Kids classes in belle haven park2/28/2023 ![]() ![]() On a recent visit to fourth-graders, a girl told Ferguson she had found a bullet near her house. “I don’t want them to fear us,” she said. At a time when police across the country are looking to strengthen community ties, Ferguson is visiting classrooms at Belle Haven Elementary to introduce the Menlo Park Police Department in a more positive light to children. Instead, she teaches life skills to teenagers, and connects students who miss school with local counseling and other resources. Though critics indicate potential conflicts of interest in the arrangement, Facebook, the city and Ferguson insist the donations have no strings attached.įacebook has its own security force, and Ferguson says she has never handled any incidents at the company’s campus. The social networking company is driving major changes in the neighborhood. Crews build Facebook’s second campus in Belle Haven, as pictured on Dec. ![]() The company pledged an additional $400,000 to continue paying Officer Mary Ferguson’s salary for the next two years. Facebook contributed over $365,000 this year toward the opening of the Belle Haven neighborhood services center and police substation in April, and the hiring of an officer dedicated to keeping youth out of the criminal justice system. Since 2012, the city has invested $338,000 to help youth stay in schools and out of gangs, and to organize neighborhood watch groups to improve public safety and get rid of blight. This garden is symbolic of the effort that is taking place in Belle Haven right now being led by the residents.” “We have an amazing opportunity to transform the neighborhood in this renewal. “For so many years, people ignored this area of town, and now people are looking at it and figuring out how we can improve it for everybody,” said Menlo Park Mayor Ray Mueller at the opening of the new community garden last month. The social media giant’s move to the area in 2011 - along with simmering community anger over shootings - prompted the city to put a fresh focus on the long-neglected neighborhood. At Facebook’s second campus being built along the Bayfront Expressway, cranes soar above the nearly finished 433,550-square-foot building. A new community garden opened at a lot that used to be overgrown by weeds. Menlo Park’s historically most-dangerous neighborhood east of Highway 101 has fewer discarded couches and TVs littering sidewalks. The drop in violent crime points to a public safety shift that’s characterizing a vast transformation of the area. While all of Menlo Park’s 44 shootings - including three murders - since 2011 were in Belle Haven or within a mile radius, remarkably, no violent gun incidents have occurred there this year. Other residents said they also felt safer, and police data show why. Instead, I see more people in their 20s and 30s walking their dogs.” “You don’t see groups of teenagers hanging around, with nothing to do. It’s very calm, I just can’t believe it,” said Tinajero, 37, who now enjoys frequent walks in the evenings near her house when she mingles with neighbors. For an interactive map with more information about each incident, click here. Since 2011, all of Menlo Park’s shooting incidents were in Belle Haven or within a mile radius. Tinajero recalls dropping to her kitchen floor upon hearing one of them.Ī few months back, she was surprised by a dramatic change. A gang-related murder and five other shootings happened within four blocks of her home between 20. When Airel Tinajero, a Menlo Park city employee and mother of one, moved to Belle Haven four years ago, she was scared to walk outside her house after dark. ![]()
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