He has heard all about how the planned improvements to the Omni Center will present more positive activities for the children in Ridgecrest. He has read about why 119th Street N needs to be extended from Ridgecrest to 16th Avenue SW so police, paramedics and firetrucks can get through in case of an emergency.

But Knotts, who lives a couple of blocks from the end of the planned extension, is truly worried about the plans.

"I think it is going to be real detrimental to this neighborhood," Knotts, 41, said Wednesday afternoon as he buffed his late-model black Honda Accord with care. "All of our crime comes from off (the Pinellas Trail) or the back of that neighborhood."

Such complaints are common among those who live just north of Ridgecrest. Drugs and crime are a problem in Ridgecrest, they say, and they are afraid these will become their problems if county officials forge ahead with a $3.5-million expansion of the Omni Center, expected to draw more kids, and plans to extend 119th Street N, making it a connector between Ridgecrest and neighborhoods to the north.

"There seems to be a drug problem. There is that perception," said resident Chris Dowling.

But arrests for most major crimes have either slightly dipped or stayed the same in the past three years, according to data from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, which patrols Ridgecrest. Drug arrests in Ridgecrest have dropped from 170 in 1998 to 163 last year to 108 so far this year, the figures show.

But the numbers don't comfort Knotts. He vividly remembers driving through Ridgecrest and seeing a teenager riding a bicycle he says was stolen from his back yard.

"It's no secret of the crime that goes on in that neighborhood," he said.

Over and over again, Joe Miller has heard the bad things Knotts and others have to say about Ridgecrest. Miller may know Ridgecrest about as well as anyone. For a dozen years, Miller, manager of the Pinellas County Urban League's operations in North Pinellas, has worked with Ridgecrest residents to help some find jobs, to find tutors to work with neighborhood children and countless other services.

Ridgecrest is not the terrible place some people think, he says. Miller has met generations of families who live in the neighborhood, some on the same block.

"The crime here is no different than anywhere else," Miller says, in a frustrated voice. "The crimes they are talking about are mostly in their minds."

There are some drug dealers in the neighborhood, Miller concedes. But he insists that most buyers live outside Ridgecrest. The improvements to the Omni Center, which include a 500-seat football field, an outdoor swimming pool, a computer room, a baseball diamond and a weight room, were long overdue for a building with peeling paint and tiny meeting rooms. He cannot understand why such complaints arise every time there is talk about working on improvements for Ridgecrest.

This is where the debate over the project really gets sticky.

Those who live north of Ridgecrest say they are voicing their concerns because county officials did not fully inform them about the plans, both to expand the Omni Center and extend the street. All they want is more input, they say.

Ridgecrest residents see something else at work. Ridgecrest is an overwhelmingly African-American neighborhood. The area north of Ridgecrest is predominantly white. Many who live and work in Ridgecrest see racial prejudice clouding the judgment of those who don't truly know the neighborhood.

"I think there has been this perception about Ridgecrest since the beginning, because it is primarily a black neighborhood," said Miller.

Knotts and some of his neighbors disagree. "Any time we say anything about it, the activists there start screaming discrimination and the politicians get scared and don't do anything (about crime)," said Knotts. "If (Ridgecrest) was a white neighborhood, they would have cleaned it up a long time ago."

After getting letters and petitions from residents in both neighborhoods, county officials decided to hold a meeting to address all concerns. That meeting has been tentatively scheduled for Jan. 11.

"We can do better and we will do better and we will work to make sure everybody understands why (the plans) are so important," said County Commissioner Calvin Harris.

* * *

Chris Dowling had heard the whispers about Ridgecrest. Still, he wanted proof.

Dowling moved with his wife, Ruth, to a comfortable home near Taylor Park, about a mile north of Ridgecrest, in 1993. Before moving to Largo, the Dowlings lived in Miami. He said he was a victim of crime several times there. As the couple looked for a home in Pinellas County, someone broke into their place in Miami.

In September, as word spread through his neighborhood about the plans in Ridgecrest, Dowling called the Sheriff's Office and asked for five years' worth of crime statistics about the neighborhood. He got 52 pages where deputies responded to reports of crime in Ridgecrest over those five years.

Dowling was surprised.

"The reason I wanted to get some crime stats is because I wanted to see if there was some validity or not," he explained. "There appears to be some validity (that crime is a problem)."

But sheriff's officials say numbers alone often do not tell the story when it comes to crime. Activity logs do not signify whether a crime was committed.

Even arrest figures can be misleading.

"I can put my whole squad out there and make a bunch of arrests and instantly, the crime rate goes up because we made the crime rate go up," explained Pinellas Sheriff's Sgt. Pete Sierchio, who is in charge of community policing efforts in Ridgecrest and other parts of south Pinellas.

Sierchio's job is to work with residents to prevent crime. He believes the after-school programs and other activities at the improved Omni Center will keep young people out of trouble.

He concedes Ridgecrest has a "relatively higher crime rate" than most other areas of the county. Sierchio pins the blame on drug dealers who operate in a couple of concentrated pockets of Ridgecrest. One pocket, he says, is Baskins-Crossing Boulevard. The Sheriff's Office has worked out a deal with a community group to use office space near the road so its two community patrol deputies can keep a closer eye on drug activity on that street.

Resident Phyllis Brown remembers the late 1980s, when that stretch of road, and a good portion of Ridgecrest, was teeming with drug dealers. At the time, she lived in a public housing development where loiterers hung out on her front stoop during the day when she was at work. She would come home to beer bottles strewn on the front lawn.

A single woman with three young daughters, Brown decided discretion was the better part of valor. She declined to confront the young men.

Since community patrol deputies began patrolling the neighborhood, Brown, 39, said she has seen a major difference in the neighborhood.

"The community is going up and crime is going down," said Brown, who bought a modest home in the neighborhood about two years ago.

The plans for Ridgecrest are needed, she says. Brown points out that those who live north of Ridgecrest will benefit as well. The extended road will allow parents to get to Ridgecrest Elementary School more easily, she says. The refurbished Omni Center will not just be for Ridgecrest children. It will be for everyone, Brown says.

Still, Dowling and others are concerned.

Dowling hopes the Sheriff's Office will open a substation inside the Omni Center. Knotts hopes the sheriff's efforts will help, but he is skeptical.

"I hope I'm wrong," said Knotts. "I really do."

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