At the same time, we’re not naive. We’re undermanned and the drug problem is escalating.”

Not the Answer

Eliminating public pay phones in West Adams, Moore added, is not the answer to the crime problem except in isolated cases. Rather, he said, area residents should lobby for stiffer criminal sentences and speedier trials.

From Jan. 1 through the middle of last month, 737 major crimes were reported in the Southwest Division, making the area the seventh most violent of the LAPD’s 18 divisions. Southwest also ranked seventh in reported major crimes last year.

Whether phone removal is the answer, Sallis and his supporters swear by it.

“I’ve gotten nothing but support from the business people here,” Sallis said. “They (drug dealers and prostitutes) don’t buy a damn thing from the merchants anyway.

“Some people have just given up,” Sallis continued. “But this is our neighborhood. I’m not trying to be a hero, but someone’s got to do it.”

Like the Security

Other residents question whether anyone has to do it, saying that they like the security a nearby phone affords them.

“It’s very dangerous for us wo-men to be out at night as it is,” said Dolores Hammond, a 20-year resident of the West Adams area. “And not to be able to get to a ready phone in an emergency is even more dangerous.”

It’s a many-sided debate, and it’s not restricted to West Adams.

When then-Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson waged a war on prostitution several years ago in Hollywood, public pay phones were removed en masse from Sunset and Hollywood boulevards.

But that’s not the end of the story, according to the phone company. Councilman Mike Woo, who now occupies Stevenson’s old 13th District seat, has asked Pacific Bell to install more phones--on Sunset and Hollywood boulevards.