Six candidates vying to be Scranton's next mayor discussed strategies to prevent crime at a forum on Sunday - the same day that saw the city's first homicide in at least a year.
Early Sunday morning, 22-year-old Lackawanna College student Rahsan Crowder of Harrisburg was pronounced dead after a shooting in the city's Hill Section, police said.
Republicans Garett Lewis and Marcel Lisi said at Sunday's forum at Temple Hesed that getting a better handle on the city's finances is the best way to combat crime and gangs.
Democrats Elizabeth Randol, Joseph Cardamone and Lee Morgan each spoke of blight as a major factor in Scranton crime, while Democrat William Courtright said heroin is a significant problem.
Mr. Courtright proposed increasing the number of police on the city's drug unit as well as partnering with the state attorney general's office.
"We need to let them know you're not going to set up shop in the city of Scranton," Mr. Courtright said. "You come here, you're going to be arrested."
Ms. Randol said abandoned and blighted properties give criminals "a place to nest," and the most important measure that can be taken against crime is to take those places away.
Mr. Morgan blamed a poverty trend on a "lack of leadership" in the city.
"When you have a lack of jobs and a lack of upward mobility, then what you create is blight and a repetitive cycle of poverty," Mr. Morgan said.
Mr. Cardamone said blight and absentee landlords create a climate that attracts "transient people" who commit crimes.
"Right now, with the city's finances in the state they are, we simply don't have the ability to undertake massive blight management initiatives," Mr. Lewis said. "We don't have the ability to hire additional police officers and put feet on the ground, so I think the proper crime management strategy needs to start with balancing the budget and attracting people back to Scranton."
Mr. Lisi argued that lowering taxes would create more homeownership and fewer rentals. Therefore, he said, there would be a lower population of impoverished people, and business would return to Scranton.
"That's how you get rid of crime - more money in the city, it's as simple as that," Mr. Lisi said.
Mr. Cardamone said regular people getting involved is an important part of the solution.
"We know that ... we need to be more aware," Mr. Cardamone said. "We need to be sure if we see something on the street or driving by, let law enforcement know what's going on."
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