At a different time and at a different location, this old geezer has tried to make a clean sweeep of problems plaguing a road lived on and community a part of. To many who be 'au fait' with MOI, it comes as no surprise to learn that tricks used in past are being tried at present in Linda
After considerable think on, MOI came to belief that what was needed desperately was a public display of folks gathered to proclaim to world that they were going to be more brilliant. In other words, a party!
My dears, this old geezer knows a thing or two about throwing a party. Learned the hard way he has. One has to do more than cook up a few hamburgers. One has to set the stage, so to speak. I am getting ahead self in the telling of me story....
In 2008, I threw a party on road lived on. Got the local media to chat it up and to cover. One of the brilliant members of the Fourth Estate who help make the event well attended was Bill McEwen, columnist for Fresno Bee. His column is widely read and the following is what he had to say about MOI and the block party;
Captain of Calaveras runs a tight ship
Bill McEwen The Fresno Bee
Originally published 2008-05-08
It figures that Rob Defrees would bill the block party he's planning for Calaveras Street on Saturday as the largest "ever in Fresno" and build music into the event.
For the past year, he has been banging the drum loudly for his adopted neighborhood -- a once grand avenue just north of downtown that through the decades became the province of violent crime, drug dealers and slumlords.
Now the American-born world traveler with a British accent wants people to see what Calaveras has become: a cleaner, greener, safer road; far from perfect, but infused with a sense of what's possible when people pull together and stick up for what's theirs.
"I would like my neighbors to feel brilliant, if but for one day," says the 61-year-old Defrees. "And I would like all of Fresno to feel brilliant, if but for one day."
So he put together "Evening of Music -- Hands Across Fresno," a six-hour party between Voorman and McKenzie avenues beginning at 2 p.m.
Bands from Fresno and Sunnyside high schools will play, as will a mariachi group from Visalia. There'll be American flags, Marines, soldiers and sailors in uniform. At 7 p.m., Defrees will ask the assembled to join hands "on Calaveras and beyond to show support to rid our community of drug dealers, poison, gangs and neglect."
Says Defrees: "I want everyone to believe one person can start something. You get more and more people to buy into your dream, and it can get even bigger. The poison being sold is a big deal. It's killing us. It's certainly killing my neighborhood."
Defrees says that a near-death reaction to medication inspired him to take stock, move from San Diego and try to make a difference. Police say that if he was looking for a cause, Defrees found the place.
"He scarcely could've picked a block so challenged," says Capt. Dennis Bridges, the central police district commander. "He's right in the thick of it."
As manager of the El Capri apartments -- built in the style of a 1950s garden motel -- Defrees has spruced up the grounds and units there.
But he also goes house to house, introducing himself and encouraging residents to clean yards, water lawns and report crime "to the coppers." He tracks down apartment owners, badgers them to paint and repair -- telling them it's good for the neighborhood and the best way to rent empty units. He posts pictures of the good and bad along his stretch of Calaveras on his Web site, www.calaverasstreet.com.
Some people blow him off or complain that he's an overstepping busybody. But others respond to his relentless prodding, and police say that Calaveras has less street crime than it did a year ago.
Explains Bridges: "We've got several block captains around central Fresno, and Rob is the highest profile. He is the only one with his own blog and Web site, and he has the time and energy."
Question is, how long can Defrees sustain the energy?
He says he'll give it four more years, then move to London: "By that time, I hope what we've accomplished will be so powerfully strong, it never dies."
The block party held drew 1000 to it. It was a massive event that told the whole world that things could change. Am of the opinion that at least a few lives were changed due to it.
Times change and this old geezer is no longer fighting to save a road in Fresno. Now the scene is Linda, and in some ways feel that lasting change is more possible here than other placed tried. There is a powerful hunger for change in Linda and many a good soul willing to feed that hunger.
Here is the deal...
MAY 08, 2010
LINDA DRUG OUT
12NOON - 4PM
5956 PARK AVENUE
MARYSVILLE, CA
A PARTY TO CHASE DRUGS AND CRIME OUT
Is there any doubt that it will happen??
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