Monday, December 13, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Residents fed up with neglect

Neighbors see potential beauty in shabby West Las Vegas areas

West Las Vegas resident Veronica Dunn-Jones points out an old, rundown house on Hassell Avenue, just east of Martin Luther King Boulevard. Dunn-Jones and other area residents are rallying for change to spruce up their struggling neighborhoods. Photo by John Gurzinski. A lock and tattered strap hold shut a gate in front of an abandoned home in West Las Vegas. Area residents bemoan the dilapidated, neglected housing in the area. Photo by John Gurzinski. Jessie Bush and Sandy Yacono worry that vacant lots like the one at the corner of Concord Street and Hassell Avenue bring their neighborhood down. They want city officials and other West Las Vegas residents to clean up and develop the area. Photo by John Gurzinski.

Veronica Dunn-Jones stood at the gate of her favorite eyesore -- a seafoam-colored house that's been boarded up for as long as she can remember.

It's a house with a history no one is sure about, but according to Dunn-Jones, some say a body was found there once.

A row of thick-trunked leafless trees line the side of the house in the 1200 block of Hassell Avenue. Piles of wood and debris adorn its front yard, and the carport, perhaps the envy of the neighborhood 30 years ago, leans precariously to the right.

"With the trees and the grass and a little face-lift, this could be a beautiful home, and a child could be growing up in that house," Dunn-Jones said, shaking her head. "There's no reason this house should be sitting here destroyed like that."

Dozens of similarly abandoned homes and buildings sit in these aging West Las Vegas neighborhoods, which also are dotted with hundreds of vacant, trash-strewn lots. They are signs of neglect the residents say attract vagrants and lead to crime.

But a growing number of residents like Dunn-Jones are beginning to see the potential beauty of their neighborhood and are organizing to change it with the help of a national advocacy group.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, otherwise known as ACORN, recently opened its first Las Vegas chapter in the hopes of amplifying the concerns of marginalized valley neighborhoods, starting with West Las Vegas.

Will Ward, the group's Nevada organizer, in the past two weeks has fired up some 60 West Las Vegas residents to join the group. Recently, he's persuaded some to come out in blustering winds and winter chill to rally for speed humps and cleanups of vacant lots.

"What would it take for the city to clean this up?" Ward said. "These issues are definitely code enforcement issues. Why isn't the city aggressively going after these code violations?"

A rally on Tuesday focused on a vacant corner lot piled high with dirt and littered with broken beer and whiskey bottles.

"When you look at this, it just brings shame to the whole neighborhood," said Barbara Drew, a 35-year resident of the area generally bordered by Carey Avenue on the north, Bonanza Road on the south, Interstate 15 on the east and Rancho Drive on the west.

The rally drew just a handful of people, among them Las Vegas Councilman Lawrence Weekly, who represents the area.

Weekly told those at the rally he understands their frustrations, but he said their neighborhood's success depends as much on them as on the city.

"It takes more than talking about it," he said. "People have to participate. We've had neighborhood cleanups out here and just five people participate. I have town hall meetings for West Las Vegas all the time, and very few people come."

Jessie Bush, who lives in a home built by Habitat for Humanity, said residents have relied too long on politicians to effect changes.

"If they didn't take that ball and run with it, we've got to take it back and make the two points," Bush said. "It's going to be up to us to bring about change if we don't want to be that old community that's pushed to the side."

Some residents who have decided to join the activists say they know city officials haven't forgotten them, but they have seen the city's efforts to drive the area's struggling economy start and stall, lurch forward, then lose ground.

Sandy Yacono moved with her family to Hassell Avenue five years ago when she had the chance to buy a house built by Habitat for Humanity. Her home is one of about a dozen new houses the nonprofit built on the street just east of Martin Luther King Boulevard and north of Lake Mead Boulevard.

"I love my home," she said. "I just want the rest of the neighborhood to be safer and cleaner. There's drive-bys in front of my house, my daughter's friend was shot down the street and people knock on my door for a dollar."

Yacono said she joined ACORN's movement to make a difference and to mobilize like-minded neighbors. She said the change she envisions for her street is attainable, having seen other parts of West Las Vegas improve over the past five years.

"Since I've been here, they put up the Andre Agassi school, they redid the library, we have Jack in the Box and a CVS (pharmacy) and new senior housing," Yacono said of developments just two blocks south. "But Von's closed, so now we don't have a decent grocery store in this whole area."

Government officials note city, county and federal agencies in recent years have invested millions of dollars in improvements and construction projects in West Las Vegas, including a new post office, four schools and a community resource center.

Las Vegas Neighborhood Services Director Orlando Sanchez said in the past year the city spent $13 million on street improvements, $1.5 million in federal grants for affordable housing projects, mainly for the elderly, and has attracted about $2.5 million in private investment for developing a vacant five-acre lot with more senior housing.

The city also started a pilot program called Integrated Services Team, which tackles code enforcement violations in areas around the city showing signs of decline, said Tim Whitright, the city's Neighborhood Initiatives supervisor. The team has hit West Las Vegas in four cleanups between April and June and collected about 26 tons of trash.

As for the vacant lot near Lake Mead and Losee Road that prompted ACORN's rally, Sanchez said the city is considering a plan for a private, light industrial development by Thompson Industrial Center LLC.

James Thompson, the property owner, said he estimates he is within 45 days of starting construction of three warehouses and six business building for the site. He said the buildings will be used "by anybody who needs an industrial designation for their use."

Thompson said his project has been in the works for about three years, during which time he and his son held numerous meetings with area residents and city officials. He also collected signatures in support of the project from the homeowners within 600 feet of the site.

"If there's anybody left that doesn't know what's happening on that site, it's because they haven't asked the right person," he said. "They didn't ask me, and I'm on that property every day."

Sanchez said the city also is in the middle of planning improvements, such as street and sidewalk repairs on Jackson Street to entice business and commercial developers to the area.

He also said the city has demolished one abandoned, boarded house and has given notice to the owners of eight others that have been vacant and neglected for far too long.

"If they want to rehab those homes, we'll work with them because we would rather provide affordable housing than demolish it," he said.