JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Northwest Jacksonville has already had at least 13 shootings, four of them deadly, to start the new year, according to First Coast News records.
Some people living in the crime-plagued 32209 ZIP code believe cleaning up the streets means, quite literally, cleaning up the streets.
Two mothers' mission is simply to make their neighborhoods beautiful again.
'Be a change, where you want to see a change' is Nikel Brooks' and her business partner Moné Cohen’s motto.
“Everybody's scared to love each other around here, because of exactly what it is: a high crime area," Nikel Brooks said. "And I want everyone to feel loved.“
The two women are raising young families in the community where they grew up, in the 32209 ZIP code.
Northwest Jacksonville is also where they both have lost family members to homicide. Brooks' brother Errin was killed in 2014, while Cohen lost her father Monte in 2003.
The mothers believe a better life for their sons in 32209 starts with the trash piling up on the street.
“I don't want them to be wrapped up in the negativity of the zip code or this area – of this world in general," Brooks explained.
And they’re ready to lead residents, who are interested in getting their hands dirty, and hold cleanups once or twice a month.
“I feel like if we start to clean up, and people see that there's a positive energy in this neighborhood – maybe some of the negative stuff will go away," Brooks said.
The women are also teaming up with the City of Jacksonville and its Community Based Crime Reduction Program, which is launching a number of cleanups of its own on the northwest side.
Program leader Kendra Mervin said the first cleanup in the Durkeeville and New Town Neighborhoods will be next Saturday, Feb. 13, and Brooks and Cohen are excited to join in.
“I feel like if you want to see a change, you got to initiate," Brooks described. "You got to start somewhere.
Mervin said Brooks is also the third community member asked to be a part of the program’s quality of life subcommittee.
A University of Pennsylvania study from 2018 shows a relationship between a community cleanliness and crime. It found neighborhoods where vacant lots were cleaned up experienced a 29% reduction in gun violence and 22% decrease in burglaries.