“Benches, Block Parties, and Better Futures: Inside Phoenix’s Grassroots Push Against Neighborhood Crime

Reporter: Natalia Velador Carrillo

PHOENIX- As average citizens, Carman Arias doesn’t believe they can do much about gang activity other than report it. Her mission instead lies in getting people in the neighborhood to come out of their houses. One of the ways she does this is by using grant money to purchase patio benches in hopes that it’ll get people to watch what’s going on in and around the neighborhood.

“If people would get out of their houses, I think that crime would be pulled in,” Arias said. “Because then they would start caring about their neighbors.”

Having gone from campaigning for Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego to being appointed by her, Carman Arias is no stranger to community building, which is why she took on both the role of Lindo Park Neighborhood Block Watch President, after years of being a member, and the Neighborhood Block Watch Fund Oversight Committee President, after Gallego appointed her.  

Being president of this committee means she has to review over a 100 Block Watch Grant applications from various cities across Arizona. With a maximum award of $15,000, the grant is intended to help communities detect, deter, and delay crime through community building and engagement. Something Arias thinks Lindo Park Neighborhood Block Watch has been unsuccessful in doing. ​

“We have failed, we’re not succeeding,” Arias said. “We have two active gangs, the Crips and the 19th Avenue.”

​This annual Block Watch Grant is funded by taxpayer dollars. With the Neighborhood Protection Ordinance passed by the City Council in 1993, the fund was budgeted through a one-tenth-of-a-percent sales tax increase, with 5% allocated to the grant fund.

Grant applications are thoroughly scrutinized and audited, ensuring they’re properly allocated to better neighborhoods, encourage citizen pride, and bring communities together to help prevent crime, she said.

Getting people engaged has been one of the most difficult aspects of the job, she said, recalling a time when a neighbor witnessed someone's home being robbed and hadn’t bothered to report it to the police. All they had to do was pick up the phone, she said.

“I’m not going to go out and play detective or policeman,” Arias said. “What I do want to do is just get the neighborhood involved.”

Similar to Arias, Dolores Rios-Herrara came into her position as her neighborhood's Block Watch president by consistently showing up. Having been one of the original members of the Amigos’ Block Watch, she has been part of the group for 28 years and has served as president for 12. Sitting in her home office, Rios-Herrara is surrounded by her own achievements. Almost every inch of her wall is covered with framed certificates and awards commemorating her work as a caretaker and community leader over the years. Her mission over the years hasn’t changed, but the neighborhood has.

A big focus of hers is bringing the neighborhood together. Often working on projects that make the neighborhood cleaner and safer through activities and events that are meant to get residents outside and participating.   

​“It’s nice to see kids helping in the neighborhood clean-ups,” Rios-Herrera said. “I’ve always told the mothers on occasion when there’s a young boy misbehaving and in gangs, that it doesn’t just affect their family and home but the whole neighborhood."

​The neighborhood Block Watch covers over 200 homes, and it’s not an easy feat, especially doing it alone. Before the grant, she had organized and paid for fun community events herself with a few other neighbors. But now the grant has helped fund their community events.

“We received a recognition award on behalf of Senator Ruben Gallego because of how successful we’ve been in our work as Amigos Block Watch,” Rios-Herrara said with pride.

Although her community events draw big turnouts, she often finds it hard to get people to show up for meetings and the more serious events she puts on that help connect fellow community members to resources, like meeting with a lawyer to discuss trust and will-making. Things she thinks are beneficial to her community, which she said has a large Latino percentage that doesn’t understand the importance of estate planning. 

For Dion Black a football coach and veteran, the impact this grant has isn’t limited to the neighborhood it’s been awarded to. By partnering with Bernard Black Neighborhood Watch, Dion funded his football sports program, The Syndicate, and $15,000 in scholarships for kids in need of sports equipment, game referees and more.  

“We get to do things, fun things like that, that inspire children who want to be the best they can,” Black said.

With a focus on football, Black runs a program that is meant for preparing kids for life. As a veteran and coach, he understands how to mold a person into what you want them to be. Living in South Phoenix, he also knows low-income families benefit the most.

“Bernard Black has been a blessing for us to be able to utilize money as a resource to fund those kids that don’t have this opportunity,” Black said.  “For us to fine-tune them in this sport and give them the same challenges that they’ll face in life.”

Wanting to expand his program, Black hopes to turn the Synicates' mission and core values: family, discipline, honor, integrity and respect , into a movement. With this grant, Black helps them.

​“This grant helps us reach those kids to be able to show them a different direction using sports as a tool to teach, train,” Black said. “And mentor into a productive human being in our Bernard Black neighborhoods.”