Pubdate: Thu, 03 Mar 2005
Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2005 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.journalnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504
Note: Source rarely prints LTEs received from outside its circulation area
Author: Michael Henry

COMMUNITY CARE: GASTONIA'S WEED AND SEED PROGRAM AIMS TO BUILD STABLE 
NEIGHBORHOODS

GASTONIA -- When neighbors in some of the city's more troubled areas call 
with crime complaints, police not only respond, but they also take notes on 
who does what and where they do it.

The Weed and Seed program in Gastonia was recognized nationally for its 
success in late 2004. The local program has received more than $500,000 in 
grants for health and human services, housing and youth programs.

"It's one of the best things that the community has had happen to 
Gastonia," said Annie Thombs, assistant community development director for 
Gastonia.

Gretchen Shappert, the U.S. attorney for the western district of North 
Carolina, said that Gastonia's program one of the most successful in the 
country. She helps oversee the program,

"We want to remove the stigma that is sometimes associated with these 
neighborhoods and bring them back into the Gastonia community," Shappert said.

The "Weed" portion of the program involves police and prosecutors removing 
violent and drug-related criminals from a targeted area.

Those elements are then replaced - the "Seed" portion of the program - with 
social services and other programs intended to prevent the crimes and those 
who commit them from returning.

"We try to provide services for everyone in the family - from babies to the 
elderly," said Jo-Ann Davis, the city's Weed and Seed coordinator with the 
Gastonia Housing Authority.

Youth-mentoring programs, truancy prevention and probation and parole 
projects with juveniles implemented in the past three years have 
contributed to advancements in each of the city's four designated Weed and 
Seed areas.

The program identifies Highland West, Highland East, Crescent Lane area, 
Mountain View and Linwood Terrace neighborhoods as target areas for 
improvement in West Gastonia.

Mayor Pro Tem Walker Reid represents Ward 4, where three of the city's Weed 
and Seed neighborhoods are located. Reid credited police and city staff 
with helping reduce crime in Weed and Seed areas, but said another area - 
code enforcement - has made a significant contribution to cleaning up those 
areas.

"I've found we have more problems in rental and substandard housing in the 
city," Reid said. "A lot of the crime problems are related to slumlords and 
substandard landlords who don't have any screening processes. It doesn't 
take but one bad home to wreak havoc in a stable neighborhood."

Enforcing minimum housing standards can help activate a mechanism to reduce 
the bad elements that attract crime, Reid said.

Putting an emphasis on home ownership and affordable housing is one way to 
help instill pride in problem neighborhoods.

"Your mentality changes," Reid said. "I equate that to renting a car. If 
you rent a car, you don't care how much trash, if you spill coffee or run 
up on a curb. But if you're making a substantial payment on that car, you 
make sure you take care of it. It's the same thing with a house. You keep 
the yard up, keep your trash empty. With the upkeep of a house, your 
mentality changes."

Plywood covers many of the windows and doors at several brick duplex 
apartments in and around the Crescent Lane area, a neighborhood touted as 
one of the city's Weed and Seed success stories.

Carl Overton, the associate pastor at Westside Hope Church of God on 
Crescent Lane, has lived there for five years.

He's seen prostitutes working his street. He's seen the drug traffic in and 
out of shoddy apartments.

He's also seen problems decrease.

"It has been an improvement, but I'd still say there's a long way to go," 
Overton said. "Some properties need to be cleared up or torn out. I think 
that would help the community a lot."

"It's been gradual, probably most noticeable in the past two years," 
Overton said of improvements.

Sgt. Steve Duncan heads the city's street-crime unit - known in some 
circles as the gray shirts - which supplements patrol officers and has 
helped lead the charge in some of the city's high crime areas.

When the unit was created in April 1998, it took about 18 months to 
determine what they were trying to do, Duncan said.

The Weed and Seed program began in 2003. Duncan combined the areas that the 
street crime unit had been targeting with money available with the federal 
initiative. The same four areas - those with the highest crime and highest 
call rates - were designated.

"That was the attitude we took - we'll take any help we can get," Duncan said.

With a new program, it was pretty much learn as you go, Duncan said. After 
about a year, not without a couple bumps in the road, the unit had a handle 
on what they needed to do and how they needed to do it.

Three goals were established to help clear neighborhoods of what were 
believed to be their root problems.

Prostitution was targeted as the biggest problem. Convicted prostitutes 
were pushed toward rehabilitation and re-education, with hopes that these 
lifestyle changes also would carry over into the city's troubled 
neighborhoods, Duncan said.

Secondly, repeat offenders were isolated and tagged habitual, increasing 
their jail sentences, Duncan said.

"We were arresting the same people time after time after time," Duncan 
said. "First, second, third-time offenders were just not getting the jail 
time."

Repeat offenders were put into a matrix that the street-crime unit created 
and identified by how problematic they were in specific neighborhoods.

The police had in the past used some money from the vice-squad budget to 
orchestrate street drug buys, but the additional federal money helped.

Initially, drugs were sold openly, on street corners and on front porches.

"It can be unsettling, but I'm never afraid," Overton said. "The neighbors 
here can be very observant."

Police cracked down, sending buyers to jail while sending the deals inside 
homes, businesses and other places the police couldn't readily get to, 
Duncan said.

The money increased, and the unit received $5,500 over three years for drug 
buys - not a lot, but enough to make a difference.

"I looked at it and did a hard analysis about what we needed, not what we 
wanted," Duncan said. "It's just like a personal checking account - you'd 
like a million dollars in there, but do you really need it?"

The couple of thousand dollars went a long way, Duncan said. Unlike 
narcotics officers, the street-crime unit didn't target multiple buyers. 
They operated location specific, rather than person specific, and started 
trying to push buyers out of bad neighborhoods. It was a new philosophy 
with new results.

Finally, the police created a partnership with landlords to help expedite 
convictions and turn homes from criminal hangouts into good neighbors.

"If we get rid of the tenants there, we're getting rid of the problem," 
Duncan said.

Once problem tenants were displaced, the police would pursue them to a new 
location. Then another. They pursued them as far as the city limits. One 
individual was arrested at four different locations before he finally left 
the city.

"They're still in Gaston County, but they're not in the city," Duncan said. 
"The city is where we work. He specifically said he's leaving the city 
because of us - we're affecting his business."
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