SEIZE THE MOMENTUM

Melbourne's Bleak Streets Ravaged by Crime, but There's Reason to Hope

It would be easy to give up on a neighborhood like Melbourne's
crime-torn Booker T. Washington, where drug deals and gunshots pass
for ambiance.

Starting today, FLORIDA TODAY examines the troubled neighborhood in a
series of stories, along with narrated photo galleries and videos on
floridatoday.com.

Here's some of the gritty background on life in Booker
T.

# In the past two years, there have been 294 calls to police regarding
drug complaints in the small area, home to fewer than 600 people, many
of whom are poor and live in dilapidated housing.

# Last year police made 99 drug arrests in Booker T., which was built
in the 1950s and once thrived as the first black neighborhood in Eau
Gallie.

# Children growing up there today play side-by-side with crack dealers
in parks, and some even help broker cocaine sales.

# Cyclical poverty in the neighborhood has sucked generations of young
men into addiction, crime and serial incarceration, particularly since
the 1980s crack binge brought a whole new level of violence to its
broken streets.

It's a depressing and discouraging situation.

But giving up on Booker T. would be absolutely the wrong way to
go.

That's because, as the FLORIDA TODAY investigation also shows, the
seeds of renaissance are being sown daily in the impoverished
neighborhood.

And hope for its future may never have been stronger, if the community
can summon its will, work together to seize the moment, and take
Booker T. back from the pit of despair.

Here's the brighter side of the story:

# Faith-based groups such as Habitat for Humanity have made huge
strides to revitalize the neighborhood -- building 33 houses and with
another 10 duplexes on the drawing board.

Residents of Habitat houses take pride in ownership and help create
stable, working poor enclaves.

Another religious nonprofit called Dorcas Outreach Center for Kids
recently opened, and offers children homework help and a safe place to
spend time.

# Melbourne leaders have authorized spending $2.4 million in
neighborhood fixes in the past six years, paving streets, refurbishing
parks, repairing sidewalks and targeting run-down housing for renovation.

The city is now working with the federal Housing and Urban Development
Department on further improvements.

Meanwhile, police are cracking down on crime more consistently, but
also trying to win the hearts and minds of young residents to prevent
another generation from going over to the dark side.

# Most importantly, a small but growing number of Booker T. residents
are defying the drug thugs and gang-bangers to retake their streets.

Some, like evangelical preacher Jennifer Pressley, are champions for
neighborhood change and aid police in solving crimes, despite fear of
retaliation.

"We need families not to harbor kids or grandchildren selling drugs in
their homes," she says. "Letting them do that is not love. If you stop
it in your own house it will eventually move out of the
neighborhood."

That mindset must spread if Booker T. is to rise from the
ashes.

Our hope is that FLORIDA TODAY's Booker T. Washington project will
inspire more neighborhood residents -- and more Brevard residents in
general -- to get involved in revitalizing it and other blighted areas
on the Space Coast.

Because giving up is not an option.