Columnist Susan Snyder: North Vegas a tale of two cities

Friday, June 1, 2001 | 8:53 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@vegas.com or 259-4082.

In North Las Vegas this week two groups of residents working about two miles apart prepared for seemingly unrelated events.

Members of the North Las Vegas Steering Committee spruced up the median and lawns along Civic Center Drive for the city's first International Taste of North Las Vegas festival.

And in a modest house on West Street, members of Gwendolyn Jones' family made ready for her funeral. Jones, a 35-year-old mother of four, was gunned down in a May 25 drive-by shooting.

Four others also were injured in the hail of bullets fired into the crowd congregated in Jones' front yard for a wake. The gathering was in honor of Jones' sister, who died of cancer a week earlier.

"It is terrible to have your child shot down right in front of you," said Early Perkins, an older woman who answered the front door of Jones' home Wednesday.

"And to see my nephew with a hole that big around in his hip," she added, curling her fingers into an opening the size of a golf ball. "They were just coming up the walk there."

Scores of people have been injured and 10 others have died from gunfire erupting in this North Las Vegas neighborhood since February. Police have attributed the violence to gang warfare.

Those planning Saturday's food festival noted the shootings happened in an area closer to west Las Vegas than North Las Vegas. But none dispute the fact that North Las Vegas' image needs some mending, and its residents need some fun.

"This is the beginning of of a whole movement in North Las Vegas," Laura Coleman, co-chair of the steering committee said. "There has been a lot of misinformation about this city. We're not the wrong side of the tracks. There's a lot of good out here."

Saturday's celebration is designed to bring people together and show off the diversity that binds North Las Vegas, rather than focusing on that which seeks to divide it.

Coleman says they're calling for a truce among rival gangs and hoping to make Saturday's event one of happy memories.

The festival opens at 9 a.m. and will be conducted along Civic Center Drive between Las Vegas and Lake Mead boulevards. Admission is free, but people must pay for the food at various booths and for the children's games, which will cost 25 to 50 cents each.

Entertainers begin at 10 a.m. on two stages. Featured artists will play a variety of music, including rap, hip-hop, light rock 'n' roll and jazz. Big-name entertainers scheduled to appear include Clint Holmes, Cameo and Jorge Santana.

The music is to end around 8 p.m. with a performance by War -- the 1970s band that recorded, "Why Can't We Be Friends?"

Good question.

While some residents revel in food and good music a few blocks away, Jones' family is planning another funeral. It's a lot of grieving for a family and community to bear.

"The devil is so busy. Everywhere you look," Perkins said.

It definitely can seem so when the devilment happens just beyond your own front door.

Sometimes the only way a regular person can keep life's repugnancies at bay is to huddle and celebrate a little in the company of neighbors and friends.