Steven Wilmsen sits on the metro desk, overseeing special projects. He came to the Globe in October 1997, working as a business investigative reporter and covering City Hall before moving to editing. He has been enterprise editor since 2007. He grew up in Colorado, harbors an obsession for Mexican food and occasionally pines for the West, where they know how to make it. He is the author of a book, “Silverado: Neil Bush and the Savings and Loan Scandal” about the former president's son and the failure of a Colorado savings and loan, and several magazine narratives. Recent awards for Globe projects include the National Headliner Award, Casey Medal, and Dart Award.

Articles

Theresa Johnson talked on the phone while her daughter, Ceecee, fixed the hair of her granddaughter Trinity. YOON S. BYUN/GLOBE STAFF

Pushing back against the tide

Mayhem has a kind of momentum; it can be exhausting to resist. In Bowdoin-Geneva, an anticrime effort flops. And Big Nate explodes. But the peace festival rocks, and a son in jail has started to pray.

Jhana Senxian, left, founder of the Coleman Street Neighbors Association, served food in the community garden during a block party in September. ARAM BOGHOSIAN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Facing the future, or the dream of one

There were 19 shootings in Bowdoin-Geneva this year, but no one was killed. Here, that seems a step ahead. But progress, if real, feels like a fragile reed in a garden furrowed deep with promise and pain.

Tony Van Der Meer lives along Hendry Street, which has regressed after a few years of seemingly better days. YOON S. BYUN/GLOBE STAFF

Time to celebrate and to worry

On Hendry Street, a new sense of stability is unraveling. On Norton, a gang target plans a peace festival, which police fear will only draw trouble. Nothing is easy in Bowdoin-Geneva, but no one is giving in.

Anette Haynes gave Conway a kiss on Richfield Street while he walked the neighborhood on a Friday night in August.

Searching for justice, finding no peace

In the Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood of Boston, violence seems to rise with the heat, but so do a mother’s hopes for her children, and a priest’s quest to connect. Meanwhile, from the weeds, an unlikely garden grows.

Nate Davis arrived early in court on June 21 -- the birthday of his twins, Natalie and Little Nate -- to wait for the verdict in the murder trial of two young men accused of killing his son. Both accused killers lived in Bowdoin-Geneva at the time of the murder.

Dreams cut short, dreams reborn

It’s a neighborhood known for trouble, but the Bowdoin-Geneva area of Boston is much more than that. A Boston Globe team spent a year there, listening and asking why violence persists where love and loyalty also run so strong.