azdad1978
Championship!!!!
KJ sparks hometown's extreme makeover
Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
May. 1, 2004 12:00 AM
The 40 Acres Complex sits at the cozy core of Oak Park, Sacramento's original suburb.
KJ through the years
1989: Opens St. HOPE as an after-school program in Sacramento.
1993: Helps the Suns to the NBA Finals, where they fall in six games to the Chicago Bulls.
1998: Retires from the Suns.
2000: Returns to the Suns for six regular-season games and nine playoff games largely because of Jason Kidd's broken ankle. Retires again.
2000-01: Works for NBC as an NBA studio analyst.
2001, spring: Joins the Suns' Ring of Honor.
2001, summer: Decides to devote his full-time attention toward St. HOPE.
Weathered voices can tell the stories of the area, a neighborhood of 25 square miles and 20,000 people.
Oak Park was, and is, Kevin Johnson's home.
It is a place where surnames remain on mailboxes for generations. People are as proud as the 19th-century oaks are thick.
The circle of life has returned Johnson to his origins, a base that set his path to fame with the Suns in the 1990s.
Johnson was the point guard who helped bring the Suns to the brink of an NBA title. They fell in six games to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in 1993.
Phoenix misses KJ, but Oak Park needed him back.
A freeway, completed in 1961, cut off Oak Park from downtown Sacramento, sending it into economic decline.
In 1989, Johnson began to give back when he started a St. HOPE Academy after-school program after his second NBA season. Now, his non-profit St. HOPE Corp. has revived Oak Park with about $8 million of business projects.
A row of abandoned buildings that attracted drug addicts and prostitutes now is home to the 40 Acres Complex, which includes a renovated 1915 vaudeville theater, bookstore, Starbucks, barber shop, art gallery and 12 loft apartments. A soul food restaurant is on the way. Across an intersection where drivers once feared a red light, there will be the neighborhood's first private pediatric office in a restored 1912 structure.
Nearby is a stately looking bank in what was a rundown building. Down the street, an 1885 Victorian house sits redone for office use.
"It all starts with my grandparents, who taught me at a very young age to always be a good neighbor and help my community," Johnson said. "Growing up in Oak Park, I regularly witnessed friends and family members succumb to the temptations of drugs and violence, and I knew that if I ever had a chance to make a difference, I would."
Johnson is immersed in the transformation, having taken up residence in a three-bedroom house that is less than a mile from his childhood home. He maintains a home in the Valley but visits only briefly, because he believes that Oak Park's revitalization must continue from the inside.
"I'm just so thrilled, happy and hopeful," said pianist Theresa Keene, whose family has been in the area since the mid-1920s, during a break from playing at Underground Books. "It's a blessing to have this here. It's lifting the esteem of the neighborhood. I saw an elderly woman stop in her tracks with tears coming down her face when she saw all this.
"It's incredible what he (Johnson) does in the community instead of buying six cars. His vision is divinely directed."
About $2.8 million in loans came from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. Some pleas to private investors were answered quickly, such as the call that got the ball rolling for the city's second-largest Starbucks. It probably did not hurt that Starbucks founder Howard Schultz also owns the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics.
When it came to a $7 million infusion to save Johnson's high school, Bill Gates' foundation put up $3.5 million and said to call again for the next school.
But saving his alma mater, Sacramento High, took more than words and money. Johnson wound up embroiled in a nine-month battle with some area parents and the city teachers union.
Some objected to a faith-based organization, as St. HOPE is, and Johnson's lack of experience in running a school. The teachers objected to the bid to be a charter school, which is non-union, but Johnson prevailed.
Sacramento High's School of Journalism, one of six college-like schools, has a 200-foot hallway lined with Sacramento Bee cover articles on Johnson's fight to gain control of his grandfather's alma mater. It was tough, "far more trying" than watching John Paxson's shot close out the Suns in the 1993 NBA Finals.
"The intensity never wavered," Johnson said.
Now, a 1,600-student campus thrives with $500,000 community partners such as the University of California-Davis Medical Center, an Oak Park neighbor, and the University of Pacific's McGeorge School of Law, which is in Oak Park. St. HOPE also runs a charter elementary school.
"He always said, 'Basketball is not going to define me,' " said Johnson's mother, Georgia West, program director for St. HOPE Foundation, which aids those in need. "He always wanted to do more to help people. He always had this kind of heart. How does this make me feel? Overwhelmed."
West is better known as Mother Rose, a moniker Johnson gave her, in the 40 Acres Complex, where she lives in a loft. She stokes the community spirit, a trait she instilled in Johnson after his father died in a boating accident when KJ was 3.
She is among a group of St. HOPE people, many through Phoenix, closely linked to Johnson. Lori Mills started Johnson's St. HOPE Academy in Phoenix, which is closed, and is executive director of Oak Park Guild Theater.
"He had a very full-fledged vision when he started," Mills said. "It was very comprehensive for a small group, but he always wanted to do it for more."
KJ's brother, Ronnie West, and John Yerger, West's teammate when the two played basketball at Brophy, took a year off from University of California at Berkeley to design and start Underground Books, Oak Park's unofficial library.
Kim Curry-Evans, a Mesa native, was at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art when she met Johnson after he retired. He convinced her to become director of visual arts for 40 Acres Gallery, already recognized as the city's best after opening in February.
"He picked my brain even back when we met about how he could incorporate art into what they do for kids," Curry-Evans said. "To him, it had to be a cultural mecca."
As for the future, Johnson and St. HOPE will work to ensure that the neighborhood remains a proud reflection of home.
Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
May. 1, 2004 12:00 AM
The 40 Acres Complex sits at the cozy core of Oak Park, Sacramento's original suburb.
KJ through the years
1989: Opens St. HOPE as an after-school program in Sacramento.
1993: Helps the Suns to the NBA Finals, where they fall in six games to the Chicago Bulls.
1998: Retires from the Suns.
2000: Returns to the Suns for six regular-season games and nine playoff games largely because of Jason Kidd's broken ankle. Retires again.
2000-01: Works for NBC as an NBA studio analyst.
2001, spring: Joins the Suns' Ring of Honor.
2001, summer: Decides to devote his full-time attention toward St. HOPE.
Weathered voices can tell the stories of the area, a neighborhood of 25 square miles and 20,000 people.
Oak Park was, and is, Kevin Johnson's home.
It is a place where surnames remain on mailboxes for generations. People are as proud as the 19th-century oaks are thick.
The circle of life has returned Johnson to his origins, a base that set his path to fame with the Suns in the 1990s.
Johnson was the point guard who helped bring the Suns to the brink of an NBA title. They fell in six games to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in 1993.
Phoenix misses KJ, but Oak Park needed him back.
A freeway, completed in 1961, cut off Oak Park from downtown Sacramento, sending it into economic decline.
In 1989, Johnson began to give back when he started a St. HOPE Academy after-school program after his second NBA season. Now, his non-profit St. HOPE Corp. has revived Oak Park with about $8 million of business projects.
A row of abandoned buildings that attracted drug addicts and prostitutes now is home to the 40 Acres Complex, which includes a renovated 1915 vaudeville theater, bookstore, Starbucks, barber shop, art gallery and 12 loft apartments. A soul food restaurant is on the way. Across an intersection where drivers once feared a red light, there will be the neighborhood's first private pediatric office in a restored 1912 structure.
Nearby is a stately looking bank in what was a rundown building. Down the street, an 1885 Victorian house sits redone for office use.
"It all starts with my grandparents, who taught me at a very young age to always be a good neighbor and help my community," Johnson said. "Growing up in Oak Park, I regularly witnessed friends and family members succumb to the temptations of drugs and violence, and I knew that if I ever had a chance to make a difference, I would."
Johnson is immersed in the transformation, having taken up residence in a three-bedroom house that is less than a mile from his childhood home. He maintains a home in the Valley but visits only briefly, because he believes that Oak Park's revitalization must continue from the inside.
"I'm just so thrilled, happy and hopeful," said pianist Theresa Keene, whose family has been in the area since the mid-1920s, during a break from playing at Underground Books. "It's a blessing to have this here. It's lifting the esteem of the neighborhood. I saw an elderly woman stop in her tracks with tears coming down her face when she saw all this.
"It's incredible what he (Johnson) does in the community instead of buying six cars. His vision is divinely directed."
About $2.8 million in loans came from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. Some pleas to private investors were answered quickly, such as the call that got the ball rolling for the city's second-largest Starbucks. It probably did not hurt that Starbucks founder Howard Schultz also owns the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics.
When it came to a $7 million infusion to save Johnson's high school, Bill Gates' foundation put up $3.5 million and said to call again for the next school.
But saving his alma mater, Sacramento High, took more than words and money. Johnson wound up embroiled in a nine-month battle with some area parents and the city teachers union.
Some objected to a faith-based organization, as St. HOPE is, and Johnson's lack of experience in running a school. The teachers objected to the bid to be a charter school, which is non-union, but Johnson prevailed.
Sacramento High's School of Journalism, one of six college-like schools, has a 200-foot hallway lined with Sacramento Bee cover articles on Johnson's fight to gain control of his grandfather's alma mater. It was tough, "far more trying" than watching John Paxson's shot close out the Suns in the 1993 NBA Finals.
"The intensity never wavered," Johnson said.
Now, a 1,600-student campus thrives with $500,000 community partners such as the University of California-Davis Medical Center, an Oak Park neighbor, and the University of Pacific's McGeorge School of Law, which is in Oak Park. St. HOPE also runs a charter elementary school.
"He always said, 'Basketball is not going to define me,' " said Johnson's mother, Georgia West, program director for St. HOPE Foundation, which aids those in need. "He always wanted to do more to help people. He always had this kind of heart. How does this make me feel? Overwhelmed."
West is better known as Mother Rose, a moniker Johnson gave her, in the 40 Acres Complex, where she lives in a loft. She stokes the community spirit, a trait she instilled in Johnson after his father died in a boating accident when KJ was 3.
She is among a group of St. HOPE people, many through Phoenix, closely linked to Johnson. Lori Mills started Johnson's St. HOPE Academy in Phoenix, which is closed, and is executive director of Oak Park Guild Theater.
"He had a very full-fledged vision when he started," Mills said. "It was very comprehensive for a small group, but he always wanted to do it for more."
KJ's brother, Ronnie West, and John Yerger, West's teammate when the two played basketball at Brophy, took a year off from University of California at Berkeley to design and start Underground Books, Oak Park's unofficial library.
Kim Curry-Evans, a Mesa native, was at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art when she met Johnson after he retired. He convinced her to become director of visual arts for 40 Acres Gallery, already recognized as the city's best after opening in February.
"He picked my brain even back when we met about how he could incorporate art into what they do for kids," Curry-Evans said. "To him, it had to be a cultural mecca."
As for the future, Johnson and St. HOPE will work to ensure that the neighborhood remains a proud reflection of home.
