In the early 90s my wife and I began searching for a house to buy. We looked at a few developments that had associations but didn’t understand why we should live where we would pay dues or have restrictions on what we could do to our home and yard. We ended up purchasing a 16-year-old home in north Phoenix. The house was in a nice neighborhood and the people living there seemed to take real pride of ownership.
As the years passed, many neighbors came and went, and the area started to change dramatically. A new family moved into the house across the street. The man of the house was a former high-end sports car mechanic who had recently made the transition to airline mechanic. They were a nice family, but before long, we started seeing “project” cars up on blocks. Even though some of them were nice sports cars, they still became an eyesore. Some of the neighbors complained to him about the cars, but he simply ignored them.
Not long after the mechanic moved in, a man who owned a small landscaping company purchased a home a few houses down from ours and started parking his landscaping vehicles in the street. He even poured an extra concrete slab next to his driveway and had trucks parked there as well. Another neighbor stated that his house “wasn’t bright enough” and painted his house yellow with a purplish trim.
Little by little as more houses changed hands, the neighborhood started to go downhill, as did the selling price of homes in that area. Even the light poles and the fire hydrants looked bad, as the paint became just a faded powdery finish.
Then, one late summer evening, my neighbor’s vehicle was stolen out of the driveway 15 minutes after he got home from work. Our family decided it was time to move someplace where we were less likely to experience the kinds of issues we were seeing in our current neighborhood. After an extensive search, we came upon a community that had everything that we were looking for, Desert Ridge.
Here, we found a community with a master association that:
• Makes sure the light poles, common area walls, and even fire hydrants are painted.
• Streets aren’t cluttered with trailers and work vehicles.
• People are keeping up their yards and not letting them get overgrown.
• The houses are painted colors within a specific color palette and guidelines.
And those are just a few of the things that the Master Association does. Granted, many of these things can be found in other communities with Master or Homeowner’s association, but what makes Desert Ridge truly unique is our commitment to overall increased property values. A staple to increasing and maintaining property values in any community is the reduction and prevention of crime. Our programs here in Desert Ridge are doing just that.
This past year we started new Block Watch programs and bolstered existing Block Watches through the DRCA Block Watch Grant Program. We renewed our matching grant with Silent Witness, and increased our off-duty Phoenix Police Patrol. As you can see from the statistics in the adjacent article, the three-year average shows a total crime reduction of over 43%. In 2014 there were 329 shifts done by the off-duty patrol, paid for by the master association. To compliment those patrols, we have the addition of our new parking enforcement provider, Urban Tactical Security giving us even more sets of eyes and ears patrolling the community.
Remember, Phoenix police officers work hard at their job, but they can’t be everywhere all of the time. That is why it is so important to know and communicate with your neighbors and to keep looking for things that are out of place in your neighborhood. You can help make Desert Ridge a safer and better place to live by starting or participating in a neighborhood block watch program.
If you’re interested in learning how to start a neighborhood block watch program, please contact the Desert Ridge Community Association office at 480-551-4553 or contact community action Officer Centenius Billingslea from the Phoenix Police Department at centenius.billingslea@phoenix.gov or 602-495-5228.
Steve Burns
Community Awareness Committee Chair
Desert Ridge Community Association
