CEDAR RAPIDS Bill and Jean Derby have a nicely kept home with an American flag and a front porch built for conversation.
When they bought the house in 1960 at 1641 B Ave. NE, just a few blocks from Bill Derbys job at then Iowa Manufacturing and later Cedarapids Inc., the Derbys never figured they would land on the front lines of neighborhood decline.
Decline has been all around them in recent years, though.
At one point, cops on the block was a familiar refrain from tenants in an apartment next door, said Bill Derby, 74. Jean Derby, 73, said it has been nothing short of a reality cops show of drug dealing and prostitution. The Derbys have kept their porch light on all night ever since a tenant next door threatened to burn down their house.
