Back of photo: Loony (L), Jay Time (C) and Little Loony talk about motivations and experiences of crippin, belonging to the 23rd Street Hill Top Crips Gang. NEWS/GILBERT BILL HUNTER PHOTO

Back of Photo:
Checking the net

Three men in suits hold the base of a ladder while two other men in suits stand on the ladder to check the net of a basketball hoop.

Back of Photo:
Action Upward at Hilltop with story.
Photograph by Richards Studio

Three young children stand on either side on a man holding a basketball.

Back of Photo:
Sewing Class Begins
Photograph by Jerry Buck

Back of Photo:
Youth Center Remodel

Two construction workers stand on two planks of wood held up by sawhorses in order to use their hammers on a new ceiling.

Back of Photo:
Ribbon Cutting

Back of Photo:
Hilltop Area

SCAM (Sheridan, Cushman, Ainsworth, and M Street) neighborhood group members are shown picking up litter in the alleyway between South Sheridan and South M Street. It was the second annual clean up hosted by SCAM. “In addition to cleaning the alleys, the group has put pressure on neighborhood landlords to clear vacant lots of trash and high weeds and to demolish the remnants of partially raised structures.” Photo by staff member Jerry Buck

Back of Photo:
Hilltop Area

SCAM (Sheridan, Cushman, Ainsworth, and M Street) neighborhood group members are shown picking up litter in the alleyway between South Sheridan and South M Street. It was the second annual clean up hosted by SCAM. “In addition to cleaning the alleys, the group has put pressure on neighborhood landlords to clear vacant lots of trash and high weeds and to demolish the remnants of partially raised structures.” Photo by staff member Jerry Buck.

Back of Photo:
Trying to keep 'K' Street safe, Morris McCollum, President of 'K' Street Boosters, far left, has customers and passers-by sign a petition to keep the Hilltop patrolled by the same officers on the crime management team task force for 'K' Street.
Pictured, from left, are McCollum, Diaetta Walker, Henrietta George, Mary Radziski, manager of New Look Clothing on 'K' Street, and Virginia Taylor. The children are Lashwanda Walker, 19 months, in stroller, and Lapaschia Walker, 4-years-old. Both are daughter of Diaetta Walker. They want the streets kept safe so they can shop and let their kids play in the area. (photo by David Brandt)

Back of Photo:
Joe Haynes, cleaning up debris from a room of an apartment that he owns with his wife. Earlier in the day they had found that alleged addicts were living in the squalor.
Photo by David Yee

Back of Photo:
Thirteen-year-old Jeffrey Colvin flashes the hand sign of the Crips. (See Story: Colvin is one of two teenagers interviewed who seem to watch and respect the gang members.)
K Street Story -- Amy Kunhardt

Back of Photo:
Four-year-old Rochelle Atkins plays with a hula hoop at the People's Center playground on S. 15th and K Streets.
K Street Story -- Amy Kunhardt

Back of Photo:
Five-year-old Aisha Bell (left) eats her lunch on the front steps of a neighbor's house, watched by her older sister Lashanda, 10 and her niece, Tenika Posey, 3. (Tenika is sister of Cool Papa.)
K Street Story -- Amy Kunhardt

Back of Photo:
Her doll accompanies Aisha Bell most days as the 5-year-old plays in the S. 15th Street neighborhood.
K Street Story -- Amy Kunhardt

Back of Photo:
Hilltop Area
Please credit photo by Russ Carmaile

Fenced area shows playground equipment along with a sign that reads: "A creative place for your child to stay when you must be gone. Hilltop Community Day Care Center, 1407 S. 'I' (Street). Hours: 6 am to 11 pm, Monday thru Friday".

Back of Photo:
Tooting her own horn! Carolyn "Mickey" Cunningham, Basileus of Sigma Gamma Rho (her college sorority), toots down S. K Street in part of the ethnic fair on the Hilltop.
News/Szymanski
Photo by Bill Hunter

Back of Photo:
Monique Johnson, 3 yrs, can't contain her glee as she gets a horseback ride with Rich Gayles, a rodeo bull rider who rides by the name of "Daddy Rich", after the ethnic fair parade on the Hilltop.
News/Szymanski
Bill Hunter Photo

Back of Photo:
Flower placed at shooting site during National Night Out.

Back of Photo:
A Sad But Hopeful Look.....Pastor Lynn Farnum (Trinity Presbyterian Church), no stranger to the life on Tacoma's Hilltop and the plight of its children, gives a thoughtful glance down a stretch of streets on the Hill today as she joined a concerned group of local pastors and church leaders who briefly toured the area following a press conference they called to express concern and call attention to the Children's Initiative which they support. In the background (right arm raised) another spokesperson for the group, Rev. Dave Alger (Ex. Director of Associated Ministries) explains the sights to other members of the group.
News/Callahan
Geff Hinds Photo

Back of Photo:
On his way to his aunt's apartment complex for a swim in the pool there, 7-year-old Ken Posey ("Cool Papa") leads Corey Bell, 8 (left rear) -- Ken's uncle -- and Errol Mares, 8, on a shortcut. In background, at corner of S. 16th and M Streets, stands brown apartment house, a former crack house now boarded up by police.
K Street Story -- Amy Kunhardt

Back of Photo:
Hilltop Area

SCAM (Sheridan, Cushman, Ainsworth, and M Street) neighborhood group members are shown picking up litter in the alleyway between South Sheridan and South M Street. It was the second annual clean up hosted by SCAM. “In addition to cleaning the alleys, the group has put pressure on neighborhood landlords to clear vacant lots of trash and high weeds and to demolish the remnants of partially raised structures.” Photo by staff member Jerry Buck.

Back of Photo:
Volunteer Edward Fynn sweeps away litter and broken glass from the sidewalk at 23rd and L Streets on Hilltop this morning as volunteers from the Hilltop Action Coalition, St. Joseph Hospital and citizens of the Hilltop community joined several on-duty officers from Tacoma PD in a sweep into the neighborhood to deliver some TLC as part of the "Area 5" neighborhood clean-up project. The group swept, cleaned and painted over graffiti the area from South 23rd to South 25th and from South K street to South Sheridan.
News/Godchaux
Geff Hinds Photo

Back of Photo:
The Rev. Jerry Sanders rejoiced in his God given freedom from heroin and cocaine as he witnessed at an anti drug service at New Jerusalem Church of God in Christ, on the Hilltop, in Tacoma.
News/Maynard
Bruce Larson Photo

Back of Photo:
Willie and Joyce Hellems, rows one and two, joined with others in the sanctuary of St. John The Baptist Church on 20th and J Street to pray for an end to the drug problem on Tacoma's Hilltop.
News/Eskenazi
Bruce Larson Photo

Back of Photo:
This building at the corner of 19th and K is being offered for sale as a site for an Arco Convenience store.
News/Martin
Bill Hunter Photo

Back of Photo:
News/ National Night Out/ Hilltop Celebration and Prayer service.
Members of Safe Streets, and Hilltop neighbors joined their hands in prayer on the corner of S. 16th and L streets, where two Tacoma residents where shot and killed July 16th of 1990. The men, Scott Higley, and Chris Sherrod were remembered during a Hilltop celebration of National Night Out, with the theme "Sweep, Walk and Talk" for our neighborhood, or "SWAT." Two members of the gathered held hands and then placed a flower on the spot of the drug related shootings. Left to right in main pic are Randy Herrid, Sister Laura Neal, organizer of celebration, Father Bill Bichsel, and Theda Cherry.

Back of Photo:
Prayers before sweeping up S. L Street, from left to right: Laura Neal, Theda Cherry, Priscilla Lisicich, and Lynitra Jackson. For Sandy Nelson story.
Melissa Stevenson Photo

Back of Photo:
Hilltop (Home Ownership Program) Terence Thomas - Real-estate/Personal Banker, working with Evelyn Hargrove.

“Terence Thomas, a Seafirst real estate personal banker, talks with Evelyn Hargrove, one of the potential buyers, at a class Seafirst organized” to educate people about credit applications and real-estate transactions. Seafirst Bank, the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association, and the Tacoma Housing Authority organized a program to help low-income Pierce County residents purchase a home and revitalize Tacoma’s Hilltop Neighborhood.

Back of Photo:
Hilltop (Home Ownership Program)

“One of the six houses in the Seafirst program awaits the remodelers’ hammers and saws.” Seafirst Bank, the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association, and the Tacoma Housing Authority organized a program to help low-income Pierce County residents purchase a home and revitalize Tacoma’s Hilltop Neighborhood. Four houses were purchased by the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association and two others were owned by the Tacoma Housing Authority. The Martin Luther King Housing Development served as the developer and remodel of all six homes while Seafirst Bank provided government backed loans to both agencies that would later be assumed by the buyers.