Originally published in the February 2, 2007 print edition of The Lantern. It is posted here unedited.
Thanks to the steady hands of a few Columbus residents, a troubled south-side neighborhood is slowly getting a facelift.
For the past three years a group known as the Reinhard Block Club has been working to clean up its neighborhood, located east of German Village on Reinhard Avenue. Its continual efforts were acknowledged locally by the Columbus City Council, as well as nationally by Keep America Beautiful, an organization that plans community improvement projects.
“We are absolutely thrilled at what they’ve accomplished,” said Patsy Thomas, a council member who proposed a ceremonial resolution be awarded to the group.
Before the group was organized, the area was plagued with excess litter, vacant houses and inactive community members, said Allen Carrel, a Reinhard Avenue resident and co-founder of the club.
The group “started small, with flower boxes and trees,” said Carrel, who has gathered a group of more than 20 concerned neighbors to help with the projects.
“If we just sit inside we’ll never change our neighborhood,” he said. “It takes action.”
The first effort was a community garden tour organized by Carrel and Ken Williams, a local property owner and co-founder of the group.
More than 150 people came to the event, which included the viewing of seven different gardens planted and maintained by local residents, Williams said.
Shortly after the first tour in 2003, the group caught the attention of Keep Columbus Beautiful, a local faction of the national organization.
“It’s amazing what a difference two people can make,” said Sheri Palmer, KCB spokeswoman.
Carrel and Williams “utilized what resources we had for them,” she said. “They started working the system and they did a great job.”
Palmer submitted an application for the group to be acknowledged at the Keep America Beautiful annual conference last summer. The group was selected for the second-place award in the National Beautification and Community Improvement category.
The most recent activity organized by the group was a neighborhood block watch, which meets once a month to discuss the serious problems that affect the community, Carrel said.
At a recent block watch meeting, several Columbus police officers and Judge Harland Hale of the Franklin County Municipal Court Division addressed the concerns of the attendants. The concerns included drug dealing and robberies in the area.
“There are still a lot of problems that we need to fix,” Carrel said. “But, we’re getting it done.”
