Darryl Carrington can’t help but stop and pick up trash that’s littered along the streets of Wichita State’s southern neighbor.

Carrington, a Fairmount resident and mentor, tossed a milk jug, some Styrofoam and a plastic bag into a nearby dumpster on North Yale Avenue.

“Sorry, I have to do this,” he said while picking up the litter. “I refuse to live in a trash can. I can’t do that.”

It’s the Fairmount neighborhood, a swath of homes that stretches south from 17th Street to 12th Street and runs almost 10 blocks east of Hillside Street to form a sort of inverted trapezoid.

It’s a neighborhood that many consider hostile, said Carrington, who is also a WSU health professions student and plumber for the university’s physical plant.

“Most of it is justifiable,” he said. “It has a reputation that, you know, sucks.”

A quick glance at University Police’s online police blotter shows many recent calls and arrests in the area. The most recent, on Sept. 1, was an arrest for driving with a suspended license, possession of drug paraphernalia and a city of Wichita warrant.

Adam Hinton, a WSU senior, resides in the Fairmount community and admits that from the outside, his neighborhood may look daunting to strangers.

“I think the more people start moving down into the neighborhood and start enjoying some of the resources that can be had there, I think the opinion will immensely change,” Hinton said.

Those resources are numerous, Carrington said.

Several WSU students have served the Fairmount community through Carrington’s local organization called GoZones, which mentors youth, ages 6-16, in a partnership with SUCCESS in the Middle.

According to GoZone’s website, the group’s goal is to strengthen the children’s academic skills, expand their life experiences and encourage healthy life choices.

“By the time we’re done with [the youth],” Carrington said, “they should be able to trust adults and take instruction…Once they can get through that, the whole world is open for them.”

The Fairmount area also holds a historical significance with WSU.

Fairmount United Church of Christ, located at the corner of 16th and Fairmount, was built in 1912 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Reverend Larry Young said that with the help of four or five other congregational churches, Fairmount United Church of Christ founded the Municipal University of Wichita in 1926.

“When I first heard and read about [Fairmount’s bad reputation], I was very amazed,” Young said. “I mean, yeah, there are difficulties, that’s kind of obvious. But my experience has been very positive with the people that I’ve met. To me, I think it’s misplaced.”

Historically, Fairmount has been heavily involved with the university. Professors used to attend Sunday service at the Fairmount United Church of Christ, which now sees about 40 people every Sunday. Several former university presidents have resided in the area. Even a few Kansas state senators have come from Fairmount.

“I consider Fairmount the steward of the community,” Carrington said. “Once you experience the community, and not go by the false reputation, you’ll be like ‘wait a minute, this is really cool.’”

Carrington said the neighborhood is about 30 percent black, 30 percent white and the rest is Asian, which includes international students from countries like Nepal, Pakistan and India.

So, while many outsiders may hold a negative stereotype over the community, Fairmount actually has several positive things going for it, civically, historically and demographically.

“Most of my friends on campus think of this as the ghetto, or the black hood,” Carrington said. “But it is very diverse. You can’t ask for a better group of dynamics.”