THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 8, 1995 TAG: 9510060228
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 283 lines
WHEN PEEDOG Johnson gets out of bed sometime this afternoon, he'll probably do exactly what he does every other day - ``chill'' for a while, then head out to the street to hang out with his friends.
Later, as evening comes on in Lake Edward, Johnson, 19, might ``get some forties. That's beer,'' he adds, translating the street talk.
Johnson and hundreds of other teenagers will spend the afternoon and evening, as usual, congregating on street corners and roaming the southwest Bayside neighborhood in groups of four, six - even 20 or 30. There's an 11 p.m. curfew, but by then, they will probably have had at least a few adversarial encounters with residents who feel intimidated by the milling youths and police who patrol the streets, trying to break up the bands.
``Get off that corner or I'll call the police,'' calls out a woman from her doorway near the corner of Margate and Lake Edward Drive.
``See?'' says Johnson, turning his outstretched palms skyward. ``We're not doing anything.'' He and his four friends sidestep closer to the street. ``Then the police drive by and arrest you if your music's too loud.''
A carload of teenage girls cruises slowly past.
``Not from this neighborhood,'' says 20-year-old Naponic Williams, craning his neck to get a good look. He, too, ``stands around all day'' for lack of a job or anything better to do.
Fewer groups of teen girls than boys walk the streets, for many are busy taking care of the children they've borne.
Sixteen-year-old Monique Johnson - who is not related to Peedog Johnson - says that about half of her female peers already have children of their own. Monique works during the day but hangs out on the streets with her friends in the evening.
``We just walk around,'' she says. ``There's nothing else to do.''
By late afternoon each day, the teens begin swarming out of the apartment complexes and townhouses that comprise this crunched, sprawling neighborhood known variously as Lake Edward or Wesleyan. As the sun drops lower in the sky and then dips out of sight, the ranks of youths swell to the hundreds. They are looking for something to do, but they don't find it. The nearest recreation center is five miles distant. It's about a mile to the basketball court the city finished building in August near Newtown Road.
Peedog Johnson lives with his grandparents and says he can't find a job.
He and his buddies are part of a bulging population of teenagers who live in this blue-collar section, that backs up against Norfolk. Fanning out on the other side of Newtown and Diamond Springs roads to the east and Wesleyan Drive to the north are more affluent neighborhoods.
Community leaders fear the Lake Edward area is about to crumble in urban decay. Some say it already has. As proof, they point to the neighborhood's idle youth.
It's a growing problem nationwide.
At a Crime Stoppers International conference in Virginia Beach last weekend, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno urged the establishment of more community-based programs to harness youthful energy in productive endeavors and instill positive values and ideals.
Reno said that the problem of youth violence will only get worse unless more money is spent to bolster established programs and to launch new efforts designed to steer kids away from crime before they get involved in it and to help those already leading a criminal life.
While the national debate rages over how best to deal with rising crime and teen pregnancy rates, Lake Edward's community leaders grope for solutions locally.
According to 1990 census data, roughly half the population of Lake Edward is African American, though a drive through the neighborhood indicates that the percentage is now much higher. In 1990, the area had the highest ratio of blacks to whites of the city's 65 neighborhoods.
Just over 15 percent of those living in Lake Edward in 1990 were living at or below poverty level. Of all the city's neighborhoods, only Seatack and Oceana had higher levels of poverty. And just more than half of the 5,000-or-so Lake Edward residents were categorized ``low income.'' Unemployment in Lake Edward was second only to Oceana, and Lake Edward was surpassed by only five others in percentage of rentals versus owner-occupied homes.
The neighborhood is one of three areas of the city identified as having a large concentration of teen births, according to a report from the Virginia Beach Better Beginnings Coalition.
Despite Lake Edward's problems, many in the community are optimistic.
What is needed, they say, are volunteers, leadership and money. They believe that the effort required to help these youngsters rise out of what has become a holding pattern for many would be well worth it.
Though the problem of idle teens heats up during the summer months, things are not much different in the winter, according to both those who focus on the symptoms and those who look deeper to find the causes.
Many residents find the roving bands of youths intimidating, and, while they realize that the teens have no place to go, they contend that their right to feel safe is being compromised.
Carol Johnson, who is not related to either Peedog Johnson or Monique Johnson, is one of those who watches from inside her home while the teenagers brawl in the street, shout obscenities and carry weapons. She and other members of the Lake Edward Area Neighborhood Advisory Council took their concerns to the City Council in June, asking specifically for better street lighting, street cleaning, an anti-loitering ordinance and a law prohibiting new bars. They also asked the city to stop pulling police from the neighborhood during the summer months to help at the Oceanfront.
``I respect the socializing and the lack of recreational facilities, but there is the sense that the young people own the neighborhood,'' says Johnson, who is white and a professor at nearby Virginia Wesleyan College. She points to a lack of parental supervision and single-parent households as the root of the problem.
And ``a basketball court doesn't solve the problem,'' she says.
Carol Johnson has no intention of leaving the neighborhood. She will stay, she says, and try to make a difference.
Elsie Barnes, another Lake Edward resident, tried to have an impact but recently gave up and sold her house. Her biggest complaint is the litter - paper and broken soda and beer bottles - she cleans from the street near her Hampstead Court home. She used to get help from several other residents, but they've moved away, and now it's a solitary task.
Barnes, a member of the Virginia Beach School Board and a professor of political science at Norfolk State University, is neither afraid nor unhappy in the community where she's lived for 15 years. But she's noticed that physical deterioration of the neighborhood has accelerated in recent years. She blames the situation on absentee landlords and says that there aren't enough laws to force them to keep their properties up to par.
Barnes, an African American, agrees that loitering teens are a problem. She says that the youths need closer parental supervision. But how that comes about is ``the $64,000 question,'' she says. ``You can't legislate parenting skills.''
Michone Lane lives in Lake Edward with her husband and teen son and, like the neighborhood youths she advocates for, is an African American. A financial aid counselor at Old Dominion University, she also chairs the Youth Support Committee of the Lake Edward Neighborhood Advisory Council.
She does what she can to encourage neighborhood youths to go on to college.
Lane said ``it's just pitiful, the way they congregate. . . . It's sad to see them hanging on the corner. People are afraid of them.
``They're good kids,'' Lane said. ``But somewhere along the line, they've been forgotten.''
Although the Rev. Robert Lundquist doesn't live in the community, he gets a bird's-eye view of what goes on there as pastor of Lake Edward's Good Samaritan Episcopal Church and as a chaplain who accompanies police on patrols.
``No one believes Virginia Beach has depressed areas,'' he said. ``They've been ignored. The city would like them to go away.''
The Lake Edward area has ``aspects of urban decay,'' Lundquist said. More accurately, he corrects himself, ``It has already fallen off the edge. It's an unacknowledged problem.''
Income levels and parenting situations contribute to Lake Edward's youth issues, said Lundquist, who estimates that about one-fourth of households are headed by single parents - higher, he said, than the national average. And seeing that teens are constructively busy falls heavier on parents with an income of $20,000 than it does on those who have $50,000 to work with, he says.
Making matters worse, Lundquist said, are two nightclubs that snuggle up to the residential community - Picassos and Heartbreak Cafe. A third - Mr. Magic's - closed down last month after its liquor license was revoked by Alcohol Beverage Control officials. The nightclubs' parking lots are a favorite place for large groups of teens to congregate, Lundquist said.
``It's a very fragmented community,'' he said.
Finding solutions, Lundquist said, will take a lot of effort by a lot of people. ``It's a question of balance - how much help you need and how much you do yourself.''
One suggestion the pastor has is for mentors and role models to cross neighborhood lines to involve themselves with the teens who, he pointed out, will soon become part of the larger community. And joining hands in a church fellowship would be another positive approach, said Lundquist, whose parish is so small that it is still a ``mission'' in the eyes of the church hierarchy.
Leadership is also lacking, he said, and finding someone to organize available resources and volunteers is critical to addressing the problem. The transient nature of the population makes leadership difficult to come by. ``Many pick up and leave, and the others back up like the Alamo.''
Still, ``it's not true that folks don't care,'' added Lundquist, referring to those who think of Lake Edward as their permanent community. ``It's like a symphony orchestra that needs a conductor.''
One of those just waiting to make music if only someone would pick up the baton is Kevin Boone, a 32-year-old African American bachelor who lives in Lake Edward. He disagrees with Lundquist's assessment of the neighborhood.
``It's not far gone, a good neighborhood,'' Boone said. ``It's a middle class community on the verge of becoming a poverty community.''
When Third Precinct police instituted an evening athletic league in June, the ``kids just jumped out'' to participate, said Boone, one of eight resident volunteer basketball coaches for the program.
But the Police Athletic League project fell apart in the middle of August tournaments, Boone said, because not enough neighborhood volunteers could be enlisted to chaperone and coach, and police lacked the necessary manpower and money to keep it going.
Walter Henry, president of the Wesleyan Civic League in Lake Edward, said that it's apathy on the part of both parents and police that resulted in the failed PAL effort. There are not enough participating police officers to make a difference any more than there are enough parents, he said.
Henry said that one goal of the PAL program should be to foster a relationship between teens and police that would allow the youths to ``say, `hi, officer,' not run from them.''
Arnold Gordon, a volunteer coach, agrees.
``If the officers got to know the kids. . . .''
Sgt. Samuel Lewis, who directed the short-lived PAL project, said police are doing the best they can with what they have to work with, but responding to emergency calls takes precedence, and manpower is limited.
Lewis said that the PAL project fizzled because of a lack of parent volunteers to chaperone and coach. Then, too, there is money; PAL depends on donations.
Those involved with PAL say that recreational facilities for neighborhood teens are needed.
Boone said Lake Edward teens ``need a place - a recreation center where we can help them with homework, a place where they can learn trades, crafts, art, music, be creative.''
Henry, a retired New York City police officer, said there are few jobs for teens and the problem of idle youth is made worse by the lack of recreational facilities. Most parents work and teens have no way to get to the Bayside Recreation Center.
``It's a real serious problem, forgetting the teens,'' he said. ``They'd rather spend money on jails.''
Busing the teens to Bayside Recreation Center would help, Lewis agreed. And, yes, a recreation center and pool would be great. ``It would be the answer to a lot of ills,'' he said.
Lt. Howard Carr, who is in charge of the Third Precinct's community policing program, said donations are needed to pay for supplies, and kids could be bused to recreation spots if a bus were donated.
Carr said he also has begun talking to local universities and colleges about starting youth mentorship programs in Lake Edward.
Other city officials are trying to find different solutions to Lake Edward's problems, said Andrew M. Friedman, director of the Department of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation. Fifty-six new street lights will soon be installed, and enforcement of laws regarding junk cars and weed and grass cutting has been stepped up in recent months, he said.
And more money has been made available for rehabilitation and purchase of vacant houses in Lake Edward.
But as far as youth loitering goes, there is ``no law against it,'' though the city attorney is looking into the issue, and police are trying to address the problem, Friedman said.
Yet it is a ``real interesting question - youth supervision,'' Friedman added. ``Is there an answer?''
The city has identified Lake Edward as one of 12 Community Action Resource Empowerment (CARE) neighborhoods, and it ``might be the next focus'' of increased community policing aimed at helping reduce crime, Friedman said.
City Councilman Louis R. Jones, who represents the Bayside Borough, said that youth issues are one of the 12 priorities the City Council set at its August retreat.
``We're all concerned about it, no question,'' Jones said.
But it is ``hard to say what we have to do to keep (youth) energy under control,'' he said. ``More police patrols? Transportation twice a week to the rec center? If we do that, we have to do it everywhere.''
Peedog Johnson and his friends get animated when asked what the neighborhood needs.
``A place, pool tables,'' says Johnson, taking aim at an imaginary ball with an invisible cue stick in a mime that could easily be mistaken for ardent violin playing.
``Where we can have music,'' says 16-year-old Darnell Peterson.
``And video games and food,'' adds Derreck Hall, 16.
``Chicken, hamburgers,'' pipes in another voice.
Peedog Johnson's big brown eyes light up when he talks about his girlfriend. ``I got a girlfriend,'' he says.
``Oh, I get exercise,'' he replies when asked what he does for physical activity. ``The Playboy channel exercises my mind,'' he jokes.
Asked about his plans for the future, Johnson's ready smile disappears. His eyes stop dancing and get a faraway look. He shrugs his shoulders, then saunters off down the street with his buddies, laughing and joking.
Peedog Johnson knows where he's headed - at least for tonight. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by L. Todd Spencer
Marcus Hunter, 6, jumps rope in his Lake Edward neighborhood while
his friend, 7-year-old Brian Johnson, left, watches.
Photos by L. TODD SPENCER
The city recently finished building a basketball court in the
neighborhood, but many residents say they need more recreational
outlets for Lake Edward teens.
Elsie Barnes has lived in Lake Edward for 15 years but is giving up.
She recently sold her house. The School Board member blames physical
deterioration of the neighborhood on absentee landlords.
Steve Pursley, left, Terence Langley and Kevin Boone were willing to
work with neighborhood teens through the Police Athletic League, but
the program ended in August for lack of resources, both from
neighbors and police.
``I respect the socializing and the lack of recreational facilities,
but there is the sense that the young people own the neighborhood,''
says Carol Johnson, whose 3-year-old daughter Grace looks on from
the doorway.
``No one believes Virginia Beach has depressed areas,'' says the
Rev. Robert Lundquist, pastor of Lake Edward's Good Samaritan
Episcopal Church. ``They've been ignored. The city would like them
to go away.''
by CNB