Hope in the ‘Hood: Building a Playground
On Thursday, most of the staff here at Grace headed down to the Phoenix Apartments. Phoenix (formerly known as The Meadows) is notorious in Indianapolis as an area that is worn down and crime-ridden. The crime has gotten so bad that the Prosecutor’s Office put a trailer on site as a “Neighborhood Resource Center” and officers are assigned to keep an eye on this neighborhood. Not only that, but the apartments are run down from years of neglect. Don’t believe me? Check out this series that The Indianapolis Star did on the Phoenix Apartments.
In last month’s staff meeting we had an awesome guest, Byron Alston from Save the Youth. The purpose of Save the Youth “is to provide programs to enhance, enrich and motivate the community to engage in constructive and not destructive activities.” Several months ago, three year-old Tajanay Bailey died of neglect. When Byron heard about this, he had to check out the Phoenix Apartments and was disgusted by the conditions people were living in.
That is what brought us here today. According to Byron, the owner has been working to fix up the apartments after seeing the condition they were in… although I cannot confirm this since I haven’t been inside any of the units. But the purpose for today was to build a playground for the kids. Through grants and partnerships with Home Depot and KaBoom, we were able to put together a playground and park area for the kids.
The Indianapolis Star did a short story on it and at the end of each story, they leave the opportunity for people to leave comments. The comments started out good, “Positive news. Thanks Star for printing it.” “I agree. a good story. darn who would have thought you would find one here.”
But the more people had a chance to comment on it, the more negative it got, “Why in the world would they put a $57,000 playground in those apartments. Yes, it was a good gesture but not a very smart one. They should have saved that money and put it toward fixing those apartments up instead; but hey what do I know…” “This is a great hope but sadly I don’t think they will. The fact is it is free to them and they will use it, tear it up and demand a new playground.”
Wow, I’m amazed at people’s perceptions! The people who could benefit most from a playground, but are unable to afford such a thing aren’t worth it? Everyone knows that the Phoenix Apartments have a bad reputation, but nobody wants to do anything about it! That is certainly what it sounds like when reading some of these comments.
The truth is that these people do deserve a playground. How do we expect children to have childhoods if we don’t give them a place to play? For some of these kids, that playground may be one of the few things they have.
I was glad to go down there and help out… even though my part was small, it contributed to something bigger. And I hope that these kids can have nice place to play. And maybe, just maybe these apartments may start to turn around. The video below is of Mayor Greg Ballard addressing the volunteers:
On the way home I found a guy who worked at Rally’s who was having a little too much fun. 