Residents Go to War to Retake Their Street

Community policing Officer John Furbish describes being approached on a Saturday morning by two dozen youngsters who live in the city’s Balsam Avenue neighborhood. One handed him a soft-drink can with the top torn open. Inside was a hypodermic syringe.

The children, excited about their find, said they had picked it up in nearby bushes.

“The needle is still there. They could have stuck themselves,” Furbish said. “This is dangerous.”

Incidents like that have inspired residents of the community to wage war on drug sales and use, loitering, public drunkenness and other crime in the one-block area off East Street between the Riverside Freeway and the railroad tracks.

Armed with brooms, lawn mowers and hedge clippers, residents turned out on a recent weekend to prune overgrown shrubbery, pull weeds, haul off trash and repair broken-down fences. Children pitched in, picking up trash and bottles.

Furbish said the Balsam neighborhood is one of about eight areas targeted by the city for upgrades. Police, city and school officials as well as property owners have volunteered to help with the cleanup.

Anaberta Beltran, 31, a mother of seven who has lived on Balsam for six years, said she has been reluctant in the past to let her children play in the neighborhood. After the cleanup weekend, she said, “this is the first time kids have been out in the front playing.”

“It would be nice to have the kids be able to play outside like they are now,” she said.