Reprinted from the Vallejo Times-Herald

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Do you feel safe?
City of Vallejo survey to help get grant
By RACHEL RASKIN-ZRIHEN/Times-Herald staff writer
Article Launched: 07/19/2007 08:56:49 AM PDT


Fighting Back Partnership's John Allen, right, moderates a meeting Wednesday evening at Vallejo's Salvation Army headquarters, discussing problems of residents of the Millerville neighborhood and proposals for solving them. (Mike Jory/Times-Herald) In some Vallejo neighborhoods, criminals seem to have the upper hand and Vallejo is competing for a $1 million federal grant to help take those neighborhoods back, officials said Wednesday.
"Back in December, for instance, in the Millerville area, at 4:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, we heard a POW! POW! POW!, and listened for the expected car speeding away noise," said Vallejo Police Lt. Reggie Garcia.

"We followed the sound, found the car and found smoke still coming out of the gun. Everyone in the car denied involvement in anything. They'd been shooting at a rival drug dealer. In broad daylight. They are not intimidated."

The U.S. Justice Department Weed and Seed Grant program, which has awarded five-year $1 million grants to

several cities annually since 1991, aims to address this and other quality of life issues, Garcia said.
City officials have applied for the grant twice since 2003. Though rejected both times, they are optimistic this go around, said representatives of three of the community entities involved in the application process.

Increased community involvement is a main reason Garcia, for one, believes the city has a chance this time.

"We applied before for the downtown area only, and were told


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there weren't enough people and there wasn't enough crime," Garcia said. "We were competing against communities with significant problems, like Hunters Point, the Bayview District and Oakland. When you think about their problems, we got no problems."
Vallejo's new targeted area includes more than 40,000 residents - nearly meeting the grant's 50,000 limit.

"This time, those other cities already have their grants," he said, improving Vallejo's chances.

The new application, for which the deadline is mid-August, will include mention of the city's Parolee Reentry Program, which in December was awarded a $1.2 million California Department of Corrections grant, though no money has yet been received, Garcia said.

There are 2,020 parolees in Solano County, about 800 in Vallejo at any given time, Garcia said. About 1,262 of them, more than 60 percent, re-offend, he added. The program aims to reduce recidivism by treating substance abuse, providing employment and housing assistance, education and peer support.

Application process
Some of the local, regional and other agencies involved in Vallejo's federal Weed and Seed grant application process:

• The U.S. Attorney's Office

• The Drug Enforcement Administration

• Fighting Back Partnership

• Vallejo Police Department

• State Department of Corrections

• Solano County Probation Department

• Vallejo Code Enforcement

• Vallejo City Council

• Impacted area residents

• Churches

• Rep. George Miller's Office

• Vallejo City Unified School District

• Vallejo Housing Authority

• Vallejo Chamber of Commerce

• The Central Core Restoration District

Source: Vallejo Police Lt. Reggie Garcia, Fighting Back Partnership Project Manager John Allan and Vallejo Chamber of Commerce President Rick Wells.



Garcia and Fighting Back Partnership's John Allen said that program should be a selling point for getting Vallejo the Weed and Seed Grant.

"They call it 'Weed and Seed' because it's meant to weed out (or in our case rehabilitate) the bad and plant the seeds for building human social capital in neighborhoods to allow revitalization," Garcia said.

A satisfying neighborhood buy-in is also a selling point, the men said.

"There are neighborhoods with a relatively high reported crime rate that have expressed willingness to come together to address this," Allen said. "These people have had enough of having their lives impacted by crime. They're now willing to work with police."

Vallejo's new community prosecutor, who goes after local crime that may not make the county prosecutor's to priority list, should also help the city win the grant, Garcia said.

Also improving the city's chances is the involvement of its business community and the Chamber of Commerce, which is distributing a Neighborhood Satisfaction Survey to help satisfy the grant's community outreach requirement, said chamber president and CEO Rick Wells. The survey went out to chamber members and is also available at www.vallejochamber.com, at the chamber's 427 York St. office, or by calling 648-5262. Some 200 responses have already come in, Wells said. Responses will continue being accepted through the end of July, he said.

"The board is in full support of improving the quality of life in Vallejo," Wells said. "I live in an impacted area, and this has been a great process. People are sick of crime, and want to be part of the solution."

But, even if the grant application is rejected again, progress has been made in the attempt, the men said.

"We've identified the target areas and begun bringing the community together," Allen said. "And that's what the grant is meant to do."