Old neighborhood focus of program

Diana Sahagun

Friday, May 19, 2000 | 11:03 a.m.

There's a glimmer of hope in some of North Las Vegas' worst neighborhoods.

Residents, who have grown used to living with boarded-up houses, trash-filled lots and broken beer bottles, are getting a hand from a two-year cleanup program being pushed by the city of North Las Vegas.

City officials hope to reverse the blight by funneling federal grant funds to the neighborhoods, which border some of the major corridors into North Las Vegas.

In an area where residents live behind steel-barred windows, weeds strangle abandoned cars and pit bulls pace nervously in their fenced yards, the program is being eyed with skepticism.

In the past the federal funds have been used for projects throughout the city, but until 2002 they will be used for landscaping, home renovations, new housing, street repairs and code enforcement in this one target area.

There are visible signs of the hardships associated with this old part of town, bounded by Lake Mead Boulevard, Bruce Street, Tonopah Drive and I-15.

The "Neighborhood Beautification and Improvement Project," approved by the City Council Wednesday, will reverse the blight, city officials hope.

Council member Shari Buck said she thought about focusing on this one area after attending a National League of Cities workshop about ways to beautify downtowns.

Buck, who campaigned heavily on the platform of cleaning up the older, neglected areas of town, said she drew from her own experiences growing up near Lake Mead Boulevard and Belmont Street.

Twenty years ago, Buck said, the houses in that area were new and everything was clean, landscaped and painted. Today she sees a much different sight.

"Back then, everyone had pride in their neighborhood and I think they've lost that, maybe just being so overwhelmed in trying to keep up with things," she said.

"There are so many good people that still live there that want to stay."

Dolphine Burt, who owns a house in the targeted area at Tonopah Drive and Harvard Street, says she wants to stay.

But she feels like she's being pushed out by all the commercial development near her home. She doubts if a beautification plan will do little more than make the neighborhood more welcoming in order to push the residents out to make room for commercial.

Burt expressed skepticism that the city can do anything to fix homes that were built in the '50s and have severe structural problems.

She admits, though, that "It would be nice if they could come out here and clean it up," and that she could use a few buckets of paint for her house.

Community Development Director Jacque Risner said the project will focus on revitalizing the neighborhood through community cleanups, improving the appearance of houses and landscaping, and through assisting businesses.

The city will also raze vacant housing and partner with nonprofit organizations to build more low-income housing.

Now that the neighborhood has been defined, the next step is to ask residents what they want.

Public meetings will be organized and surveys sent out in the coming weeks.

"We want the neighbors to tell us what they want in their neighborhood, what they want it to look like," Risner said.

Once the city is aware of residents' concerns, it will focus on those individuals who say they need assistance. For instance, one resident may need help with planting a new lawn, while another may want a brighter street light installed.

Rigo Romo, who rents a house near Burt, said he would like to see more street improvements, especially a stop sign near his home.

He points to at least 10 children playing basketball near the intersection, saying, "There are a lot of kids here who might get hurt."

City officials say this approach will be more successful than others because it focuses the energies of numerous city departments on one specific area. Instead of helter-skelter improvements across the city there will now be one defined area of concentration.

The funding will come from various federal grants, including the Community Development Block Grant program and the Home Buyer Assistance program. Also, funds from such city programs as the Vacant Building Clearance Fund will be used.

City officials said they could not at this point say how much money will be spent over the two years. The city did not release a specific budget that would show how much will be set aside for each component of the project.

Incoming City Manager Kurt Fritsch will lead the project team, which will be made up of community development, redevelopment agency, code enforcement, police, planning and transportation officials.

A similar approach worked in Yuma, Ariz., for the Carver Park Revitalization project. The effort focused on a badly-neglected neighborhood two miles long and a mile wide, said Michael Shelton, city spokesperson.

On its introduction in 1999, a clean-up netted hundreds of tons of debris such as household trash, refrigerators, cars and batteries. It then went on to create a nonprofit board within the neighborhood to give it greater leverage in attracting federal funds for improvements.

The project continues to focus on improving the neighborhood economically, by attracting businesses to circulate more local residents into jobs.

"It's been very successful and is very much appreciated by the neighbors," Shelton said. "It's also a severely neglected area and everyone knows it. It's sort of like an admission, 'Yes, we're sorry we did wrong.' "

If the North Las Vegas program is successful after the two-year time frame, it will be expanded to other neighborhoods and there will be applications for more federal funding.

Diana Sahagun covers North Las Vegas for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2320 or by e-mail at diana@lasvegassun.com