Neighborhood takes on troubles Colonial Village residents take steps against criminals
The Herald-Sun
Monday, June 06, 2005
BY JOHN MCCANN jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601
Diplomacy. It really works.
Bad vibes were jumping off on Banner Street, over there in northern Durham around East Club Boulevard. Stuff just didn't look right. Drug dealing or something.
Don't think for a minute that Ken Gasch would sit around and watch it tear up Colonial Village.
Long story short, Gasch talked with the police and -- perhaps more importantly -- told the property owner that he'd talked with the police.
The process is under way to evict the curious tenant.
That particular situation didn't have to get ugly in order to get results. Gasch nipped it in the bud.
But he'll tell you about some urban messiness earlier this year that got a little too close to Colonial Village.
On Jan. 11, two groups of teens traded words in a parking lot on North Roxboro Road. Someone pulled out a gun. Antonio Dent took a bullet in the gut and was rushed to the hospital.
The 17-year-old died the next day. It was Durham's first murder of the year.
"That kind of killing ..." Gasch paused, overcome with emotion -- saddened not only by Dent's death, but also because the alleged shooter was a kid from the neighborhood.
Gasch continued, "We could have prevented it."
How? With diplomacy?
Well, yes, according to Gasch.
Diplomacy is about building relationships and understanding how to deal with people. It's being soft enough to bend, but never compromising non-negotiables.
Which could entail Gasch telling a landlord that he understands how tough it'll be to go without a tenant's rent check, but that Colonial Village neighbors won't stand for harboring a troublemaker. They're just not having it.
"We're really not playing around," Gasch said.
One bad apple leads to more rotten fruit, and one day you look up and everything stinks. So Colonial Village residents have seen fit to get streetlights added. Criminals aren't particularly fond of high visibility. And hopefully the speed bumps added to Cascadilla Street would make them rethink getaway plans.
More streetlights and speed bumps are on the drawing board, said Colonial Village Neighborhood Association President Julie Seagroves.
And a neighborhood security camera is slated for installation.
"I don't know that the camera itself could have prevented [Dent's murder]. It's just the attitude," Gasch explained. "Neighborhood policing? That's old-fashioned."
What he means is "neighborhood policing" is a new name for a practice that's been around for ages, back when one neighbor could tell another neighbor that his kid was down the street acting ugly, and that parent would actually believe it and thank the neighbor for butting in before proceeding to discipline the brat. Less juvenile delinquency that way, Gasch suggests.
The man's passion would lead you to think he'd lost a relative to senseless violence. Not so.
"No one in my family has been victimized," Gasch said. "But this is my neighborhood. Everybody in this neighborhood is my family."
So when Dent's accused killer got popped for the murder, Gasch essentially watched what might as well have been a nephew get hauled off to jail.
"We have disagreements," Gasch said of his neighbors. "We fight and scream, threaten not to talk to each other again."
But they kiss and make up, just like strong families.
They are a diverse bunch, to be sure. About 550 homes. Young couples. Singles. Retirees. Some have lived in Colonial Village since the neighborhood was established in the 1940s for Army officers from Camp Butner.
Neighbors around here get together and pick up trash, and they admire their handiwork while pushing Junior in the baby stroller and maintaining a firm grip on Fido's leash.
All they want to do is keep the place up, keep the hoodlums off their sidewalks so there's a clear path when they do push the baby and walk the dog.
And, see, that way Colonial Village remains this neat neighborhood of cute houses with clotheslines and tomato plants in the back yards.
"In Your Neighborhood" appears every Monday. If you know of someone or something interesting in your neighborhood, call (919) 419-6630 or e-mail news @heraldsun.com.
© Copyright by The Durham Herald Company. Original copyright 2005. Copyright renewed 2006. All rights reserved.