BLOCK PARTY CELEBRATES OUSTER OF DRUG DEALERS

Vigliance, City Hall Help Shut Down Crime In One Fruitvale Neighborhood

OAKLAND -- They had a party Saturday afternoon in front of 3025
School St. in the Fruitvale District with balloons, kids running
around, barbecue donated by Everett & Jones and a lot of smiles.
Drug dealers, not welcome.

It was a party that no one living in the area would have believed
could happen a few years ago, especially not in front of that house.

This was a block dominated by drug dealers. One Christmas not long
ago, a neighbor, Andrew Dibble, said he drove home to find a murder
victim slumped in a car outside the drug house.

"Daytime, nighttime, it didn't matter. It was non-stop," he said.

"The grocery store on the corner was all boarded up. It wasn't safe
here," Dibble said.

All that has changed dramatically. Fed-up residents formed a
neighborhood watch group. They began calling City Hall.

Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who represents
the Fruitvale district, signed on. So did City Attorney John Russo.

De la Fuente brought in police, city inspectors and regulators.
Russo brought his Neighborhood Law Corps, young deputy attorneys,
who brought the weight of the courts on the drug house.

Both De La Fuente and Russo attended the block party and praised
residents for hanging tough. The city is reclaiming neighborhoods
one by one, they said.

The law corps is able to do much more in the courts than residents
can with a small claims, nuisance law suit, Russo said.

Laura Blair of the Neighborhood Law Corps said attorneys actually
filed actions against the owners of three problem houses on the
block and won court-ordered restrictions and settlements. The
absentee owner of the 3025 School St. house was forced to sell the
house. Drug using and drug dealing residents left.

The lawsuit also gave the city jurisdiction over the sale. The new
owner was required to live in the house, Blair said.

In fact, neighbors added, the new owner has joined the neighborhood watch.

Down at the corner store, proprietor Ahmed Faiz said he got a $3,000
loan from the city and put in another

$18,000 to upgrade the store. Now, there are large, clean windows.
The store boasts a well-stocked, refrigerated section with fresh
fruits and vegetables. The store sells more groceries now, Faiz
said. "We want the word to get around, so more people will shop here."

Andretta Fowler, who lives nearby, said the success shows "if people
work together, things like this can happen."

Neighbors said the first change came when a minister from Shiloh
Christian Fellowship, an Oakland community church, set up a portable
organ in front of the drug house and began singing hymns.

"Once her battery ran out and the people in the drug house let her
plug into their electricity," a neighbor said.

They didn't know it, but those hymns were writing an obituary for
drug dealing on School Street.

"Amen," a neighbor said.