And once it started getting warm, you could forget going to the park because it was so thick with drug traffic. S ingle and financially independent, Allen Gray left Riverside in 1994 for an apartment in Woodhaven, in east Fort Worth. Phyllis, living in the Meadowbrook neighborhood, moved back to 12th Street. Allen Gray and her husband are temporarily living in the Carter-Riverside neighborhood, north of Airport Freeway, but they are looking for a lot on which to build a home. Under Allen Gray's leadership, the neighborhood association has run drug dealers out of Gid Hooper Park, helped to hamper prostitution and established an annual Juneteenth Celebration.
Neighbors call the police when they see something suspicious.
When Hubbard recently spied a prostitute on her block, she cursed not having her binoculars and Polaroid camera on hand to record the license plate of the john who drove off with the woman. According to police, prostitution has dropped significantly and drug dealing is down 40 percent from three years ago. In December, he and Kelly Allen married at True Light Baptist Church on First Street. Everybody stayed shut in. They pull their pants up, they show respect, and that's when you see the closeness.