Then came Los Angeles-and now Weed and Seed is hot. In visits to troubled cities last week, President Bush touted it as the centerpiece of his renewed urban program, a package that also includes tenant ownership of public housing and “enterprise zones” with tax incentives for firms that locate in the inner city. Last month Weed and Seed was extended to 16 other cities, and Bush is asking Congress for $500 million to fund and expand the program next year. " It’s going to be the wave of the future because it makes so much common sense," says Attorney General William Barr, who helped develop the idea.
Barr may be right, but it’s too early to tell. Some pilot programs still exist only on paper. Barr’s predecessor, Richard Thornburgh, came to Kansas City’s (Mo.) Ivanhoe neighborhood last September to award a $200,000 Weed and Seed grant that police planned to use for clearing out crack houses. Since the photo op, the city has seen only $25,000 from Washington. There have been no arrests and no crack houses razed under the plan. The Justice Department says the rest of the money is on its way.
One place where Weed and Seed does seem to be making a difference is Trenton, N.J., a city of 90,000 suffering the full spectrum of urban problems: crime, drugs, joblessness. Over the last 10 months federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies have had some success in cleaning up drug trafficking in four targeted neighborhoods. A $750,000 grant went to a small new community-policing unit designed to get cops out of their cars and into closer collaboration with residents. Florist Ina Ford says the sidewalk in front of her shop on Martin Luther King Boulevard used to be swarming with dealers. Stepped-up police attention has driven off some drug merchants and restored a sense of cohesion to the area. “We’re coming together as a neighborhood,” says Ford.
The seeds are three “safe haven” schools kept open on weekdays until 9 p.m. For hundreds of kids, they’ve become a hedge against the trouble outside. At Holland Middle School in the city’s West Ward, there is swimming, basketball and a homework clinic. Without it, " I’d probably be hanging out on corners and in the street," says 16-year-old Shawn Lester. Overall, the victories are small, and the program’s modest scale precludes sweeping conclusions. Still, it has been enough to sway some skeptics. Mayor Douglas Palmer feared Weed and Seed would be “just another way to lock up black folks.” Now, he is a believer. “I’m here to tell you that Weed and Seed does work and can work,” he told a congressional committee last week.
Trenton’s experience also points up serious weaknesses in Weed and Seed. The Justice Department promised to deploy federal crime-fighting weaponry generally beyond the reach of state and local governments: pretrial detention, witness protection, speedy trial provisions, no parole. Yet many of the criminals plaguing Trenton’s targeted neighborhoods simply don’t meet the criteria for federal drug or firearm cases. Of the 170 arrests made under the program to date, only 15 defendants have ended up in federal court, resulting in six convictions. Other cases revert to the state’s swollen court dockets and overcrowded jails. Residents find familiar faces back on the street soon after their arrest. Limited funding also means that community cops are only around on weekdays. On nights and weekends the dealers return.
The safe-haven schools, well attended during the winter, are having trouble keeping kids interested as the weather turns warm. Administrators say they are short of volunteers, particularly African-American men who can connect with adolescent boys. “It’s like the old African proverb ‘It takes a whole village to raise a child’,” says Trenton Weed and Seed director John Bailey. Others complain that law enforcement has come before drug treatment and job training. “There’s a lot of weed, but no seed,” says Councilman Bill Young. Next year’s proposed $500 million budget is a major increase, but still a relative pittance: it’s about a fourth of the cost of one B-2 bomber. The question being asked in Kansas City and Trenton-and by the tens of thousands who marched in Washington last Saturday on behalf of America’s troubled cities-is whether the Bush administration wants to cultivate real change, or just do some election-year landscaping.
