Standing in his well kept nature garden about 100 yards above the corner of South Garden Street and Rainier Avenue South, Jeremy Valenta, a neighborhood activist and urban horticulturist, looks out upon a blighted scene of third world proportions. Nearly every inch of sidewalk between Jeremy's house and the corner is covered with pop cans, cigarette wrappers, fast food containers, and other debris.
Across the street, a pile of junk and rotting furniture partially obscures a tumbledown triplex apartment building. High chain-link fencing variously topped with bent and twisted barbed wire surround both business establishments on the adjacent corners.
This scene rises in stark contrast with the tidy, modest houses and pretty flower gardens along the aptly named Garden Street nearby, an attractive hillside thoroughfare.
Seeking solutions
Located 2 miles south of Columbia City and a mile north of Rainier Beach, Garden Street is a place that could use some improvement. This summer the South District Community Council selected a little known area as its top priority for a neighborhood street improvement grant.
Valenta, a neighborhood activist and urban horticulturaist, describes the planting strip along the street as a pigsty, with many car tires wallowing in the mud. However, the $69,000 grant to build curbs along Garden Street east of Rainier Avenue South promises to end this mess.
The money was awarded to Valenta's grassroots neighborhood group called the Rainier Othello Safety Association (ROSA) whose application came out ahead of two, higher-visibility streets in Columbia City and one focusing on South Henderson Street in Rainier Beach that contains an approach to the future light rail station.
A criminal vibe
During a recent afternoon a trio of young men seated at the bus stop amidst chain-link fencing, barbed wire and garbage down on Rainier Avenue South were spotted dropping cigarette butts and litter. According to Valenta they were there for hours and never got on a bus.
Were they drug dealers? Valenta had his suspicions, for he knows all his neighbors. These fellows were strangers to him. Every so often a big car was seen stopping nearby. The driver chatted with the men, appearing to transact business.
Valenta voiced concern that drug dealers and prostitutes may operate out of some of the nearby blighted businesses. A telephone call later with officer Mike Alphin of the Seattle Police Department confirmed Valenta's suspicions that the intersections of Garden and Othello Streets on Rainier Avenue South, where these businesses are located, happen to be among the city's top crime hot-spots. Alphin confirmed that certain businesses located at these crossroads are suspected of harboring criminals.
A grassroot sprouts
According to Valenta, the strongest motivation to found ROSA came when his wife, Sara, was pregnant with their daughter Sophia two years ago.
"I want my children to grow up in a neighborhood where it is safe for them to go out and play with other children or to go down to the corner grocery store for an ice cream bar," Valenta said.
Rob Bendixen, another ROSA founder echoed Valenta's concern.
"Even though I don't have children of my own, lots of my neighbors do," Bendixen noted. "Kids should not be brought up in a criminal environment. They may be sucked into [that] life."
Bendixen is also concerned about the cars that speed down Garden Street: drivers use it as a short cut to get from Seward Park Avenue to Rainier Avenue South. He suggested that curbs and traffic calming devices are needed to help ensure lower vehicle speed and therefore the children's safety.
Highlighting his point was ROSA member Leslie Miller, who had a car involved in a high-speed police chase overturn in her yard. At the time Miller was having a meeting in her living room with a group of business colleagues. During the incident, the police got out of their car, guns drawn, and ran through her yard.
Miller claims there were so many incidents like this that she and her husband Matt Hendel were on the verge of giving up on the neighborhood and moving away. They loved their home and their neighbors but were unwilling to have their two young sons grow up in an atmosphere of ugliness, violence and crime.
But now because of ROSA, both Miller and Hendel have a sense of hope as they work with their neighbors to improve the quality of their lives.
Nurturing an idea
The idea of ROSA grew gradually. Its seeds were planted when Sara and Jeremy Valenta began walking the neighborhood passing out flyers about neighborhood events, while simultaneously getting to know their neighbors.
ROSA had around 40 people on their mailing list when the Valentas organized their first big meeting two years ago. They held it in the Esparanza retirement complex east of Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, about a half-mile away from the neighborhood, because there was no meeting place large enough within their area.
With advice from local police, especially officer Cynthia Granard, the group learned about several methods to curbing crime. Most importantly, they were told they should walk the streets frequently and in groups. The effort would signal to would-be criminals that they were not welcome, that the walkers cared about the neighborhood.
Additionally, officers told the group they should clean up the neighborhood and focus on improving its appearance in the blighted areas where street criminals have a tendency to hang out.
Crime, they were told, is drawn to neglect.
Walking the talk
So ROSA began organizing evening neighborhood walks where groups of a dozen or more neighbors strolled together on a regular basis. Whenever the walking groups observed blight and garbage around business establishments, or noticed a spot where lighting or other improvements could be made, they went in and spoke politely with the proprietor.
However, ROSA members also knew significant improvements of the neglected planting strip along South Garden Street would deter automobiles from stirring up muddy ground. Materials and skilled labor were expensive. They needed a grant.
Inexperienced and feeling their way through the bureaucracy, ROSA sought advice and technical assistance from Tony To of Home Sight. Tony had the group apply for a small grant from the Washington Insurance Council to complete a social study of the area and help them to develop a plan for what would be needed.
Their success with the grant application for the study gave them the knowledge, expertise, and confidence to apply for a street fund grant from the city.
Sara Valenta helped pitch the idea with a comprehensive slide presentation to the South District Community Council last spring. Compared to the other applicants, it was by far the most extensive presentation.
Valenta showed photos of ROSA's neighborhood gatherings, which revealed the deep diversity of the members through their wide age-range and variety of nationalities. For contrast, she showed photos of some of the area's debris-choked, chain-link fenced and muddy squalor.
Graphs and drawings of ROSA's planned project gave the council a clear view of how the grant money would be spent. Valenta told the story of how ROSA formed and described its subsequent efforts to clean up its neighborhood and curb crime. To bring it all home, ROSA members wore t-shirts sporting their slogan, "Curbing crime one street at a time."
Dick Burkhart, a local neighborhood activist, sees ROSA as a prime example of what other neighborhoods might achieve if they were to get out and meet one another, become friends, and get organized.
"If ROSA sustains its momentum in the months and years to come, the blight at the corner of Garden Street and Rainier Avenue may be transformed into a small but vibrant business district that the entire neighborhood can enjoy sans the criminal element," Burkhart said.
Mona Lee may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.[[In-content Ad]]
