ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CBS 11 News) There is a big problem in one Anchorage neighborhood that is attracting crime and spreading police resources thin. But fixing the problem is turning out to be easier said than done.

Police know the stairwell that connects 15th Ave. and Nichols St. to 15th Ave. and Norene Street in Airport Heights as the stairs to nowhere. To neighbors they're an eye sore and a crime magnet.

The stairs were meant to provide a safe route to school and the bus stop and connect the neighborhood. But at night, these stairs have become something no one intended.

"It is providing a hang out for teenagers and drug dealers and gang bangers and some not so nice folks," says Ed Olmstead who owns a home near the stairs, "It has become a focal point for petty crime here in the neighborhood."

During the day, the community takes the stairs back- but the remnants of the night before are unmistakable. The stairs are covered in gang graffiti, broken glass, and an overpowering scent of urine and vomit.

"Lots of trash, and remnants from parties the night before," explains Aleta Slanga. "I wouldn't walk them at night."

Police have responded to calls in the neighborhood 11 times in the last six months. Five for crimes on the stairs, involving underage drinking, warrant arrests and noise violations.

"We've had a lot of problems with drug deals on this street this summer, the police were called out here several times, there was a fire

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bomb let off here in the street," says Olmstead.

"It's part of the larger crime issue that we as a community really need to address," says Lt. Dave Parker, spokesperson for the Anchorage Police Department.

One assembly member says because the stairs appear to be on a municipality road right of way, the Municipality of Anchorage is to blame for what they have become.

"What we did is we built a path and we left a no man's land next to it," says Anchorage Assembly member Sheila Selkregg, "So it is an abandoned kind of area right next to the path and there is no sense of ownership."

With the help of Assembly member Elvi Grey-Jackson, neighbors circulated a petition to tear the stairs down, but it'll cost an estimated $30,000. It is money the city does not have just laying around.

Some say a more feasible solution would be to clean things up.

"If you take the stairs out, in many ways that means the gangs have won 2:19:10 there are some examples elsewhere, every time we step back from gangs, they step foreword." Says Selkregg. "It would make a lot more sense to get ahead of graffiti."

The problem is, Anchorage's Graffiti Buster has gotten hit with the municipality budget cuts. What were two positions has been reduced to one, and the stairs are not the only place in the city gangs deface.

"Graffiti is a marker for gang problems," explains Selkregg. "If you don't take control of the neighborhood, if you don't take back the neighborhood for the community, it opens the door for one gang to overtake another gang in terms of tagging a neighborhood with their sign."

Assembly member Selkregg says the problems are only going to get worse with the recent municipal budget cuts.

"The boys and girls club lost their funding and that's an after school program. The crime spikes after school," she says. "So you save it on one place and crime spikes in another."

But mayor Dan Sullivan says despite cuts, his administration is focused on reducing crime on the streets of Anchorage.

"We're going to maintain public safety," says Mayor Sullivan. "Are there little pockets like this? Of course there are. Any city our size has always got incidents."

Mayor Sullivan says the Airport Heights stairs are just another example of why Anchorage needs to do something about chronic problem inebriates.

"Same thing with our parks. We've got parks that are being kind of co-opted by certain elements of society," says Sullivan. "Do we close our parks down? No we focus on the people that are doing the bad things, not folks doing the good things."

As for residents in Airport Heights who live along side the stairs, they just want the crime to stop. And they say city officials should not ignore that fixing this problem could save money in the end.

"When you deal with situations like this, you are contributing to the reduction of crime," says Olmstead. "And when you contribute to the reduction of crime, you save money. If you deal with an issue, you wont have to pay for police response time later on."

Assembly member Grey-Jackson says the efforts to take down the stairs have been tabled until next year.

To contact Andrea Gusty, call 907-273-3146.