Inspired by a drive-by shooting of a 4-year-old girl, Deprez formed Northend Coalition of Neighborhoods, a grassroots association of 10 inner-city neighborhoods, to fight crime and blight. The groups’ many successes include increasing police presence, reducing drug crimes and prostitution, creating a court watch committee to ensure that repeat offenders serve time, having 65 abandoned properties demolished and hundreds rehabbed, and getting the city to donate land for a park.
