EFFORT TO STOP DRUGS CROSSES TWO WORLDS

Willie Mae Parker knows about drugs. For years she saw the dealers and
buyers prowl the streets of her neighborhood, the Lyman Homes housing
project in Marietta. She heard the gunshots and the footsteps running
through back yards.

"It was like a drive-through," said Parker, whose own daughter is an
addict.

Drug dealers hung around late into the night just a few feet from her
back door, said Parker, 56. When buyers didn't have enough money, they
would break car windows or snatch chains, she said.

Just a short walk from Lyman Homes, Connie Panetta and her husband
bought their dream home, an antebellum mansion, in 1998.

From their second-floor sleeping porch the couple spent their first
weekend watching the residue of the drug activity nearby.

"On a Friday and Saturday night, it was almost a constant stream
through the back alley for several hours," said Panetta. "(There was)
an unusual amount of traffic and people stopping, circling and
circling and circling."

With their house sitting at the corner of Montgomery and Cherokee
streets, the Panettas feel connected to two worlds.

One world is historic Cherokee Street with its stately homes, some
more than 100 years old. Front porches overlook the busy street that
leads to the Marietta Square. The Panettas' two-story house fits right
in. Built in 1842, local legend has it that it was hit by a cannonball
during the Civil War, Panetta said.

It was once the home of William R. Montgomery, a Civil War soldier who
fought in some of its major battles and the first clerk of Cobb
Superior Court. The parlor is adorned with black and white photographs
of Montgomery and his children.

The other world is across a vacant lot, once part of Montgomery's
property. It separates the Panettas' yard from the Lyman Homes. The
two-story, brick-front apartments were built in the 1950s.

Soon after moving in, the Panettas figured out that the cars were
related to the drug traffic just down the road. They talked to police.
To stem the flow of drug and automobile traffic, the city of Marietta
had just installed barricades, which closed off two ends of one street
in the housing project. An apartment in the complex was turned into a
substation for police officers. The housing authority added more
fencing and improved the lighting.

Over time the measures worked, and the numbers of cars on Montgomery
Street --- and of drug dealers and their customers who frequented
Lyman Homes --- slowed to a trickle.

So much so that that City Councilman James Dodd successfully pressed
for the barricades' removal in April. Their removal was controversial,
with vehement opinions on both sides that remain.

When the city took the barricades down, it was time, said Parker. She
never wanted them there. She was concerned that schoolchildren had to
walk to a busy street to wait for their buses and emergency vehicles
would not be able to get in.

Others viewed the barricades as an attempt to fence off and stigmatize
poor people.

But the return of the drug dealers and their buyers to the 125-unit
complex is an ever-present worry for Parker, who keeps close tabs on
her grandchildren. She is raising two of her daughter's children.
Another daughter is raising her sister's third child. Parker keeps
photographs of all the children on the concrete-block walls of her
two-story apartment.

Marietta police bike units and patrol officers are a constant presence
in the complex. They have a small substation there and are collecting
crime data to see if the crime numbers climb.

An upshot of the removal of the barricades was the creation of a
committee by Mayor Ansley Meaders, who lives nearby and cast the
deciding vote to take them down.

The committee has met twice and is supposed to deal with public safety
and other issues that were brought up during the barricades
controversy.

Panetta and her husband are members. She is looking into how much it
would cost to provide flower and plant baskets for each of the
families at Lyman Homes. Panetta hopes the small gesture will go a
long way to making the complex a better place for residents.

"You have lots and lots of hard-working families and everyone deserves
a safe place to live," Panetta said.

The attention is appreciated.

"They are taking the initiative and they are concerned about our
environment and that is wonderful," said Parker, who has lived in the
homes since 1972.