Pastor Eric Blauer is tired of patrolling his East Central neighborhood, calling 911 and Crime Check, and seeing no dent in street crime. (SR photo: Colin Mulvany)

Eric Blauer, a pastor at Jacob’s Well Church, knows the people in his East Fifth Avenue neighborhood very well. He knows where the single parents live, which homes are rentals and which are owned by lifelong residents. He knows where the drug dealers live and where the prostitutes take their customers. When he moved to East Central with his family eight years ago, he knew he was moving into a low-income neighborhood with some significant challenges, but he never anticipated he would end up feeling like the sheriff there. “I do insert myself into it,” he said, shrugging his shoulders, while on a recent walk through East Central. “But I live here. These problems we are talking about are my problems – not other people’s problems”/Pia Hallenberg, SR. More here.

Question: Are you and your neighbors part of a Neighborhood Watch program?