TO WIN THE DRUG WAR, GOTTA LOSE THE ASPHALT

Dear Mr. Bush:

Don't say no to shrubs.

Or trees or slides or sprinklers for the kiddies. These aren't just
pleasant perks brightening New York's 346 housing projects. They are
powerful weapons fighting the war on drugs. And winning.

At least, they're winning at the moment. But President Bush wants to slash
the funding for this anti-drug program.

"It's called crime prevention through environmental design," explains
Leonard Hopper, head of landscape architecture at the Housing Authority.
The idea is simple: When regular folks hang out outside, drug dealers
don't. Who's gonna push crack in front of mamas pushing swings?

Unfortunately, for many years those mamas didn't dare take their kids
outside. The grim project grounds were about as inviting as a bench with no
seat. That's because during the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, New York
couldn't afford to maintain the greenery in its projects so it came up with
a brilliant solution: asphalt.

Brilliant for fostering a drug culture, that is. "When you pave everything
with asphalt, it starts to look like a street," says Hopper. "Next thing
you know, cars start parking all over it and it becomes a market for
drive-through drugs and drive-by muggings."

To illustrate his point, he shows a slide of the Red Hook Houses, circa
1985: Graffiti-covered walls surround a courtyard of cracked concrete. And
who's that guy lurking in the shadows?

Even the photographer didn't stick around to find out.

At that time, the head of the Housing Authority begged his troops to come
up with new ways to make the residents safer. Hopper's group realized this
was a job tall fences and razor ribbon could not solve.

In fact, explains Arthur Kleinman, head of Site Design Resources and
another proponent of crime-preventing design, tall, imposing fences meant
only that someone could hide on the other side. And long, fenced-in
passageways turned out to be disastrous "movement predictors" - a fancy
term for paths that allowed perps to wait patiently for victims with
nowhere to run.

So Hopper started going out with the Housing Authority cops to see where
the crimes were concentrated. "You need three things to create a crime," he
learned. "A victim, a perp and a place conducive to the crime." His job was
to make those places unconducive.

The way he's done that is by beckoning law-abiding residents back outside,
with gardens to plant, shade to enjoy and see-saws to supervise. Today, the
Red Hook Houses look like the dorms at a private college, leafy and green.
Playgrounds abound. Kids blow bubbles as parents lean on fences, talking.

"It's looks much better now," says Dora Almodovar, a grandmother. "They've
got a lot of swings so the kids can play."

"It's much safer," adds Tony Morris, a painter who works at the project.
"And we don't hear too much gun shooting during the day."

Unfortunately, part of the money for this renaissance comes from the Drug
Elimination Program, a $309 million fund Bush has vowed to scrap.

"This program has helped reduce drug activity in public housing," says Sen.
Chuck Schumer. "That's the definition of the kind of program you keep."

When Congress returns from its break, this bill will be on the table. Kids
will be on the swings. And a great program will be on the ropes.