Overnight Stay in Nickerson Gardens : Watts Project Tidies Up for Jackson

Denise Calhoun was pretty calm Wednesday afternoon as she tidied her modest two-bedroom apartment--until her kitchen sink backed up.

“It’ll clear up soon . . . I hope,” said the 27-year-old mother of three girls. Then, sensing doom, she cried out for help. “Call the Housing Authority! I can’t let Jesse Jackson see this!”

The crisis in the kitchen was one of several anxious moments that cropped up as Calhoun and her neighbors gussied up their apartments in the Nickerson Gardens public housing project for the Democratic candidate’s overnight stay.

Stayed With Families

Jackson’s visit to the project in Watts is part of his final push for votes before California’s primary election Tuesday. During his quest for the nomination for the presidency, Jackson has stayed overnight with a farming couple in Nebraska, a steelworker’s family in a Cleveland suburb and a Latino family in a rural San Joaquin Valley town, where several youngsters have died inexplicably of cancer.

In this case, Calhoun, a welfare recipient, and her neighbors were proud that Jackson would spend a night in an inner-city neighborhood where street-gang violence is commonplace. Of about 1,060 families in Nickerson Gardens, 120 include someone who has a job, housing officials have estimated.

“It’s really good that he’s coming here,” Calhoun said, occasionally calling out to her youngest daughter, Latasha, 2, who was playing nearby. “It shows he cares about the gang banging and the drugs.”

A friend, Gladys Payton, chimed in: “He’s doesn’t have to win. He’s running to prove that you can run for President.”

Calhoun said she isn’t sure why she was selected for the visit. A friend of hers, an aide to state Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who is Jackson’s co-chairman in California, came by recently and asked for a favor but refused to say what it was.

‘I Started to Cry’

“Then he told me (on Monday),” she recalled. “Jesse Jackson’s going to stay her e? I started to cry.”

Some law enforcement officials said the location of Calhoun’s apartment may have played a role in the decision. It is just a few steps from the housing project’s gym, where Jackson this morning is scheduled to meet with gang leaders to discuss the escalating problems of street violence and drug trafficking.

But such talk took a back seat as Calhoun prepared for her special guest.

Provisions of chicken, fruit and juices--the candidate’s favorites--were brought in while the well-worn wooden floors of the two-story apartment were swept again and again. Fresh pink towels were put out in her room, where Jackson will sleep. Latasha, and her sisters, Dyquesthia 6, and Martinique, 5, will stay in the other bedroom.

Sleeping Arrangements

“I don’t know where I’ll sleep, probably downstairs,” their mother said.

It was not known when Jackson would come to the apartment--estimates ranged from 8 p.m. to midnight--but Calhoun was prepared to serve food the moment Jackson stepped inside the door.

“I’m starting to cook at 4 o’clock,” she said.

Outside, there was more activity.

Next-door neighbor SurenaJones was sweeping out her living room. Across the way, Dora Allen cautioned visitors to stay away from her potted flowers. Clean-up crews and the Los Angeles City Housing Authority Police arrived to ensure all was in order.

Although the residents were happy about the visit, some of them were grousing about the security measures imposed by authorities.

Vehicles to Be Moved

Vehicles normally parked in a lot facing the Calhoun apartment would have to be moved to make way for Secret Service vehicles and others accompanying the Jackson campaign. Secret Service officials were tight-lipped about security arrangements for the stay, but Los Angeles police said a guard would be stationed outside the apartment.

Also, residents were told they could only leave their apartments through the back door as long as Jackson was in the area.

“It kinda takes the luster off the visit,” Allen said. “This always happens when the politicians come around. But I’m still voting for Jackson.”