PROVO — On Provo's south side just past the railroad tracks sits a once-troubled community in the midst of transformation.
It is one of the largest apartment complexes in Utah County — a city within a city, really — that covers 17 acres and houses 1,200 residents. Nearly half of the tenants at The Boulders are Hispanic, many others are mentally ill and most live below the poverty line.
Last year, police were called to The Boulders, 750 S. 650 West, three to five times a day. The Boulders has twice as many calls per capita than any other apartment complex in town, police officers estimate.
"Those who live in the outlying community have a very dim view of The Boulders. And they are sick and tired of all the stories coming out of there," says David Dominguez, a law professor at Brigham Young University.
"The perception is that it's a drug-infested, crime-ridden area, but that's not based in fact. Its lore has grown."
For more than a year, Dominguez and his law students have worked with the Provo police department and the Utah County health department to save The Boulders from further decay. And some say the tide is turning.
Last fall, Dominguez helped host a block party at The Boulders so residents could share their concerns about their neighborhood.
"We called it 'the miracle at Boulders' because so many people came," Dominguez said. "We found that there was a lot of fear; people were worried about their tenuous hold on their jobs. There was a fear of crime, drug activity. In general, a sense of paralysis."
The Boulders may sound like a slum, but it certainly doesn't look like one. In the last two years, the company that manages the 338 units has spent $2 million on new playground equipment, landscaping, siding, picnic tables and barbecue pits, among other amenities. They have also fixed roofs, replaced worn carpet and put in a new weight room.
There are some obvious signs of poverty at The Boulders — spray-painted cars with rusty doors, camper trailers patched up with duct tape and tin foil — but for the most part the complex is clean and orderly.
Talks on how to help Boulders tenants has resulted in the opening of a police substation at the complex. The apartment-turned-office will also be used by county health officials and as a classroom to teach English as a second language.
Police hope the substation, which is scheduled to open this month, will reduce the number of calls coming from The Boulders. Provo Police Sgt. Mark Troxel says the calls range from noise complaints to reports of illegal drug sales — and have increased in the last two years.
"We think by having closer contact with tenants we might be able to find out what the problem is. We want people to feel like they can come and talk to us," Troxel said.
Steve Allred, director for the county health department's substance abuse authority, says tenants who do not know how to call an ambulance or visit the doctor because of language barriers or mental illness will be able to get health-care information at the substation.
Community Health Connect, for example, is a group of volunteer doctors and dentists who treat the poor for free. He hopes to one day have a part-time nurse assigned to the substation.
"It's a pretty sad thing when you see a child over there that has some pretty messed up teeth," Allred said. "Their parents want to do something about it, but they don't know where to turn."
The improvements at The Boulders are also because of the work of manager Jeff Sechler, a former Marine who once taught jungle survival skills. Sechler, who says he feels like the mayor of a small town, now spends his days fixing toilets and painting fences.
He is popular with children at the complex because of the bag of candy he often carries to reward those who help with small chores, such as picking up trash.
The litter they miss is picked up by his son, who patrols the grounds seven hours a day from a golf cart.
"A lot of people like to pick on this place because it's low income. But compared to other places in the world, this is nothing," Sechler says. "I genuinely care about these people and I'm protective of them. I really mean to run the dopers and punks out of here, but that's not what the majority of the people here are."
Perhaps the most impressive illustration of the changes made under The Boulders' new management is a poster in the leasing office showing the improvements over the past two years. There are flowers where there was once dirt, patio tiles where there was once gravel.
Karen Murray, a widow who has lived at The Boulders for four years, likes to sit at a picnic table and watch a line of ducks cross the street.
"My apartment is great," she said. "The management is always busy working, making improvements all the time. They're trying. You've got to give them credit."
Dominguez says beautification projects help tenants feel better about themselves and bring them out of their homes and into the community.
And when people feel like they belong they are less likely to have problems with substance abuse and crime, he says. Instead, they begin looking out for each other.
In the last year, neighbors have organized groups that supervise children at bus stops and the playground. And this year there are plans for an after-school sports league for the children who live in the complex.
The barriers between neighbors from different cultures and religions are coming down, Dominguez says.
"For the first time people have a whole new construct of what it means to live here," Dominguez says. "There has been a resurgence in optimism."
That optimism has trickled into the surrounding neighborhood, says Benji McMurray, a BYU student working with Dominguez. McMurray says attitudes in his neighborhood, which takes in The Boulders, are softening toward the complex.
"I think a lot of people in this community are too judgmental. People want to complain, but they don't want to do anything about it," Sechler said. "I guarantee you if Jesus was here today this is where he'd be working."
On a quiet porch a few hundred yards away sits Robert Andrews, who has lived in the complex for six years. He talks on the phone while his diapered nephew plays in the mud, near a garden of yellow plastic flowers.
Andrews is 44 years old and hopes to find work soon. A statue of Jesus sits on a bookshelf, a stack of empty prescription medication bottles rests on the dusty television.
He says he feels safe, even though he has seen drug busts in the apartment above him. He figures it's a good sign people keep moving in.
"In the long run," he said, "I think it's one of the best places to live."
E-MAIL: jhyde@desnews.com