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Neighbors' work makes Gloucester Crossing a better place to live

Salem Evening News
June 16, 2009

Neighbors' work makes Gloucester Crossing a better place to live
By Cate Lecuyer
staff writer

BEVERLY — Less than two years ago, Janelle Lawry wouldn't have been surprised to look out her kitchen window at 9 Mill St. and see someone getting beaten in the head with a propane tank from a gas grill.

It's happened before. In the past 24 years, she's witnessed fights and drug deals on her street, and people smoking crack in her driveway, she said. 

"I've seen so much in this neighborhood. It's unbelievable," she said. "But it's gone."

Since a group of nonprofits joined forces to improve the city's Gloucester Crossing neighborhood, crime has diminished.

According to police spokesman John McCarthy, the number of arrests on Mill Street went from 17 in 2003 to one last year. The number in the neighborhood as a whole dropped from 50 in 2003 to 12 last year.
A few weekends ago, Lawry raked and cleared debris from her yard as part of a neighborhood cleanup. A couple weeks later, she went to a neighborhood barbecue with face painting, Frisbee and a Slip 'n' Slide set up by the Recreation Department.

Now, when she looks out her kitchen window, it's to watch her 12-year-old son playing with other kids.
Driving through the neighborhood, there are still some yards with trash and debris piled along the sides, and houses with boarded-up windows, or work being done. There are also kids riding their bikes and scooters on the sidewalk, and people walking their dogs. Many of the lawns are freshly mulched and landscaped.

"Since the (YMCA) has taken over, it's been so much better," Lawry said.
Two years ago the North Shore YMCA purchased 11 buildings on Mill and Grant streets, and plans to work with Beverly Affordable Housing to tear them down and build new apartments.
The North Shore United Way has been heavily involved in the funding, and Beverly Bootstraps has targeted some of its services to people in that neighborhood.

Yet the project is in limbo, and they're waiting for substantial funding from the federal government. In the meantime, the four nonprofits launched the Gloucester Crossing Resource Group, aimed at improving quality of life now for residents in the area. It's grown into a collaboration among 19 organizations — from the Beverly police and public school district, to career and day-care centers, to church groups.

"When a problem occurs, we get together," said Bootstraps director Sue Gabriel. "Our goal is to maintain a great neighborhood down there."
McCarthy said it started with basic security — making sure all apartments had working locks, and that residents were using them.

"Before, every door in every building was wide open," he said.

They also tore down an abandoned garage that was drawing squatters, drug deals and other illegal activity.
Now, the agencies organize monthly meetings with residents and put together newsletters with information about fuel assistance and filing taxes. They've gone door to door talking to people about what they want to see, and followed through with connections to computer classes and after-school programs for kids.
Residents stepped up by painting their houses, putting out flags and flower boxes and volunteering on improvement committees.

"I think that's the simplest answer," Gabriel said. "They care."
The people living there have also changed.
Lawry said she's one of only three families on the block remaining from a couple years ago.
"There's a lot of new faces, and less crime," she said.

Dawn Trethaway is one of the newcomers. She moved to Mill Street in August 2007 and teaches preschool at the YMCA. "Before when we moved in there were a lot of — undesirables hanging out," she said. "Before, I couldn't take my daughter to the park, or if I did, I'd feel uncomfortable and leave."

The improvements she's seen since then have been significant — beaten up trucks replaced with newer Toyotas and Hondas; people not only putting out their trash on trash day, but adding recycling to the curb side; daily trips to the park with her daughter.

Up until recently many of her neighbors kept to themselves, she said, but even that's starting to change. The cookout helped a lot. "People are now smiling and waving and saying hi," she said. "There's that 'let your guard down' kind of feel."

She admits there's still work to be done. In the meantime, Trethaway said, the stigma attached to living in Gloucester Crossing is slowly lifting.

"You can tell," she said, "people are really starting to take pride and ownership in the street."

Staff writer Cate Lecuyer can be reached at clecuyer@salemnews.com