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No one knows better about a neighborhood than the people who live there. And it comes as no surprise that those people form a strong bond not only with their families that live near by, but with their neighbors, whether they have been there for decades or just a few weeks. That bond creates a better atmosphere for their children and it also forms and understanding with each other that the state of their block, as well as the rest of the area, matters the most.
Rose Grover has lived on Arizona Street for over 15 years and has lived in Kensington for nearly 40. She is hoping to one day become the block captain and stresses that there is so much to be done on this block and nearby streets.
“We’re a really tight-knit group here. Everybody knows everybody on this block,” she says. “We just want to keep it clean and looking nice so people are comfortable and we can raise our kids without any problems. There’s too much trash right now and too many drug dealers, but we do what we can.”
The little things being done by residents of Arizona Street, like sweeping the sidewalks and edges of the street before heading to work, have sparked some rather nice responses from neighbors on Coral Street.
Arty Poekart, a friend of Grover and the rest of the block, has lived in the corner of Coral and Arizona his entire life. Over a year ago he bought a portion of the empty lot next to his house and turned it into a garden.
“When my parents died, I wanted to keep the place up, so I planted some flowers and trees and put a fountain in,” Arty says. “We all talk a lot about how it can look bad around here sometimes. But we help each other out and make sure things look good.”
His garden has also become a sort of gathering area for his friends on Arizona.
“Sometimes I’ll bring the TV out and people will come and hang by the bar I put out here and watch a game.”
Poekart’s spot is not the only spot to go to. Rose will also open her property up for gatherings for her friends.
“We barbecue a lot during the summer, and we don’t ask people for anything. You want to come over and get some food, then come on. Once our gate opens, it’s all up for grabs,” she explains. “And everybody on the block is usually here. We take care of our own.”
If every block in Kensington worked together more often in order for the streets to look better and for the younger and older generations to feel better about their safety, this neighborhood might not be given such a bad name by people outside the area. Rose and her friend Vaughn agree to this theory and have made it a point to communicate with other people at any given time about how to better their community.
“Not everybody is willing to do something, especially people that just moved here,” Vaughn says. “And young kids don’t really understand the point of it all, I mean they’ll come by and throw trash on the ground or something, but it’s because no one told them any different.”
Rose wants to see change when it comes to trash piling up along her block and other areas, but she is more worried nowadays about the crime conditions because of how it affects her family.
“I have an 87-year-old mother that lives around the corner. Every day we go over there and check on her, make sure she locks the doors and doesn’t keep her windows open if she’s asleep or goes somewhere. I think a lot about how I shouldn’t have to do all that stuff. But a lot of young people around here don’t really care.”
A block like Arizona Street has many people that have been in the area for years. If you were born and raised and still live in the same section of the city or on the same block, it becomes more of a need for the part your from to go back to how it used to be, or maybe even become better. Arizona Street is a section of Kensington that carries multiple generations of people, which is likely the reason why it is so important that the neighborhood change.
“My niece is 20, Whitey down the street is in his 70s, and that little boy standing next to the car in front of my house is only 3, but we were all born here and it’s likely that we’ll stay here,” Grover says. “So what we’re going to do is what we’ve been doing forever: We’ll keep cleaning up after ourselves and look after each other so we can have some peace around here.”
One household or even one block cleaning up after themselves might not be much of a push to some people, but if the will to make Kensington better can grow, this section of the city might have a fighting chance and becoming a respected place. Arizona Street is just one of many trying to make some kind of difference.