DRUGS, GRAFFITI ON WEINLAND PARK CLEANUP LIST

Even on the coldest nights, the women keep watch -- huddled on sofas on the
porches of apartments that sit side by side.

Kathy Vest and her mother-in-law, Rosemary, know many of the people in
their Weinland Park neighborhood, either by name or by sight.

They know who belongs and who doesn't. From their porches, next door to a
carryout, they point out drug dealers walking by or what they believe is a
drug deal taking place up the street.

In this southeastern part of the University District, boarded-up drug
houses and subsidized dwellings exist alongside homes with longtime owners
whose care for their properties shows in their manicured lawns.

Here, drugs -- not riots and loud parties -- are what make residents
nervous and keep police busy.

"We have our own battles out here: Drug dealers are recruiting our children
as young as 6 years old," Kathy Vest said. "If we didn't have a drug
problem out here, the rate of robberies and assaults would go way down."
Today, students, residents and other volunteers are expected to converge on
the area as part of an annual neighborhood cleanup.

Activities will include painting the Weinland Park mural at Grant and 11th
avenues, improving a community garden and removing graffiti.

Volunteers should meet by 10 a.m. at Weinland Park Elementary School, 211
E. 7th Ave. About 200 Columbus Clippers tickets will be distributed.

More than 15 organizations are involved in the project, which is being
coordinated by Ohio State University's Service-Learning Initiative, a
program that helps students learn through active participation.

"We're involved in this neighborhood because it's in the southern part of
the University District," said Susan Brooks, program manager of the initiative.

"There are job and housing issues here that are of concern to us." Kathy
Vest said any effort that draws attention to the neighborhood problems and
brings improvement is welcome. She plans to participate and encourages
others to do so.

But she believes removing drugs from the area is a much bigger concern.

She's lived in the neighborhood off and on for 16 years and is raising her
three children there.

Her mother-in-law, whom many in the neighborhood call "Nosy Rosy," raised
her own three sons around the neighborhood, struggling to keep them away
from drugs.

"What upsets me most about this is when you call the city to ask for help,
all they can talk about is planting trees and flowers," said Rosemary Vest,
52. "We need to do something about the criminals." When she moved to the
area in the mid-1970s, the older Vest said, the problems were alcohol and
domestic violence. Now, people who were children when she moved there are
part of a thriving drug trade.

It's a vicious cycle, she said.

"Every time I've gotten ready to leave, I felt the calling that God has
things for me to do here," Rosemary Vest said.

Her daughter-in-law added: "This neighborhood needs her too bad." Vicki
Cherry, a longtime resident and mother of three grown children, feels she's
been lucky.

"My kids all did well in this neighborhood, completely surrounded by
drugs," she said. "I can remember in the 1980s when (police) helicopters
flying around was really common." Kathy Vest said she has been talking to
the police about getting a community center established in the neighborhood
to give children other options.

"It all takes time," she said. "The problems didn't happen overnight, and
change won't come overnight."