Buddha statue transforms Oakland neighbourhood

In 2009, Dan Stevenson, a resident in Oakland, California’s crime-ridden Eastlake neighbourhood bought a 2-foot-high Buddha statue from a local hardware store and installed it on a median strip on an off-street in a residential area.

“It was just like a dump,” Stevenson said of the median then covered in trash. “And it just got tiring.”

Remarkably, Stevenson’s small gesture helped to transform the neighbourhood.

Residents started leaving flowers and candles at the base of the statue. Vietnamese women in prayer robes started regularly gathering at the Buddha to pray. What was once just a statue transformed into a shrine.

“There’s no garbage now,” Stevenson told NBC News in 2012. “There’s no graffiti, it’s just a lot of people just respect the area.”

Thanks to the powerful epoxy holding it in place, the Buddha survived a robbery attempt soon after it was installed. In 2012, thanks to community opposition, the Public Works Department gave up its mission to remove it.

Since 2012, worshipers have been gathering to pray at the miniature temple every day. Also since 2012, crime has dropped by a whopping 82 per cent in the neighbourhood.

When people learned that Stevenson — who is not a Buddhist but hoped his gift to the community would help unify the neighbourhood — was responsible for the statue, they started leaving gifts on his doorstop.

"They left a ton of fruit and Vietnamese specialty foods and candy, but there’s only me and my wife, Lu, here and we can’t eat all that stuff — but it’s so good," Stevenson told SFGate.com.

“My wife and I thought we might be able to change the direction of the energy,” Stevenson said of his intentions when installing the statue years ago. “We’re not Buddhists so we just liked the little garden guy.”