Celebrating a quiet summer

Remember the headlines last summer? Neighborhood Centers board member Kenya Badgett does. She read some of them back to us Thursday at the centers' Summer 2010 Celebration: "Rivals admit to gang war," "IC violence has some parents worried" -- people were flat-out scared last year, when vandalism, crime and fights were just a part of everyday life.

But yesterday, the day Iowa City School District students marched back into class, marked the official end of summer 2010. Officially, 2010 was a summer completely unlike 2009. There are a lot of people to thank for that.

About 100 of them were at the celebration yesterday at The Spot basketball ministry over in Pepperwood Plaza. It was there that I got the full picture of just how fast and how thoroughly the community came together and responded to last year's violence on Iowa City's Southeast Side.

Sue Freeman, program director for the Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County, looked like she was going to burst with happy pride. On the walls, photo collages of the 319 Festival, the summer tutoring program, the Youth Summit, Neighborhood Night Out, and a handful of other events – just a sample of the ways individuals and groups descended on the problem.

“The community really rolled up its sleeves, took a look at what was going on in this neighborhood and created opportunities for kids,” Neighborhood Centers Executive Director Brian Loring said during a short program. That much was clear.

The city's institutions responded too, of course: by funding a community police officer and passing a juvenile curfew law, but:

“We were fortunate enough in this city not to be naive enough to believe that was enough,” Badgett said.

It took block captains, summer camp and block parties. It took a hundred people on the ground who cared.

“We can't afford to let any child go,” new Iowa City Schools Superintendent Stephen Murley told the crowd. “Everyone has to succeed.”

So what's next? There are 3,000 kids in poverty enrolled in Iowa City Schools. “Maybe we can take that model to the rest of Johnson County,” Sen. Bob Dvorsky asked. “To the rest of the school district.”

A good idea.