Some kids call it 'the life,' a world without pity in which theyrun with gangs that spread terror on city streets.
Greg Simpson calls it an invitation to an early grave.
Simpson should know. A kid from the Bromley-Heath projects whoreached the threshold of his NBA dream before drugs, a gun, and aspree of armed robberies landed him in prison for more than 14years, he is part of a bold new experiment aimed at conquering theculture of violence and fear that robs many Boston schoolchildren oftheir futures.
Simpson, 45, who walks the streets of Dorchester's Grove Hallneighborhood every night looking for trouble to defuse and lives tosave, belongs to the inaugural team of StreetSafe Boston outreachworkers, a brotherhood of 13 men - nearly half of them ex-offenders - trying to make a difference in five of the city's mostdangerous gang hotspots.
The 13 workers are the soul of a five-year, $20 millioninitiative that aims to make good on the so-called Boston Miraclethat sharply reduced youth violence in the late 1990s, only to fade.StreetSafe Boston is a public and private partnership based in parton the premise that ex-convicts who best know the streets should notbe barred from working them because of the state's criminal recordlaw.
Should the plan succeed, children would no longer need to walk orride the T to Boston schools and their sports activities in fear.
'I want these kids to know that only two things are going tohappen if they go down that route,' Simpson said of the gang life.'They're going to end up in a box or the penitentiary.'
Many of the new street workers were Boston schoolboy sportsstars. Years later, their residual playground fame and streetcredibility resonate with the kids they are trying to save. Theyhave gained enough trust to take some chances, as they did Saturdayat a crime hotspot in Mattapan, bringing together teams of 13-year-olds from five gang-menaced sectors of the city for a basketballtournament aimed at promoting peace and unity.
'These guys know what buttons to push with the kids,' BostonPolice Superintendent Bruce Holloway said. 'They're helping to keepkids safe. We need a lot more of this.'
Most of the 13-year-olds were at a crossroads. Soon, they wouldneed to choose between making the best of their athletic andacademic potential in the Boston schools, or following theirfriends, brothers, and in some cases fathers, into the life. Policesay gangs are targeting boys as young as 12 to carry drugs and guns.
'This is about building the kind of relationships we want ouryoung folks to have later in life,' said Donovan Walker, aStreetSafe worker who coached a team from the Dudley Square area.'Hopefully, when they run into each other again at 16, they'llremember they knew each other in a good way.'
Something to do
The Boston schools, whose athletic system is underfunded, ill-equipped, and burdened with kids in crisis, need all the help theycan get. Many other sports-related groups provide Boston childrenvital alternatives to the streets. They range from Boys and GirlsClubs and Pop Warner football to the Charlestown Against DrugsTennis Club and Play Ball! Foundation, as well as the Boston Centersfor Youth and Families.
Cops on the beat also chip in, as Boston Police Officer Agnaldo'Moose' Monteiro demonstrated Sunday when he arranged a flagfootball game at Moakley Park between police and youths fromWendover Street near Uphams Corner, the site of numerous homicides.
'We arrest a lot of the same guys every year, and it doesn't seemto be that effective at deterring crime,' Monteiro said. 'I think itworks better if you give these kids something to do besides hangingaround with the same crowd on the block.'
Anthony Robinson agreed. A Dorchester native who playedbasketball at English High School before he became part of thecity's crime problem, Robinson eventually turned his life around andcofounded the Youth in Crisis outreach program. Four years ago, helaunched an annual Food for Thought Cookout at Walker Park inMattapan, and this year he encouraged his fellow StreetSafe workersto help turn the cookout into a crime-prevention Scoops `N' Hoopsyouth basketball tournament.
'I chose the park because it's a gang mecca,' said Robinson, whois known as 'Big Time' on the street. 'This is what we do. We're notjust on the streets. We're on the back streets, where the gangsare.'
A few gang members idled peacefully nearby - a couple evenhelped Robinson raise a net - as Simpson led his Grove Hall team tothe tournament title.
The Grove Hall players were old enough to know their opponentslived on rival turf, some at Orchard Gardens in Roxbury, others atthe Cathedral projects in the South End, a few near Bowdoin Streetand Geneva Avenue in Dorchester, several from the most violentstreets in Mattapan. But there were no visible signs of tensionduring the six-hour event. No open animosity.
Instead, there were smiles and camaraderie as the StreetSafe teamstrengthened its bonds with the kids.
Choice, not chance
'This is the best time to catch them, at this age,' said MarcusMerritt, who works the South End, from the Villa Victoria andCathedral developments to the Lenox Street projects, for StreetSafe.'These kids are right underneath their older brothers, who are doingthe shooting.'
No one knows the streets better than Merritt. He grew up in theCathedral projects. He attended Boston schools, then Cathedral Highand Cushing Academy before he went to Mississippi Valley State on afootball scholarship. He drew interest from the NFL until he gotcaught up in the street life and shot a man he described as a drugdealer.
His NFL dream squandered, Merritt continued a life of crime inMiami, where he served a year in jail and began his long journey outof the darkness and ultimately to StreetSafe.
Now, he has little time to spare. In the five weeks since theStreetSafe team hit the streets, Merritt not only has worked thecrew's regular shift (4 p.m. to midnight) but has responded sixtimes after hours to Boston Medical Center to work with friends andfamilies of shooting and stabbing victims. Reaching gang-involvedyouths in their most vulnerable moments can be crucial to pullingthem out of the life, StreetSafe worker Robert A. Lewis said.
'We have kids who don't know how to express their feelings,'Merritt said. 'They don't know how to mourn their older brother'sdeath because their father isn't there to show them how to grow upto be a man. Then they get emotional and someone hands them a pistoland they get violent because they don't know any other way to dealwith it.'
Simpson tells them life is about choice, not chance. When he andhis StreetSafe partner, Kevin Ryner, recently came upon 20 girls onIntervale Street armed with knives and bats preparing to fight overa minor discourtesy, Simpson suggested the girls had a choice.
'Are you going to stab somebody and go to jail? Or are you goingto call it a night and go home?' he said, defusing the situation.
Known on the street as 'Smooth,' Simpson was a gifted point guardwho led Madison Park to a state championship in 1982. He bouncedfrom Northeastern University to Mercer Community College in NewJersey before he played for Albany in the Continental BasketballAssociation, struggling along the way with a cocaine addiction.
In 1985, the Philadelphia 76ers invited him to a tryout. ButSimpson never made it, he said, because he was getting high in aBoston crackhouse.
As his addiction worsened, Simpson repeatedly robbed conveniencestores at gunpoint - he was known as the 'Christy's Bandit' -which contributed to his lengthy prison term.
The StreetSafe team, which is expected to expand to 25 workers,supplements other faith-based outreach groups as well as 30 city-paid street workers and 34 youth workers, who primarily operate fromnoon to 8 p.m.
'It's a remarkable band of guys,' said David Trueblood, aspokesman for the Boston Foundation, which conceived and launchedthe program. 'They have taken this on as a sacred mission as well asa job.'
City Councilor Charles C. Yancey, who attended the Mattapantournament, praised the StreetSafe team but said the city shouldincrease its own force of street workers tenfold to nearly 300.StreetSafe 'is trying to do through philanthropy what the city hasyet to do,' Yancey said. 'We have the resources. What's lacking isthe will.'
The StreetSafe crew has the will.
'This is not political for us,' Robinson said. 'This is aboutcompassion.'
Bob Hohler can be reached at hohler @globe.com.
