DATE: Saturday, March 8, 1997               TAG: 9703080009

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   30 lines

WEED AND SEED CITIES SHOULD APPLY

The federal Weed & Seed program, a favorite offspring of the Bush administration, has been treated as a none too popular stepchild during the Clinton years.

But the program, which aimed at weeding drug pushers out of poor neighborhoods and reseeding with both community policing and positive alternatives for young people, was a good idea. It still is.

That's why the Republicans in power in Richmond are creating their own Weed and Seed initiative, albeit a modestly funded one.

Localities, including several in Hampton Roads, are being asked to submit proposals for projects that would carry the ``weed and seed'' concept into at-risk neighborhoods. A million dollars has has been set aside by Gov. George F. Allen from federal discretionary funds to be distributed to the four or five communities with the best ideas.

Among the 20 localities asked to submit proposals are Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk. Civic and political leaders in those cities should have no trouble identifying neighborhoods that could benefit from the attention.

Any time Richmond is offering to help improve life in some of the state's bleakest neighborhoods, it's a development worth celebrating. Community leaders should take advantage of the opportunity posthaste.

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