Last month, an 11-year-old boy was murdered as he walked the seven blocks home from school in Houston’s Northside neighborhood. The tragedy has thrown the area’s ongoing community safety work into sharp relief. Crime has declined. But according to a Houston Chronicle op-ed by leaders of Go Neighborhoods, LISC’s close partner, without serious help from city officials to stem old and new crime drivers, violence will continue to plague the community.
The excerpt below is from:
"11-year-old's brutal murder spotlights an urgent need for change"
Originally published in the Houston Chronicle
Through decades of neglect, Houston's leaders have failed the Northside. Poor public services, inadequate infrastructure and a growing homeless population have created challenges for this historic neighborhood just north of Houston's downtown.
Last week, the consequences of these collective failures became painfully and devastatingly clear when 11-year-old Josue Flores was murdered as he walked the seven blocks from Marshall Middle School to his Northside home. While the assailant remains unknown and at large, we're left to wonder why anyone would do harm to an innocent little boy. Beyond that, we're left to reflect on our neighborhood's unmet promise and why, years after our residents launched an ambitious community improvement effort, our streets are still unsafe for our children.
Homeless men urinate on the street by Ketelsen Elementary. People drink alcohol and abuse drugs at bus stops and light rail platforms in broad daylight. Mothers are harassed by aggressive panhandlers as they walk their children home from school. An environment of lawlessness permeates our community. We shouldn't have to live this way.
Houston's Northside, much like young Josue, is a humble, hard-working community with big dreams. It is a community of caring residents who take pride in their neighborhood and celebrate its rich history and cultural diversity.
In 2009, the Northside was selected by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation of Greater Houston as one of two pilot Great Opportunities neighborhoods. Through the GO pilot, and with the support of Avenue Community Development Corp., community leaders developed a plan - our "Quality of Life Agreement" - to achieve our vision for a safe, diverse, vibrant and connected community. Among the challenges we identified to address in this plan were a lack of quality affordable housing, inadequate infrastructure, homelessness and crime. Continued[+]...
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jose Angel Treviño and Diana Lerma Pfeifer
Treviño and Pfeifer are residents of the Northside neighborhood of Houston, TX and are members of the Northside Great Opportunities Neighborhoods Leadership and Advocacy Team. LISC supports community stakeholders in defining and realizing their vision for their community through GO Neighborhoods. The program has been and continues to be co-created with the communities that adopt it.