Some local teenage boys wheel out their lowrider bikes, polished examples of effort, time and style. Welding and stitched seats provide even more detail for the shiny chrome bikes.

Candelario Vazquez, 14, has spent more than $140 on his bike, but as he prepared his bike for a show, he talked about how it’s valuable in another way, too.

“It keeps me with the bikes, keeps me off the streets,” Vazquez said.

The fourth-generation Estilo Bajito bike club, a descendent of the original Fourth Street Youth Center Aztec Illusions, is a prevention measure for some local young teen boys who have no interest in the gang scene.

Local youth activist Roberto Nerey says it’s important for activities like the bike club to be offered to teens to keep them from being tempted to join gangs.

“We work kids in the area where there’s so-called violence and they know who’s who,” Nerey said. “(Gang members) know these kids don’t gangbang so they respect them. A hit on them would be a violation of something totally bigger than them and they wouldn’t want that.”

The kids of Estilo Bajito are talented enough to produce 10 bikes a week and sell them on the Internet — or at least that’s Nerey’s hope for them eventually.

“Once (the bikes) are built, then they start learning the business and become retailers themselves,” he said. “In Japan, I just saw a kid on eBay selling a lowrider, very basic, $200. The highest bid came in at $1,200. You can promote them on the Internet and take your percent and kick the rest back to the club. You’ve got to pay for your efforts. It’s a trade.”

Pursuit of a passion

Nerey’s release from Ely State Prison in September 1992 liberated him in more than one way. After considering going to college so he could get a decent job later on, he remembered the words of the judge who wanted him to help other young people and reduced his sentence for his role in a gang drive-by shooting.

“That’s almost as if I was given a chance to live again, straight out of my mom’s womb,” he said. “It’s a different sort of light. I’m going to do whatever I can to save the lives that I can, regardless of what it takes.”

Nerey has been a community activist for nearly 13 years, befriending today’s young gang members, counseling them, understanding their problems and advising them when they’re in trouble. He has resources and connections and is a mentor and advisor to impressionable adolescents to help them avoid the struggles he experienced at their age. He also understands Nevada communities well enough to see the larger picture and pinpoint where the community needs lie.

“The problem I have is (gang activity) is not decreasing but it’s getting stronger in the younger age bracket and also in the areas where we should really be improving with respect to education,” he said. “Our kids are not making ninth grade. As it is, to be able to make it in this competitive environment, you need the proper tools. How do we expect our kids to be in any proper place or contribute to society when they’re not being prepared?”

He earns the respect of teens, particularly the males, and encourages them to do better than what they’ve settled for and to dream big.

Much of his work, however, has run into political obstacles along the way. During the 1990s, he was running the Fourth Street Youth Center in Reno, which provided safe alternative activities to teens and kept them off the streets. But eventually the program dissolved because of politics and city budget problems, he said.

“(The city police) came to me and said, ‘We want to start coming into your Fourth Street Youth Center’ – the only place these kids feel safe – ‘and we want you to give us the opportunity to egress those who have warrants,’ ” Nerey said. “I was like, ‘Man, do you know what you’re asking me to do? As it is, kids have a hard time trusting me because I give you guys a chance and now you want to prove me wrong?’ ”

Earning that trust, Nerey said, is no easy task among youth who are cautious about whom they confide in and when they go to him. Opportunities to reach them are priceless, he said.

In time, Nerey had to ask for grants for financial support for the youth center, but he was continually denied.

A community problem

The closure of the Fourth Street center meant one less place in the community for youth to go and one more on the financial and social chopping block.

Nerey said the lack of community commitment and support has become such a problem that many teens have lost the fear of incarceration.

“Some of those kids, you talk to them about jail sentencing and what jail’s supposed to do,” he said. “The minute they walk into juvenile hall and they do that little program, they’ve already lost fear. So if they lose fear of going to jail, what’s the point in continuing to arrest them if that’s not going to deter them from their path?”

Sincerity is another challenge, Nerey said, to teens who need to feel and understand their self-worth.

“The last thing they need is someone else to come in here and say, ‘I care about you,’ when that’s not the truth,” Nerey said.

Nerey’s dedication to his cause has always driven him, but the night of May 18 this year shook him up when his own son, who previously asked not to be identified, was shot and wounded in a gang-related incident on York Way and Simms Circle in Sparks. His son’s friends were approached in their car by another group of people in a different car who were seeking out other gang members. While Nerey’s son and his friends tried to get away, the other driver got behind their car and began shooting into the vehicle and Nerey’s son was struck with pellets.

He was treated at a hospital and released, but it left a grave impact on the local youth activist who tries to keep kids from getting involved in gang violence.

“As a father, the thing that gets me is you can’t imagine the pain, how many pieces your heart breaks when you get the news your son’s been shot,” Nerey said. “... As a father, as a man, to be able not to protect my family and say I need to find out who did this – and there’s a line that says ‘You’ve got to have faith’ and there’s another line that says ‘You’ve got to believe in justice.’ Which of those three lines do you follow? It really wrecks the family in a very ugly way.”

Working together

Nerey hopes to see all facets of the community unite and collectively think of some solutions to take a proactive stance against gangs.

“The school systems can do 80 percent of the problem-solving,” he said. “…I don’t think our churches are doing enough. … The government isn’t listening. … We’ve got the Boys and Girls Club. That’s what I don’t understand. You’ve got all this money but you’re not doing the outreach or the job necessary to be able to at least look into the problem or try to fix some of the issues that are going on with our kids.

“Part of my cry is in Neil Road, one thing you guys did is you brought in a police substation,” he said. “What you need is services for that community: tutoring centers, a small recreational playground where these kids can at least have a chance to go somewhere where they’re going to be safe and have the opportunity to speak with one positive individual who isn’t going to judge them, point the finger or kick his ass or throw him in jail.”

He continues to urge the community to get involved through an organization he has created. The intent of the Roberto Nerey Youth Foundation is to provide counseling, mentoring, referrals and seminars on youth gangs and violence. For more information, visit robertonerey-youthfoundation.net.

He hopes many community members will come forward out of concern for the lifestyle many teens are choosing and to keep the Reno-Sparks area safe and invest in youth.

“Love is truly the key,” he said. “As a result (of being proactive), we’ve seen not just one, not just two, but many, many youth who have now become productive members of society. It doesn’t happen overnight, but I tell you, with a little effort and some time, this can be turned around.”