As we wrap up our series "One City, Many Mayors", we head to the largest housing development in Brooklyn, the Red Hook Houses, where we find a longtime resident who's been an advocate for the neighborhood through good times and bad. NY1's Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.
Wally Bazemore has been walking through Red Hook's Coffey Park for more than 60 years. He recalls its worst time during the crack epidemic of the 1980s.
"We had shootings out here in broad daylight. Not only drug dealers, but they were shooting at cops,” said Bazemore. "They were shooting at everything. It was just a lawless area."
Bazemore grew up in the Red Hook Houses. He went off to fight in the Vietnam War in 1970. After being shot three times, he earned a Purple Heart, which decorates his ring. But when he returned home, he says his neighborhood was in quick decline, resources were scarce and many officials turned their backs.
"They just assumed that because we lived in public housing that we condone all of that ill behavior that was going on, and we didn't," said Bazemore.
Then, a high-profile tragedy here shook up the city — the shooting death of principal Patrick Daly in 1992. Daly was caught in the crossfire of rival gangs while out in the schoolyard looking for a missing student.
"His death brought life to this community, ironically," Bazemore said.
Bazemore organized the first New York chapter of MAD DADS, a group dedicated to combating drugs and violence. And other resources came in, including the Red Hook Community Justice Center.
The center opened 16 years ago in a former Catholic school building. It's a community court designed to handle civil, family and criminal cases within the neighborhood and provide drug and mental health treatment services.
"It's a phenomenal approach to justice," said Judge Alex Calabrese of the Red Hook Community Justice Center. "Our court system wanted to try something different, and we've shown it works."
Bazemore has been instrumental to its success from the start. He volunteers in the peacekeeping program, among other initiatives.
"He's taken kids on college trips, high school kids, so that they see the bricks and mortars, which is really important," said Calabrese.
Red Hook is now a highly desirable neighborhood.
"I constantly remind people that this happened through sacrifice," said Bazemore.
Sacrifices of those like Wally, who helped stabilize the community.