Gardere, a neighborhood synonymous with poverty, blight and crime, is changing for the better. Overall crime has declined in the last four years. A group of residents are working to make the area safer, smarter and friendlier.
Murelle Harrison, founder of the Gardere Initiative, rounds her big church van onto Gardere Lane with two back seats full of kids. The kids are bouncing as she pulls into the parking lot for Hartley Vey Gardere park, where a shiny new playground practically sparkles in the afternoon sun. It was paid for with a grant received by BREC from Dr. Pepper /Snapple and national nonprofit KaBOOM! The catch was that volunteers had to build the playground in a day, a challenge which the Gardere Initiative took on.
"Isn’t that something?" Harrison says. "That all this time, they were denied a park."
This playground is just one of the projects the Gardere Initiative takes on to better the area. Harrison drives me around the neighborhood in her church van, showing me block after block of nearly identical fourplexes and duplexes. Many are virtually unchanged since they were built in the 70’s and 80’s as student housing, though they have deteriorated, with more than a few boarded up doors and windows.
The community saw a big change - a spike in crime in the aftermath of Katrina.
"The Hispanic community moved in and they used to call them ‘walking ATMs’ because many of them were undocumented so they would just carry cash, so they were just targets," Harrison says.
Because they were undocumented, they wouldn’t seek help from law enforcement. According to American Community Survey data from 2013, that’s the last year available, a little over ten percent ofGardereresidents are undocumented. That number is nearly double what it was in 2000.
PastorEleazarRodriguez ofIglesiaAlAposentoAlto is also a part of theGardereInitiative. He says his congregation is a little over 200 people, most of which are undocumented.
"In my congregation I have fromHondouras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, I have a family from Belize, from Puerto Rico, from Mexico, from all of Central America we have some people," he says.
Rodriguez says when he first came toGardereto lead the church eight years ago, members of the undocumented community were reported to federal immigration authorities far more often than now. And, he says, even when they are, the authorities still treat them fairly, allowing them to post bond and return to their families.
“Immigration is pretty fair. I mean, they’re not - they’re nice people. And the [policemen] - they’re nice people. You know, it’s like when you go to Wal Mart, maybe you will find one gallon of milk spoiled, but that doesn’t mean that all the gallons aregonnabe,” he laughs.
Even if Rodriguez says undocumented members of the community have less reason to worry, they themselves may not always feel that way.Captain Andrew Stevens of the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Department oversees theGarderearea, and he says a more recent challenge is convincing undocumented people that it’s okay to call 911 when they need help.
"We try to hold meetings with them using crime stoppers, trying to let them know that it is okay. We’re not trying to deal with you being undocumented, we’re just here to let you know that if you’re a victim of any type of crime, we’re going to extend the same thing that we do to anybody else," Stevens says. "You have those rights while you’re here."
Stevens also works with theGardereInitiative. He says that the Hispanic community is playing a bigger role in community events. However, Pastor Rodriguez many still keep to themselves.
“They are afraid, you know - they’re afraid," Rodriguez says. "You know - they go through a lot.”
The initiative is helping, though. In the year since establishing their office on Ned St., their services have expanded to include bagged lunches for neighborhood kids, a library, tutoring and GED programs, they also provide internet access to people who need to apply for jobs. The list goes on and on, but essentially, the they’ve grown to fill many needs the community has long had.
"That's what we want, just to improve the lives of the people who live in the community," Harrison says.
Harrison turns the big church van on toGardereLane again, where I can see people walking in the street. Many people in this community don’t have cars, but after several years of requests, the neighborhood is set to finally get sidewalks on the busy thoroughfare within two years. I’ll give you one guess as to who helped make that happen.
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