October 29, 1999
Youth, Mayor, and Cabinet Walk Through Open-Air Drug Market
Mayor Makes Third Walk Highlighting Enforcement
(Washington, D.C.) More than 100 children, including the District's Youth Mayor, took Mayor Anthony A. Williams, Councilmembers and members of the Mayor's Cabinet on a tour of a Ward 7 open air drug market starting in the 5000 block of Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, Northeast. The young people pointed out where drug dealing occurs and the conditions that lead to such behavior in the Lincoln Heights and Deanwood communities.
The children showed the Mayor the crime-ridden streets full of abandoned cars, boarded up houses and drug dealer's hangouts that they must pass to reach an "oasis" in this community called the Lederer Youth Gardens and Environmental and Education Center. Lederer Youth Gardens is a first-class Recreation and Parks facility that provides a unique educational environment for children. The Education Center is home to 10 state of the art computer workstations with environmental software, a greenhouse and it also acts as an NBC 4 Weather Center.
"It's unfair to put such a great facility like Lederer Youth Gardens in a community, and then make kids run an obstacle course of drugs and crime in order to get there. Children are an integral part of the community, but their opinions are often overlooked in our policy debates," said the Mayor. "When it comes to drugs and crime in the neighborhood, sometimes the best advisors are the children. My agency directors and I got to see first-hand through their eyes what they are up against when walking to school, trying to play or trying to get to wonderful, safe places like Lederer. I'm committed to improve this area and rid it from crime and drugs."
The anti-drug approach is one aspect of what Mayor Williams' new initiative Neighborhood Action is all about. Neighborhood Action will mobilize and coordinate the efforts of the entire community to improve District neighborhoods. Through Neighborhood Action citizens will produce clearly defined priorities for the District, clearly defined priorities for their neighborhoods and clearly defined responsibilities for the government, so that the community can hold their elected leaders accountable.
"This walk is a prime example of Neighborhood Action in action. The way that we listen to the residents in the open-air drug market communities about what the problems are, is how Neighborhood Action will work throughout the city," said the Mayor. "The citizens of D.C. will help shape how District government delivers services."
This is the Mayor's third walk in the past several weeks highlighting the enforcement component of his recently launched anti-drug approach that combines prevention, enforcement and treatment.
One of the Mayor's three goals outlined in his anti-drug approach includes reducing drug-related crime and violence in the District.
