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Pittsburgh City Council District No. 9 Homewood North Homewood South Homewood West Carnegie Library, Homewood ourHOMEWOOD Share your views and news about our Homewood. I'll post selections as we go along together. Just click here to send me your views and news about our Homewood. I'll post selections as we go along together. |
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Updates to this journal are now available here.
Welcome!
Welcome to "My Homewood," an online journal about life in a Pittsburgh neighborhood that is struggling to find hope amid much violence. I'll be posting my Homewood observations regularly, and I welcome others inside and outside this community to join the conversation. Just click here to send me a message for publication.
More about this journal: Welcome to My Homewood
-- Elwin Green
2:24 PM 4/21/2006
I just spoke with another staffer in Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle's office, who offered Ms. Carlisle's apology for the meeting not having happened yet. She explained that there's been a lot of turnover in personnel during the last few months. But she also said "the councilwoman takes full responsibility" for the delay. And she thanked me "for calling her out" on it.
Imagine that.
They are now working to have the meeting sometime in July. The main purpose will be to produce a directory of the community's service providers, as the town hall meeting revealed that many people don't realize how much help is available to residents, right in the community.
The staffer, Kristyn Stewart, also said that the councilwoman's office is working on a separate resource directory to list who does what in government, from the ward level up to federal offices. That directory should be available sometime this summer.
Finally, she expressed Ms. Carlisle's eagerness to do another online chat here with you folks.
Watch this space.
4:50 PM 4/17/2006
I called Councilwoman Carlisle's office today. I didn't get her, but I did get her office assistant, Qadira Daniels, who said that a) she is new to the job and b) she is pushing to get the meeting scheduled by the end of the month. Not to have the meeting happen by the end of the month, but to get it on the councilwoman's schedule by the end of the month.
So when might the meeting actually happen?
"I'm afraid to even guess," Ms. Daniels said.
Watch this space.
10:52 AM 4/13/2006
It has been nearly six months since the town hall meeting that packed Faison Elementary School with public officials, media people and concerned citizens.
A lot of what happened that evening was simply people venting, but one thing promised was a follow-up meeting to enable concrete action. As I recall, that meeting was supposed to happen in January, but no specific date was set.
I called Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle's office in January to find out when and where the meeting would be held. It had not yet been scheduled. I have called several times since then, at irregular intervals, and have received essentially the same response. I just called again, and was told that no one is in the office until Monday.
I'll call again Monday, and let you folks know what I learn.
Fellow Homewood resident and "My Homewood" contributor Leah S. has started her own blog. I think the blog of a 23-year-old Black poet/wife/mom who quotes Madeleine L'Engle and Mary McLeod Bethune should be quite interesting, so please take a stroll over and check it out.
1:23 PM 4/11/2006
This weekend I did a stint as a garbageman.
It came about as a result of meeting the Rev. Dr. John Wallace Jr., the pastor of Bible Center Church of God in Christ in Homewood. Wallace, a Homewood native, spent 17 years at the University of Michigan before returning to Pittsburgh in January 2004 to become pastor of the church after his grandfather, the church's previous pastor, passed away.
Like many Homewood natives who have been away for a while, he remembers the Isaly's, the Belmar and the G.C. Murphy's, and was distressed by the condition of the neighborhood. In September, he and his congregation began taking action, but not in the common ways: They held no community meetings, no marches, no press conferences.
They started picking up garbage.
More specifically, each Saturday morning since Sept. 16, members of Bible Center have gone forth with brooms, dustpans, garbage bags and cans to clean up the blocks in the church's immediate vicinity. Along with acting as sanitation engineers, they introduce themselves to residents, give away the smallest of gifts -- bottles of water, bags of chips -- and ask if there's anything they would like to have prayer for.
Wallace's academic background -- he makes his living as an associate professor at Pitt's School of Social Work -- makes it natural for him to quantify the results of this project, so when we met he presented me with a chart that showed that as of March 18, the project had generated 700 hours of outreach with an economic value of $12,628, during which he and his people had collected 244 bags of garbage and given away 528 gifts.
One need not agree with these folks' entire theology to recognize that picking up trash is an eminently sensible response to the problem of litter. And giving small gifts has a certain heart appeal. So on Saturday morning, I joined them.
It was a chilly morning, but keeping in motion helps one to keep warm. The church is on Bennett Street, between Homewood and Sterrett. Our crew of seven or eight, several wearing sweatshirts with the motto, "The church has left the building" emblazoned on the back, went down to Sterrett, then took Sterrett to Hamilton, and Hamilton nearly to Braddock.
Church member John Scarborough, 63, is a regular. He said, "If I don't come out here on Saturday morning, I feel like I have a disease." But then, he did not begin doing this work in September. He began, he said, three years ago, when he realized that "every entrance to Homewood is preceded by garbage." He has been cleaning up behind the careless and the thoughtless ever since.
There's a definite psychological lift that comes with knowing that one has done one small thing to make a small difference for a little while. The good pastor put it well when he said, laying aside his PhD.-ness to slip into the vernacular: "Just because it's the ghetto, it don't got to look like nobody cares."
If anybody wants a psychological lift this weekend, you can show up at 7236 Bennett St. at 10 a.m. Saturday. No skills required other than the ability to pick up stuff and stuff it into a bag.
I meant to share this story with you folks, because smack dab in the middle of it, Beehive coffeehouse owner Scott Kramer states the exact idea that I believe is behind the Homewood Arts District Committee's work - it's just interesting to hear someone else say it:
"With any economic growth, the artists come in first..."
10:23 a.m. 3/30/2006
My wife and I attended the free jazz concert at the Homewood branch of Carnegie Library yesterday evening and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I think it's unfortunate that the auditorium was only half full, but that may be because many people's work schedules wouldn't allow them to make the 5:30 start. I did notice more people arriving later during the concert.
I'm not a music critic, so I'll just say that Shawnee Lake reminded me of Nancy Wilson, but with a lower range and throatier delivery. She was well-supported by a trio consisting of keyboardist Timothy Jenkins, whose day job is selling health insurance for UPMC; drummer Keith Morehouse, whose is a self-employed registered investment adviser; and bassist Tony DePaolis, who is a full-time musician "because I'm 24," with no family to support.
After the concert, we walked home, hand in hand. I noticed that in the space of five blocks we passed three churches (not counting the one across the street from our house), two bars and a funeral home. It made me think about Bernadette Turner, project director with the East Side Community Collaborative. She is working on a map of community assets, and said once: "Even a bar can be an asset." The word "bar" is so often preceded by "nuisance" that it's easy to forget that most of them don't deserve that adjective.
It also struck me that an enterprising person with access to a video camera could put together an interesting documentary on church buildings in Homewood. Or without a video camera, a Sunday afternoon walking tour of church buildings in Homewood would expose their history and their architecture to people who would otherwise never know about either.
That idea is for free to anybody who wants to run with it.
3:26 p.m. 3/16/2006
There are some events coming up that would make it worthwhile for any music lover to visit Homewood because none of it is happening anywhere else. Prepare to mark your calendars.
Saturday, March 18: Although it's on a Saturday, it's called "Come Sunday -- Louisi-Ann's Gumbo Fest." Sponsored by and for the Afro-American Music Institute, this gumbo dinner will feature entertainment by Jimmy Sapienza's Five Guys Named Moe. Be prepared to learn the words to "I Love Pittsburgh." This is a fund raiser; admission is $25. Location: Holy Rosary School Gym, 7120 Kelly Street; 412-241-6775. Time: 4 p.m. until ... ???
Wednesday, March 29: Family Night at the Homewood Carnegie Library--this is where Jazz Workshop, Inc., presents its free jazz concert, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. This month's featured artist is Shawnee Lake. The concert is held in the library's auditorium, which may be entered from the Lang Avenue side of the building.
The weekend of August 4: The Afro-American Music Institute is bringing in a Detroit-based traveling exhibit called "One Hundred Plus One," which displays memorabilia from African-American musicians. Being Detroit-based, the emphasis is on Motown luminaries such as the Temptations and Marvin Gaye, but it also includes Aretha Franklin and Tupac, among others. It will be displayed at the Homewood-Brushton Branch of Community College of Allegheny County, and AAMI is planning to make it the centerpiece of an entire weekend of events celebrating the arts, concluding on Sunday evening with what music instructor Gabriel ("Gabby") Gray called "an Oscar-style awards ceremony celebrating people who have lived in the city of Pittsburgh and achieved their dreams in the city of Pittsburgh." The emphasis will be on artists between the ages of 18 and 38. More about that as the time approaches.
10:41 a.m. 3/13/2006
Sarah B. Campbell's response to the news that cocaine kingpin Terrance L. Cole has been put away for life (Cocaine kingpin sentenced to life in prison) was one of unalloyed delight.
"Happy day!" she exclaimed.
She has particular reason to be delighted. As chair of the HBCCO's Public Safety Committee, she has worked closely with the police for several years to help clean up Homewood. But that experience, along with the experience of living in the community for 50 years, also makes her take a realistic view about what Cole's two-count conviction and life sentence really mean.
"It means the police have done their job," she said. But "some of the lieutenants have stepped up" to keep the drug trade going. There will always be successors to step into vacated positions. In the end, the economics of addiction require intervention not only in the supply, but in the demand.
"We need a concerted effort to let the dealers know and let the market know" that drugs aren't acceptable, she said. "They (the dealers) wouldn't be here if people weren't buying."
Speaking of supply and demand, at my interview to become a Big Brother last week, enrollment match specialist Katie Lanza confirmed Leah S's comment about the long wait for mentors. On the demand side, parents request African-American men more often than any category of volunteer, but on the supply side, well...
"In the year and a half since I've been here, I've done hundreds of interviews," Ms. Lanza said, "and maybe 4 or 5 of them were black men."
Ouch.
12:28 p.m. 3/3/2006
For those who don't know, my real job at the P-G is to cover commercial real estate, utilities and housing for the business section of the paper. Plus whatever else my editor throws at me, because that's the nature of the beast.
You haven't seen me here this week because my real job has been kicking my butt, and my personal life has been exhausting. But I wanted to take a minute, at least, to share an e-mail from Leah S., in response to the 2/16 post about unruly kids. She writes:
"Jay P. poses an interesting question. My question is, why is there a 2-year waiting list for a Big Brother in Pittsburgh? I grew up a so-called "troubled youth." My mom, a single mother, went to churches and to the community for help, but no one seemed to want to help, only to cast judgment on her. It does not help the younger generation if nobody takes an interest in them, if nobody protects or respects them. Then why should they respect or protect themselves or others?
"Babies don't come out of the womb disrespectful. I have never met a child that was unlovable. And yes, a lot of black parents probably do need some parenting classes, but I see a lot of single mothers trying to be superhero and trying to do everything by themselves, and the child is the one left behind with nobody to care for them. Of course, it's easier for most people to cast judgment than to actually lift a finger."
My first impulse was to post that e-mail right away. But then it occurred to me that to do that, and then maybe to comment on it and not do anything else, would be ... I don't know, morally dumb.
So I got in touch with Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and I have my interview next week to become a Big Brother.
I'm not sharing this to tell anybody what they should do. I'm sharing it to thank Leah for the push.
In a totally unrelated development, I just discovered an online portfolio of photos of Homewood at SkyscraperPage Forum, which seems to be a Web site for discussing skyscrapers(?). Don't ask me to explain the connection, but here's the thread of posts about Homewood.
6:12 p.m. 2/22/2006
DANG IT.
That shooting at Westinghouse preoccupied me so much yesterday that I forgot to tell the world about an event happening this evening, an event happening right now.
Well, who knows, maybe somebody could read this and jump up and run down. Probably not, but maybe.
Here is the event: a free jazz performance at the Homewood Carnegie Library.
It's from 5:30 to 7. I'm missing it (GRRRR!!!).
But here's my real point for even mentioning this: The Jazz Workshop, Inc., offers free performances at the Homewood Carnegie Library pretty much once a month.
Now, I ask you -- how many public libraries, in any kind of neighborhoods, host free jazz performances?
Next time, I'll let everybody know sooner, I promise. But meanwhile, could someone just join me in taking a moment to reflect on how cool it is that there's a public library that hosts something so ... well, so cool?
7:20 AM 2/22/2006
When I headed out to catch the bus for work yesterday, a pair of helicopters were hovering over the 'hood, so low and so loud that they demanded notice. I nearly missed my bus gawking at them (and the bus driver, doing the same, nearly passed me by). But I didn't know why they were there until the news item popped up on our homepage: A 16-year-old boy was shot in front of Westinghouse High School at about this time yesterday morning. The story is here.
Crime reporter Jonathan Silver and I had a brief exchange just a few days ago about how quiet things had been here lately. I observed that they usually are in winter; he said that contrary to popular belief, crime tends to go up in the winter.
And now this.
I have to wonder about the shooter. Like the Baltimore Sun's Dan Rodricks, part of me wants to speak directly to them, to say, "Is this what you really want for your life -- to go around shooting up kids? To kill people over money, or drugs, or turf?"
I've mentioned the forum being presented this Saturday by the Coalition for Community and Human Development from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Reizenstein School. I'm sure this will now be a major topic there.
I hope the meeting produces strategies that will work effectively, even if only a small scale.
But if any drug dealers happen to be reading this, you already know that you're the only one who can pull off the ultimate strategy: stop shooting people. Just stop.
6:18 PM 2/16/2006
In response to my dream about being able to order a pizza, a couple of readers reminded me that there's a reason why pizza shops, and other businesses, don't locate in Homewood -- crime.
Um, yes. I thought that went without saying, so ... I didn't say it.
Other recent e-mails have touched on a range of topics, and I'll share a couple pretty much at random.
Jay P., of Pittsburgh, writes:
"I work very close to Homewood on Penn Avenue. Frequently when I walk down to the Shell station on Frankstown Avenue, I will be passed by school buses from Westinghouse. Anytime this occurs, I am frequently hit with a barrage of obscenities and insults from kids on the bus. I have lived in troubled communities in Pittsburgh (Manchester, East Liberty, Wilkinsburg). The difference I notice is that despite high crime in the other communities, I am treated with respect and courtesy by young people. Why are children in Homewood not taught to act properly?"
That's a generalization, of course, but let's take it as a description of his experience. In my mind, this falls in the same category as litter, which we've touched on before: unnecessary, degrading and inexcusable. Explainable, perhaps, but not excusable. Do more people need to take parenting classes? I don't know. But maybe teaching civility would be a good first step in preventing crime, because both have to do with respecting others.
Steve D. has a political question:
"Something I hope you can consider for a further article would be why voters vote the way they do? In the last mayoral election, 1,616 people in Ward 13 (which includes Homewood) voted for Bob O'Connor and only 146 votes for other candidates.
I am NOT a Republican, but would like to see some challenges to the politicians who keep the same insanity. What is the thought process of someone from Homewood regarding this?"
I checked the county's Web site, and the figures above are correct; Bob O'connor won 91.7% percent of votes cast in the 13th Ward. Why? I don't know. It appears to me that by voting for the same party as always, voters in my ward have said, "Keep giving us what you've always given us."
But maybe I'm missing something, and someone in the 13th Ward who voted for Bob O'Connor can explain it. I sure can't.
And Kevin A., of the East End and a member of the Homewood Arts District (HAD) committee, had this observation:
"Several of us have been talking about economic development through the arts, way before Lawrenceville, the South Side or Penn Avenue ... There is a certain blueprint to follow to make this district a reality but people must work together or 'someone else' will develop My Homewood."
I hope that blueprint is in evidence at the next HAD meeting :)
And I agree that if Homewood's residents do not work together to redevelop the neighborhood, someone else will do it.
6:08 p.m. 2/13/2006
The HAD Committee town hall meeting was smaller than I expected. With comings and goings, attendance fluctuated in the 12 to 15 range.
Longtime activist Rick Adams and Pittsburgh Coliseum owner John Brewer led the meeting. Others in attendance included artist Sandra Gould Ford, columnist Louis "Hop" Kendrick, and State Representative Joe Preston, a Democrat from East Liberty.
The meeting held close to its announced start and finish times, but not so close to its announced topic, as the group conversation wandered into subjects such as education and history.
Still, I was glad to speak with people like Brewer and his wife Tina, and to meet Jonnet Solomon, who is working to restore the home that once housed the National Negro Opera Company ("An irrepressible voice," Aug. 1, 1999), an effort that was highlighted in a 2003 P-G story about young preservationists ("Young Preservationists take history into the future"). And I look forward to the next meeting. When the group truly focuses, it could be extremely powerful.
5:59 PM 2/10/2006
Dear Readers -- if you have not done so already, check today's story on James Simon for an example of art bursting forth in a depressed neighborhood.
I hope some of you make it to the Homewood Arts District Committee's Town Hall meeting tomorrow!
4:39 PM 2/8/2006
Another town hall meeting is coming up, but this one is not being presented by a politician and has nothing to do with guns or violence or drugs.
The meeting is being presented by the Homewood Arts District Committee, and it has to do with ? art. More specifically, with the role that art has historically played in community development and the role that it could play in the revitalization of Homewood.
The committee has been in existence for several months now, but this meeting will represent its official debut to "announce who we are and what our purpose is and explain what arts tourism is and how it can rebuild our community."
If the phrase "arts tourism" throws you off, or if you don't immediately see a connection between that and community development, join the club. I had to listen carefully at a recent meeting to start to grasp what these folks are talking about -- although once I did, it seemed self-evident.
The basic proposition is something like this: The arts have helped to drive community development by making communities into destinations, both for people who make art and for people who enjoy it. Therefore, Homewood could benefit from a conscious effort to market and develop itself as an arts district.
One example used was the Jazz Workshop that is conducted at the Homewood branch of Carnegie Library. That is something that people might travel to participate in -- not just from other parts of the city, but from other parts of the country or even the world.
Likewise, a well-developed arts festival could attract a multitude of visitors.
The meeting is Saturday, Feb. 11, from 3 to 5 p.m. at The Trolley Room Oral History Center, 7310 Frankstown Ave. (the entrance is to the right of the main entrance for the Pittsburgh Coliseum) and is open to the public.
1:35 PM 2/3/2006
Will anyone in Homewood make money from the Super Bowl?
In at least two different stories this week, the P-G has reported that pizza shops across the city expect to do bang-up business this weekend. I worked on one of those stories, and I wanted to call a pizza shop in Homewood, but there aren't any (there was one on Homewood Avenue a few years back, but it went out of business after a fire).
And unless things have changed in the past couple of years, there is not even a pizza shop that delivers to Homewood. Even when a neighbor across the street managed a pizza shop in Penn Hills, he could not get a pizza delivered from there to his house.
That's too bad, because as Michael learned on last night's episode of "The Office," black people like pizza just as much as anybody else. Of course, not having a shop here, or one to deliver here, doesn't stop us from getting our share of the 3 billion pizzas sold in this country each year (according to Pizza Today magazine). It just means that our pizza money leaves the neighborhood, because we have to carry it out of the neighborhood when we pick up our pizzas.
Part of my dream for Homewood is to be able to order a pizza.
I can't pick up a pizza in Homewood, but I can pick up a pirate DVD. I am amazed at how quickly they appear. Someone may make money Monday with a Super Bowl DVD, especially if the Steelers win.
2:07 PM 2/1/2006
A few days ago, I did a search of Homewood properties listed for sale with Realtors and discovered a bunch of houses that do not have yard signs. I also discovered that one of them was a house two doors down from ours, a foreclosure property. Like our house, it's a 2i/2-story brick home with a small yard. It was open for a while, and I'm sure that it has sustained damage from midnight plumbers. Still, I was surprised by the listing price: $5,900.
This seemed like an opportunity -- indeed, a challenge -- to put my money where my mouth is, so I called my favorite real estate agency for an estimate of how much cash it would take to close on the house, with settlement fees, etc. Yesterday, an agent called me back with the news that the seller had already accepted an offer from another buyer.
So now I'm wondering who is buying the house two doors down from us. Will they move into the house, or rent it out? If they move in, will they be good neighbors or bad ones? What impact will they have on the block and on the neighborhood?
The questions take on special resonance because of something that happened Saturday afternoon, when I was walking home. As I came to the corner at the far end of the block, I saw a group of people carting stuff out of another vacant house, tossing it into a large Dumpster placed at the curb.
Some teenage boys walking past noticed them also, and questioned them: "Y'all rebuilding the neighborhood? Y'all goin' to help us out?"
The questions, asked laughingly, were rhetorical. They didn't wait for answers.
But I found it interesting that they even asked them, because I don't think they would have asked me those questions if I were cleaning out a house. I think the questions came because the people cleaning out the house were white.
So, two properties on the block appear to be changing hands, and I can't help but wonder if Saturday afternoon's scene was my first glimpse of gentrification.
10:34 AM 1/24/2006
"Casino" and "community" are in the same section of the dictionary, but I never would have linked the two concepts before last night, when I caught a clip of Franco Harris speaking on behalf of the Harrah's/Forest City partnership's proposed casino-based expansion of Station Square.
He spoke about investing in the community, and my inward response was "which community?" That response had nothing to do with Mr. Harris personally, nor with anyone else involved. It was just an automatic reflex generated by a set of cynical beliefs, such as "Televised promises are lies" and "Developers (along with practically everyone else) don't care about the poor."
In short, I assumed with the confidence of ignorance that when Mr. Harris spoke about the community he most definitely did not mean Homewood, or any community like it.
It appears that, to quote Jim Bakker, I was wrong. Under the plan, an annual $1 million community investment fund, headed by the former Pittsburgh Steeler, would channel at least $500,000 a year to communities like Homewood -- i.e., those with a 60 percent or higher minority population.
Does that mean that the Harrah's/Forest City plan is a good idea? Not necessarily. It doesn't even mean that a casino of any kind is a good idea. But it does mean that community leaders can ask others who want to develop a casino the question: "How is your plan likely to affect Pittsburgh's minority community?" Then they can compare the answers to Harrah's and apply whatever influence they have in favor of whoever gives the best answer.
1:32 p.m. 1/14/2006
Every time I think about the Rev. LeRoy Patrick passing away, I fear for our community.
The fear is that we will, as a community, forget him. The thousands who have left Homewood since the 1960s--or even since the 1980s--have taken their memories of him with them, along with all of their other memories of the neighborhood. And people moving to Pittsburgh don't generally receive an orientation on the city's black history. (Click here to read an obituary for the Rev. Patrick by Ervin Dyer.)
During the next couple of days, I'm sure that dozens of LeRoy Patrick stories will be told among those still in Pittsburgh who knew him. If any of you readers, scattered as you are, have a LeRoy Patrick story to share, please send it along. Maybe sometime in the future, some young person doing online research for a school paper on the civil rights movement in Pittsburgh will find this and learn something about a man worth knowing.
6:30 p.m. 1/6/05
Tears welled up in Victor Lindsey's eyes as he watched his livelihood go up in flames.
Until today, Lindsey was the manager of a bar on the edge of Homewood, the VIP. This morning, the VIP, along with the rest of the two-story brick building that contained it, was destroyed by a four-alarm blaze (Fire destroys Homewood tavern, Jan. 5, 2005).
When I wrote about vacant houses before, I neglected to mention how often they burn, whether by arson or by accident. This morning's fire was a dramatic example, for other than VIP, the building had been empty for years, according to Lindsey.
Firefighters kept the fire from spreading to neighboring structures. On the right is a smaller apartment building. On the left, a vacant house to the left that is a charred shell left standing by an earlier fire.
Like a man in a daze, Mr. Lindsey found it difficult to speak.
"It's gone. Totally..."
Janet Anderson lives in one of the apartments next to the burned building. Or at least she did until this morning. This morning she, like Mr. Lindsey, stood on the sidewalk across the street from the blaze, peering wide-eyed through the billowing smoke that shifted with the wind, being sprinkled by the fire-hose spray that the wind transformed into a mock rainfall.
She said the smell of smoke awakened her this morning, smoke so thick that she immediately started coughing.
"It frightened me so, I just jumped up and ran to the door" to get outside, she said. She didn't even take the time to close the door, and as she watched not just the fire but the water from the hoses, she asked if it would be possible to close her front door.
The answer: No, it would be too dangerous.
The Salvation Army was there. I've always admired firefighters; this morning I learned to admire the Army workers who show up at fires and offer refreshment and comfort to both firefighters and victims. Richard Johnson, supervisor for the workers who showed up this morning, said that he's been doing it for six years. The Salvation Army has 18 mobile units, called canteens, in Western Pennsylvania. They listen for emergency calls, and when there's a fire, or at least a major one, a canteen is there with hot and cold drinks, blankets, and the ability to prepare meals if necessary. There were two units at this morning's fire, and half or dozen or so workers. It was cold, the smoke was fierce, and they were getting wet. They're probably underpaid -- unless they're volunteers, in which case the honor they are due simply goes off the map.
11:27 p.m. 1/04/2006
The new Coalition for Community and Human Development met tonight at the Community Empowerment Association's Learning Center at 714 N. Homewood Ave. It was one of those small, community-based meetings that either produces action or not, but it certainly doesn't produce a lot of drama.
The meeting, chaired by CEA president and CEO Rashad Byrdsong, drew about 15 people. The agenda revolved around plans for a community forum to be held Feb. 25. That meeting will focus on developing a set of recommended action steps to deal with issues concerning local government and politics, public safety, youth, economic development, nonprofits and civic organizations, faith-based institutions, education and communal wellness (which Byrdsong distinguished from what is typically meant by "wellness" these days, with its focus on the individual). "Communal wellness" involves a basic sense of goodwill among neighbors, described by the CCHD working document as "familial communal feeling."
Attendees were nearly evenly divided between men and women, appeared to range in age from the 20s to 60s, and included occupations as diverse as independent television producer, social worker and property manager.
The meeting was energetic but never unruly; conversational riffs on themes of race, class and power were repeatedly pulled back into the structure of the agenda and the practical questions of what, where and how. People volunteered for various administrative tasks and listed their contact information on a sign-in sheet. The group decided to develop a questionnaire and to conduct a community survey on Jan. 21 to help shape the discussion at the community forum.
Nothing dramatic. But the group is action-oriented, and this is their third meeting, so there's some momentum at work. If it keeps up, the larger target beyond next month's forum - a summit in August - could be a significant event, especially since the group is focusing its attention not merely on Homewood, but on the East End.
The coalition was formed in response to the Oct. 24 town hall meeting, called to discuss gun violence. There, Byrdsong says, "the concern from the community was that there was no representation from the community." That may strike some as overstatement, since Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle and NAACP president M. Gayle Moss were both on the panel that evening, but perceptions are powerful.
The issues under discussion by CCHD overlap with some of the issues addressed by the Homewood-Brushton Community Coalition Organization's community plan, but Byrdsong does not see a conflict there.
"There's always going to be some overlap" between community development groups, he said. "There's no one organization that can represent the needs of the community."
12:01 p.m. 12/30/2005
The Community Empowerment Association is presenting a Kwanzaa celebration this evening at the new Kingsley Community Center, 6435 Frankstown Ave., in East Liberty.
I missed the Kwanzaa night that the Homewood branch of Carnegie Library held earlier this week. But one of the good things about Kwanzaa is that it runs seven days, so missing one Kwanzaa event doesn't mean missing out on the whole thing.
This evening's celebration is scheduled from 4 to 9 p.m. and will feature performances by the Pittsburgh Dance Ensemble and the Asante Nation Dancers and Drummers. It is open to the community with no admission charge, but the organizers ask that anyone who comes bring a covered dish. If you've ever attended a potluck dinner, you know what that means-- a LOT of food. So along with your covered dish, bring your appetite and a sense of gastronomical adventure.
Today is the fifth day of Kwanzaa. Each of the seven days highlights a virtue of community life; the fifth day focuses on purpose, or "Nia." In order, the seven virtues of Kwanzaa are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.
May 2006 bring increasing and larger demonstrations of those virtues in Homewood!
11:59 a.m. 12/16/2005
A reader tipped me off to this item, which I must share:
A graduate of Westinghouse has been named Chancellor of the University Systems of Georgia, a consortium of 35 colleges and universities throughout the Peachtree State.
Some of you folks may know the new chancellor: Erroll B. Davis, Jr., Westinghouse '61.
For those who don't, here's a little bio:
Davis, 61, graduated from Carnegie Mellon University (then known as Carnegie Institute of Technology) with a degree in electrical engineering in 1965, then completed his MBA at the University of Chicago in 1967. From there he made his career at Wisconsin Power and Light, beginning as a vice president of finance and moving up through the ranks to become president and CEO of both WP&L and its successor company, Alliant Energy.
But along with that corporate career, Davis maintained a strong involvement in academia, serving on the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents from 1987 to 1994 and on Carnegie Mellon's Board of Trustees since 1989 (he remains a lifetime member). He also chaired CMU's board from 2000 to 2003.
Oh, and last year he joined the U.S. Olympic Committee board of directors. We ran a story about him then, which included this quote:
"I was brought up in Homewood, and I know what the opportunities were then. I believe there are many more today. One difference between my generation and the current one is the anger. There is much more anger now. The reason, I think, is that they were oversold on the opportunities that would be there. They are angry that America never kept its promises. We knew it wouldn't. They didn't."
I won't try to add to that.
1:38 p.m. 12/9/2005
On my way in to work this morning, I saw a snowplow making its way down Frankstown Avenue. As Homewood tends to be underserved, I found this encouraging, a sign of hope.
A much larger sign of hope is the neighborhood's new YMCA, at 7140 Bennett St. The ribbon-cutting for the $5 million facility was held yesterday afternoon, but a larger celebration for the community will be held tomorrow, starting at 10 a.m.
Rick Cobbs, senior director of operations for the Homewood-Brushton YMCA, assured me that the snow will not put a freeze on the proceedings.
"If it snows, blizzards or hurricanes, we're still having our grand opening," Mr. Cobbs said.
The party, scheduled to run until 2 p.m., will include refreshments, games, prizes and, of course, tours of the new building. At 40,000 square feet, it is about four times the size of the previous building and contains a wellness center that Cobbs describes as state of the art.
That's a major investment in a branch that had seen its membership decline to fewer than 50, but the building itself already has generated new interest from potential members--some of whom are ex-members.
"We're seeing folks who were members in the '70s and '80s coming back," Cobbs said. In recent weeks membership has approached the 100 mark, and by the end of next year, he said the branch hopes to have 700 to 800 members.
But for Cobbs, the most gratifying thing about the new building is not the saunas or the $100,000 in shiny new fitness equipment. It's the fact that the social service programs that have distinguished the Homewood-Brushton branch can come home.
For years, the branch has conducted programs to address a wide range of needs such as independent living or drug and alcohol counseling but has had to do so offsite for lack of space.
"Now," he said, "we can bring them into our new luxurious building. We're very excited."
If you'd like more information about Homewood's new YMCA or about tomorrow's grand opening, call (412) 243-2900.
4:07 p.m., 11/23/05
QUICK HITS
Whether you call them blogs or journals, ongoing online narratives sometimes get mired in the minutiae of their authors' daily lives: "I tried a new toothpaste today. It was really minty!" That type of thing.
Things have been quiet in Homewood lately, but I don't think I have to sink to reviewing toothpaste.
Saturday afternoon, I met with Sarah B. Campbell to discuss the Homewood Brushton Community Coalition Organization's community plan.
If you haven't heard of them, that's because they haven't made much noise; they've just worked since 1999 to produce the plan. It targets 10 "areas of community concern": housing, commercial development, work force development, youth, education, environment, arts and culture, social services, public safety and faith-based services. As the latest attempt to bring together the diverse community development and social service organizations in the neighborhood, the coalition may be our best hope for large-scale change over the next decade or so.
The community plan is long and dense and I'll share more about it in future posts.
Saturday evening, I visited the Afro-American Music Institute at 7131 Hamilton Ave., for an open house marking their 23rd anniversary. The institute, founded in 1982 by husband and wife team Dr. James T. Johnson Jr. and Pamela Johnson, offers both vocal and instrumental music instruction for students of all ages from preschool to adult. The celebration was a mixed offering of jazz, pop and gospel in an intimate setting. Thinking about their work, it struck me that the institute is not about solving problems, it is about cultivating potential. More about the Johnsons and their work later.
Last night, on the way home, I came upon an arrest in progress in the parking lot of the KFC at Homewood and Frankstown avenues. There were five police cruisers and a wagon there. I showed an officer my business card and asked what the story was, and he said, "It's not really a newsworthy event." Just some minor drug activity. I left it at that.
At 3 o'clock in the morning, I lay awake in bed, thinking about additional questions I could have ? should have ? asked.
"Reporters are never off-duty?" my wife asked.
"No," I said.
And a little bit of reader mail:
Diane W. of Homewood suggests laying aside the standard model of public housing ? that is, projects ? and trying a new one: "Why not gut the [vacant] homes in Homewood, East Liberty, Wilkinsburg and surrounding areas and put families into them?"
Does anyone know of any cities where something like that has been done successfully? Or done at all?
Dan B., now of Atlanta, responded to a reader's question from last week:
"In response to Angela A's query into a 'Reach Back and Help Committee' Each year on the Friday after Thanksgiving the Westinghouse All Class Reunion is held at the Coliseum in Homewood. At this gathering you will find some of the most successful people to ever come out of Westinghouse High School and the Homewood Brushton Community. The committee that organizes the event has an organization in place to help the students at the 'House' and to recognize those who have achieved prominence in their careers. More importantly they have access to the intellectual capital to get things done. Perhaps Angela would want to contact them with specific ideas as to what each of us can do to give something positive back to our community."
Here's the 411 on this year's event:
Time: 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Location: Pittsburgh Coliseum, 7310 Frankstown Ave.
Dress: Casual to dress to impress!
Tickets available at Dorsey's Record Shop, 7614 Frankstown Ave.
Cost: I think, $15 in advance; $20 at the door
I am not a Westinghouse grad, but my wife is. If I can talk her into it, we'll go this year.
10:13 PM 11/14/2005
I'd like to briefly highlight two recent emails from readers in the Homewood diaspora. They both made suggestions that I think deserve some discussion.
Angela A., now of New Jersey, wrote:
"Elwin, I am certainly not the only former Homewood resident who has relocated outside of the state who wishes to know "What in the world has happened to my hood?" and "How can I help?" I have been living in Northern NJ since graduating from college in 92. I work in NYC, a few blocks from the World Trade Center, where I manage Smith Barney's online training program. Do you have a or know of a "how to reach back & help committee" for former Homewood residents?"
I don't know of such a committee, but I think it's a great idea. What do you folks think?
And Justin G., working on his master's degree at Columbia, observed:
"All I know is some folks need to wake up, and start thinking further than 5 minutes ahead. We need to utilize our neighborhood resources to now begin improvements on our own. Reducing violence needs to be high on our priority lists. Shaping up credit scores should probably be of equal importance. Homeowners need to start using their equity to buy up some of those properties around there and fix them up. With Rogers moving into Baxter and the rumblings of speculation turning the heads of investors, a gold rush seems to be knocking at Homewood's door. I just hope that when I return I will be returning to the ethnic neighborhood that I grew up in."
What struck me here was the idea of homeowners buying up vacant homes. I think if people did that, they would face a major challenge in getting decent tenants to occupy those homes. But there may still be something to that idea.
Especially if, as Justin suggests, the alternative to residents buying the houses is having people from outside the neighborhood coming in to buy them (and then being hailed as urban pioneers). As they say, nature abhors a vacuum. But what do you say?
3:06 p.m. 11/10/2005
I need to correct myself. Yesterday I said that there were roughly 240,000 registered voters in the city. I based that on a figure from November, 2001. But when I called the county Elections Division today, I learned that as of May 17, the date of the last primary, there were 221,484 registered voters. The Elections Division will have Tuesday's count by the end of the month, but if we use a rough figure of 220,000 rather than 240,000, that would mean that only 73 percent of voters failed to vote, rather than 80 percent.
Don't you feel better?
In Homewood, the May 17 count of registered voters was 8,289. To simplify the math, let's say 8,300; that would mean that 79 percent of Homewood's voters did not vote Tuesday.
So it's possible that most of the citizens who came out for the Town Hall meeting on Oct. 24 did not vote on Nov. 8. It's almost certain that some of them didn't.
If anyone out there can tell me why, please do.
I believe the media are part of the problem; the way we cover elections makes the bizarre seem normal. With all due respect to my colleagues, I think that any one of the stories about the election published or broadcast yesterday might have been more useful if it had started something like this:
"In a massive display of either apathy, discouragement or disgust -- or perhaps all three -- 73 percent of Pittsburgh's electorate stayed away from the polls yesterday, allowing Democrat Bob O'Connor to claim the mayor's seat with fewer than 40,000 out of a possible 220,000 votes."
Maybe next time.
1:45 a.m. 11/9/2005
The votes have all been counted.
There were 59,366 cast, and 66.8 percent, or 39,686 votes, were for Democrat Bob O'Connor. The Mayor-elect's closest rival, Republican Joseph Weinroth, got 27.4 percent of the vote, or 16,244 of the ballots cast in the city.
Using round numbers, the city has about 240,000 registered voters, but less than one-sixth of them voted for Bob O'Connor. About 60,000 voted altogether, meaning that about 180,000 didn't.
The talking heads on TV were saying last night that the voters have spoken clearly ... that it was no surprise given the registration margin...that it was an easy victory ... blah, blah. Nobody said, "Hey, wait a minute. Bob O'Connor got 67 percent of the votes cast but only 16 percent of the votes available. What does that mean?" Nobody said, "180,000 voters DIDN'T VOTE! What's going on here?"
There's not much to celebrate here, unless as a Republican you take heart in the fact that O'Connor's margin of victory over Weinroth was smaller than Democrat Tom Murphy's over Republican James Carmine back in 2001, or as a third party person you rejoice in noting that third party candidates, collectively, received 5.7 percent of the vote this year, compared to 2.6 percent in 2001.
Otherwise, there is nothing to celebrate at all. Even Democrats should be worried, if not grief-stricken, when so few value something that means so much--their vote.
In Homewood, 1,755 voters cast ballots. The votes for mayor were: O'Connor, 1,614 (92 percent); Weinroth, 108 (6.2 percent); Titus North, Green Party, 18 (1 percent); David Tessitor, Independent, 9 (0.5 percent); Jay M. Ressler, Socialist Workers Party, 6 (0.3 percent).
When I called to find out the number of registered voters in Homewood, the lady who answered the phone said that all the regular staff people were off today. Imagine that!
So I don't have the number of registered voters yet, but I know that it's a lot more than 1,755.
9:42 AM 11/8/2005
Dear residents of Homewood:
If you were at the town hall meeting two weeks ago, good for you for showing up.
Now you need to show up again.
VOTE.
If we don't, no one Downtown will believe that we're serious, no matter how many meetings we have, or how much noise we make.
In the end, your vote is the only noise that matters.
In November, 2001, 75% of Pittsburgh's voters didn't show up at the polls. You have seen what not voting gets us.
VOTE.
Maybe you're thinking that there's no point, because the Democratic candidate will win regardless.
That's not true.
In November, 2001, there were 238,283 registered voters in the City of Pittsburgh.
Of that number, 39,257 people voted for Tom Murphy, and 12,175 people voted for Republican James Carmine.
More than 3 out of 4 voters - 179,638 - DID NOT VOTE AT ALL.
If ONE-SIXTH of those people had voted for James Carmine, Carmine would have won. If ONE-FOURTH of them had voted for a third-party candidate, that person - not Murphy, not Carmine - would have won.
Regardless of what happened in the primary, you can decide who wins today.
But deciding who wins isn't the main point of voting, anyway. The main point of voting is to say what you want. Decide which candidate's ideas comes closest to what you want, and vote for that one.
If you have absolutely no idea who to vote for, then vote for the one person whom you know would at least try to do what you want done. Vote for yourself.
I'm serious. If 25,000 people voted for themselves, that would at the very least scare the living daylights out of Downtown. It would let the powers that be know that we don't like the way things are done here and we're gonna stop it.
Today, don't fight the power. BE the power.
VOTE.
6:05 p.m. 11/7/2005
As promised, I submitted a set of questions to Pittsburgh's mayoral candidates Thursday, and I'm sharing their answers with you tonight.
These were the questions:
1. As mayor, what would you do about the large number of vacant houses in Homewood?
2. As mayor, what would you do to help increase employment in Homewood?
3. In light of the city's past socially irresponsible and destructive forays into urban development (demolition of the Lower Hill, North Side, etc.), what is your vision for the revitalization of Pittsburgh's old neighborhoods, Fifth/Forbes and the excellent opportunities provided by development on the North Shore?
I sent the questions to Democrat Bob O'Connor, Republican Joe Weinroth, Independent Dave Tessitor, Socialist Worker Party candidate Jay M. Ressler; Green Party candidate Titus North, and write-in candidate Les Ludwig.
We received no response from Tessitor or North. With the other four, an interesting thing happened: Two provided one-paragraph statements, and the other two answered the questions in such considerable detail that I will make exact quotes in Roman text and paraphrases are in italics:
LES LUDWIG
On the vacant houses question: If habitable, I would utilize as many as possible for housing homeless African Americans, starting with those who are in programs for treatment and recovery from whatever makes them homeless. Being part of some program may make it possible financially to keep each house in a condition suitable for occupancy and may even return the house to the tax rolls.
On the employment question: Bring in African-American psychiatrists and sociologists to quiet the violence and help to make the neighborhood safe for development; put in a limited number of foot police officers who are experienced with and sensitive to the problems of the area; employ those local groups that have been successful in cleaning up lots from refuse (e.g., the Rosedale Cluster); then find black entrepreneurs to develop local service businesses.
On the revitalization and development question: Neighborhood groups, not real estate speculators, are the way to go. Give the groups access to grants to do block-by-block restoration and revitalization, placing service companies in pre-selected areas and convenience for shopping, parking, and entertainment. (Regarding 5th/Forbes) bring the best retailers in Pittsburgh together with maps showing URA holdings and offer a rent-free, two-year deal for them to establish and take over leasable space now lying idle in URA hands. The North Shore should be developed for residential housing, with further development of office commercial spaces and entertainment between Heinz Field and PNC Parks.
BOB O'CONNOR
Over the last nine months I've spent a lot of time in Homewood and the other 88 neighborhoods, regardless of where you live everyone wants the same things in their community and from the next mayor: safe, clean streets, good schools and job opportunities. I will professionalize the management of our city and lead the fight against blighted neighborhoods, irresponsible and destructive development and pursue policies that focus on the needs of our neighborhoods and residential development versus retail. I will bring business, labor and government together to improve the job opportunities and everyday work to provide the quality of life Pittsburghers expect and deserve.
JAY RESSLER
The Socialist Workers campaign has called for a massive public works program to rebuild the schools, bridges, roads, housing and hospitals working people need, and to put people to work at union-scale jobs. We urge giving priority to working-class neighborhoods, beginning with the poorest. We call for employing contractors from those neighborhoods. We have specifically called for giving priority to Homewood, the Hill District, and Garfield in addition to pockets in Lawrenceville and other working-class communities.
JOE WEINROTH
On the vacant houses question: Absentee landlords need to be held accountable for dilapidated or vacant properties. The city codes applicable to property upkeep have not been enforced, and there is no motivation in the present administration (of which my opponent is a de facto member) to enforce this code. Furthermore, laws need to be changed so that the absentee landlords' primary residences can be liened to pay for their properties' upkeeps.
On the employment question: We have to make Homewood safe for the residents before we can expect to attract business investment in the community. We must encourage private employers in this region to make these areas of our city a priority for investment and jobs. We can do this by offering incentives and cooperation with those employers who would be willing to invest in business in Homewood.
On the revitalization and development question: We have to encourage individual developers to purchase and rehabilitate properties in all areas of our city. Fifth and Forbes has been a problem because the Mayor has been buying up the properties through the URA in the hope of having one major development that will fix the entire area. This has not worked. We must sell off the real estate that the Murphy administration has been hoarding and let these properties be developed, improved, and put back on the tax rolls. The money that is generated from these sales can then be used to help revitalize other city neighborhoods.
11:46 a.m. 11/1/2005
For years, one of the most persistent obstacles to solving crimes in Homewood has been the unwillingness of witnesses to share information with the police for fear of reprisal.
Well, the Pittsburgh Police Department has just taken a small step that could bring about a giant leap forward in that area. It has created an online form that will allow you to tell them about suspicious or illegal activity without identifying yourself. You can just click here to the form located on their web site.
Although the form has spaces for name, e-mail address and phone number, all of those items are optional. However, if you want to check later to see what action was taken regarding your tip, you will need to supply that information.
If we use this form, it could help our community to turn the corner in dealing with crime. If we don't, shame on us.
VOTERS, MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The Oct. 26 Pittsburgh mayoral debate is scheduled to be telecast on PCTV, the city's public access cable channel, (that's channel 21) on Nov. 2 at 7 p.m., Nov. 3 at 6 p.m., Nov. 4 at noon, Nov. 5 at 10 p.m., Nov. 7 at 1 p.m. and Nov. 8 at 3 p.m.
7:53 a.m. 10/31/2005
This weekend, two sentences uttered 50 years apart by men as different as black and white lodged in my brain like bullets.
Friday night, I attended a fundraising dinner for the Coalition for Christian Outreach. Not to be confused with the Christian Coalition, the CCO is a campus-ministry organization with a strongly Dutch Reformed slant that says that one's faith is expressed in everything one does, not just in religious activity.
The speaker at the dinner was John M. Perkins, a black minister and civil rights leader whose work in community development, including the writing of several books, has garnered him seven honorary doctorates. That's despite the fact that his formal education ended in grade school. His theme was leadership, and at one point he said:
"We need leaders today that are not as narrow as political parties."
He made that specific by referring to the so-called Christian Right's mind-meld with the Republican Party, but I thought about black voters' even stronger affiliation with the Democratic Party, especially here.
Then, Saturday afternoon, I went with a friend to see "Good Night and Good Luck," George Clooney's homage to television journalist Edward R. Murrow. Murrow used Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy's own words to help bring an end to the campaign of political terror that has entered the language as "McCarthyism." The film relies heavily on the use of actual video clips from the 1950s, including one in which McCarthy says:
"The republic cannot endure as a one-party system."
Good stuff is good stuff, wherever it comes from, and I really like that line. And of course, it made me think of Pittsburgh.
This city is sick.
In a democracy -- or more precisely, a representative republic -- no city can be governed by the same party for 70 years and be healthy. No party, no group, no collection of men is so consistently wise and good as to deserve such an extended rule over a body of free people.
The true indicator of the degree of Pittsburgh's sickness, however, is not simply that the same party has ruled for 70 years. It is that nearly everyone seems to be okay with the fact.
Take last Monday night's town hall meeting, for example. There were nine people seated on the stage. Eight of them were there in their official capacities because they occupy certain positions -- chief of police, president of the NAACP, etc.
The ninth was Bob O'Connor, Democratic candidate for mayor.
I'm all for hearing from mayoral candidates who want to tell us what they intend to do, if elected. I want to hear from them all. But there was only one candidate on the stage that night, and he was not treated as a candidate. He was treated as if he were the mayor-elect; as if the election were over and he had won.
Making it worse, no fewer than three other mayoral candidates were at the meeting. They just weren't on the stage. While Bob O'Connor was treated like a mayor-elect, they were treated like -- I don't know -- like nonentities.
And with all of the feistiness in the room, with all of the readiness to question and challenge, no one in the audience said, "Hey, how come no other candidates are up there? Is he our only choice?" (Unless I missed it; at points it was hard to hear everyone.)
Perhaps I should have said it myself. But I didn't, so now I'll make my noise this way: I'm going to give all the candidates the opportunity to address your concerns here. How? By emailing them a questionnaire and publishing their responses. The questionnaire will go out Wednesday. I'll publish their responses Monday.
Why am I waiting until Wednesday to send the questionnaire? Because I'm asking you to help me put it together. I'm limiting the questionnaire to five questions, and I want those five questions to come from my readers. If you could ask a candidate for mayor just one question about what he would do for Homewood, what would that question be? Send me an email and let me know.
Let's see what the candidates have to say. All of them.
3:52 PM 10/25/2005
Giving credit where credit is due: I issued a special plea for ministers to show up at last night's town hall meeting. I saw four that I knew by sight - Pastor Burgess; Pastor Hinton; The Rev. William R. Glaze, pastor of Bethany Baptist; and The Rev. Shane Austin, faculty member at Christian-based Geneva College as well as the University of Pittsburgh.
There may have been others there as well. To all of you, thanks for showing up.
10:12 p.m., Oct. 24, 2005
It's a chilly evening, but the auditorium at Helen S. Faison Elementary School grew uncommonly warm as dozens, then scores, then hundreds of people crowded in for the town hall meeting convened by Pittsburgh city Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle.
A slender young man with large eyes and a quick smile was collecting signatures at a registration table outside the auditorium. Inside, it was standing room only. A panel of nine sat on the auditorium stage, in the glare of TV cameras. To the right of the stage, a microphone was set up on the auditorium floor. The line of people waiting to speak at the microphone blended imperceptibly with the people lining the walls simply because there was no room left to sit. At points, several people squatted or sat on the floor.
WPXI-TV newswoman Darieth Chisholm moderated the gathering, which was no small task. The idea, as I understood it, was that audience members would approach the mike, ask a question, and one or more of the panel members would answer.
But it was the audience's night.
The panel members -- Pittsburgh Police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr.; Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato; mayoral candidate Bob O'Connor; U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan; Pittsburgh NAACP president M. Gayle Moss; Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt; Diane Edbril, executive director of Ceasefire PA, a group focused on reducing illegal gun trafficking; the Rev. Ricky Burgess, pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church, and Ms. Carlisle -- faced a crowd that was as likely to jeer as to applaud, but which was far from silent.
More audience members used their microphone time to give commentary than to ask questions, and at several points, many audience members spoke from their seats. Chisholm kept reshaping the commentary into questions for the panel and reminding the folks speaking out of turn that they were, well, speaking out of turn.
But it was the audience's night.
When the subject of bringing a major retailer into Homewood was raised, the audience responded with "That's a non-issue!" "That is a moot point!"
And when Chisholm, addressing the panel, said that someone needs to talk about helping to prevent drug abuse by increasing job opportunities, a woman shouted, "Y'all need to talk about that for real!" Which brought a chorus of approval.
Philip Martin, of the Salvation Army, volunteered the use of the Army's facility at 8020 Frankstown Avenue for the community's young people.
Jim Tarpley, a man well-known to local radio audiences by his initials J.T. for his frequent calls to talk shows, heatedly opined that "There are people in this room, in this city, in this country, profiting from our demise" -- a sentiment that drew applause.
Erica Jones, of the Pittsburgh Public Schools, challenged audience members to "call me tomorrow," to connect with the Gang Free Schools program -- but only after Stephen R. Chatman, assistant coordinator for Operation Weed and Seed in the city, had given out his phone number for people to call.
Indeed, one of the themes that emerged from the meeting was that the community has more resources in place than most residents realize. Carlisle said she plans to use the sign-up sheets as a contact list to share more such information, including information about future meetings.
It was somewhat messy, but democracy is messy. When it gets too neat, it's no longer democracy.
But at least tonight the people showed up. Now the challenge is for people to keep showing up, when there are no special guests and no media, nothing except tedious work to be done. Because the real work of "taking back our neighborhoods" is less likely to be dramatic than tedious and exasperating. Just like democracy.
3:42 p.m. 10/21/2005
This is just to let you folks out there know that I appreciate all of your emails. I haven't been able to share them all, but I have read them all and have found them tremendously encouraging. Sons and daughters of Homewood have written from as far away as Korea to say that their hearts are still here.
I think that's too cool for words.
Now we're making it a little easier for you to respond. If you click one of the response links either above or to the side, it will take you to a form that you can use rather than having to use your email program. If you have something you'd like to say but haven't written yet, try it!
9:22 a.m. 10/20/2005
"Where are the ministers?"
That question was asked at the community meeting at Baptist Temple two nights ago, and...
No, wait. The question, actually, was "Where are the African-American ministers?"
That was the question, and the audience responded with expressions of agreement that, yes, it was a darn good question. The Rev. Ricky Burgess, pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church, stood with Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle at a press conference on Oct. 10. And of course the Rev. Vernard E. Hinton, pastor of Baptist Temple, was present Tuesday night. But Homewood has a whole bunch of churches, and a whole bunch of ministers.
Where are they?
To be fair, it must be acknowledged that Tuesday night's meeting was not well-publicized. But the upcoming town hall meeting -- Monday, Oct. 24 at 5:30 p.m., at Faison Elementary School, 7430 Tioga St. -- was announced two weeks in advance. My question for every black pastor in the 9th District is: will you be there?
There was a time when the preacher might the only person in our community who could read. People depended on him, not only to interpret the Bible but to help them make some kind of sense of their entire lives by giving them news and helping them to craft their responses to it. That often meant leading them in confrontations with people in power.
Ministers, your people may not need you to give them the news anymore. But they still look to you for help in making sense of things and in crafting their responses. And sometimes, in confronting power.
Let's be frank. Monday night's meeting will involve confrontation. I don't mean fisticuffs. Just displays of and challenges to power. And your people need for you to be there.
Many of you take Mondays off; dragging yourself out for a community meeting may be the last thing you want to do. Some of you work day jobs and can't possibly be at the school by 5:30 p.m. But these are your people. When their children are gunned down, you perform the funerals. They need your involvement in public processes that could help to prevent the funerals.
I know that some of you are actually doing a lot toward that end already -- teaching, counseling, coaching, feeding the hungry and trying to help people get jobs. But there's this whole realm of public life in which you seem to be absent. And your people desperately need for you to occupy that realm. And then there's all that stuff in the Bible about peace and justice and dual citizenship. You know.
Do two little things:
1. On Sunday, use your pulpit to inform people of this meeting, to encourage them to attend and to pledge your own attendance.
2. On Monday, show up.
You don't even have to say anything. Your people will see you there, and that will matter to them. But of course if you do speak, your people will encourage you. And the people in power will see that.
Either way, and for the love of God, please show up.
9:22 am. 10/19/2005
As I made my way home last night, I noticed an unusual number of cars near Baptist Temple, a church not far from my house. As it turned out, a community meeting was in progress. After dropping off my things at home, I paid a visit.
Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle was there, as were State Representative Joe Preston and Cmdr. Maurita Bryant of the Pittsburgh Police. But what I found most striking was that there were 100 or more citizens there. If the statement that Carlisle has made before and repeated last nigh, is true -- namely, that the recent wave of violence comes from 20 or 30 young people-- then there were four or five times as many people in that church basement as there are wreaking havoc in our streets.
I find it that encouraging there are more people armed with morality, law and common sense than with Glocks and AK-47s.
A lot of people had a lot to say, and two of the main points from the officials were:
1. they need as large a turnout as possible on Monday, at the upcoming town meeting at Faison Elementary, when people higher up on various totem poles will be present, and
2. citizens need to show up more consistently and persistently at public forums, including the local government meetings Downtown.
I'll say more about last night's meeting later. But now a message for all you Bulldogs out there (and you know who you are). This Friday, the Westinghouse High School Hall of Fame will hold its induction ceremony at 6 p.m. at the Greater Pittsburgh Coliseum in Homewood. Tickets are available at the Coliseum or at Dorsey's Record Shop for $10. For more information, contact Valeria Williams at (412) 795-4016.
6:01 p.m. 10/18/2005
Time for another dive into the mailbag. I'm still hearing from folks around the country, but I'll start closer to home. Keith M. of Carrick had this observation about Homewood Square:
"It's a great idea, and it's something positive in the community, but why is it, and the rest of the area, riddled with trash? Why do the people litter in the area, and WHY do others let it happen? I saw a young man eating a package of snack cakes at the bus stop next to a trash can; he dropped the wrapper on the ground next to it. I mentioned that there was a trash can next to him, and he said, "So what?" I responded by saying, "You just showed no respect for this neighborhood, and I'm glad you don't live by me."
There are a lot of behaviors that I just don't understand. Littering is one of them.
A lot of negative things that happen in Homewood may have deep socio-economic roots that, to be dealt with effectively, require tough decisions by a lot of people. But littering is just plain stupid, disrespectful and lazy. It reduces the value of the neighborhood, and no one who does it can blame anyone else.
I was walking with a friend in Coraopolis once, and I noticed a piece of paper on the strip of green between the sidewalk and the curb.
The neighborhood we were in was so whistle-clean that this piece of paper -- a gum wrapper or some such thing -- loomed in my vision like the Rock of Gibraltar. It was so out of place that it almost hurt my eyes. I couldn't stand it. Even after I walked past.
I backtracked to pick it up.
The residents there had set a standard, and as a visitor just walking around, I felt the weight of that standard.
We're setting a standard in Homewood, as well. The only thing required to set it higher is a tiny decision by each person: "I will not litter; I will put my trash in the trash."
Oh, and -- "I will also teach my kids to do so."
A colleague, Philip Stephenson, who writes primarily for the P-G's North edition, weighed in on the weighty matter of young black masculinity:
"There are two extremely entrenched and negative philosophies which have, through one means or another, become synonymous with black masculinity, and have become, to me --if not the root--an imposing branch in the tree of "our problem," whatever that is. A: We don't believe in the system. B: We don't fear death. That's it. That's pretty much the whole thing, a little inverse carrot and stick for us all.
"Not believing in the system...is a real source of hopelessness. You could actually have a pretty normal life walking around, going to work, going to church, bowling, for that matter, and be okay even if you never feared death. But if you don't believe in the system -- that hard work is eventually rewarded; that equality is flawed, but exists; that justice could protect and even favor you in the end -- these are holes in the social contract itself. If you don't believe, on a profound level, that the world is in some small way just, then you have no reason at all to be. That is why I think inner-city violence is impossible to be rid of completely."
I quote Phil at such length because I would like for any young black men reading this to respond to two questions.
1) Do you agree that young black men do not fear death and don't believe in the system?
2) If you absolutely do not believe in the what he calls "the system," where did your disbelief came from?
Anna T., a Pittsburgh native now living in southern California, pointed to an apparent blind spot in some Pittsburghers' vision:
"When I was home in August, I was having a conversation with my brother-in-law, and he said to me that L.A. has gang problems. The whole time I was in Pittsburgh, I listened to the news, and every day from July 31 until Aug. 15 the news was reporting a shooting in the Homewood/East Liberty areas. I asked him didn't he think there just might be a gang problem in his city as well, and he did not realize it as such until I posed the question. Maybe this is the problem with many of your leaders; they may not realize that you seem to have a huge problem with gang activity and someone needs to address it."
The flyer for the town hall meeting that Councilwoman Twanda D. Carlisle has called for next Monday (5:30 p.m. at Faison Elementary, 7400 Tioga St.) mentions "gun violence," but it doesn't mention gangs.
The letter sent to District 9 residents also mentions "gun violence," but not gangs.
And neither mentions drugs.
Maybe they'll be mentioned at the meeting.
10:22 a.m. 10/17/2005
There are 24 houses on my block, plus a four-unit apartment building. I know of two houses being divided into two apartments, making for a total of 30 housing units on the block. Nine houses are vacant, including one of the duplexes, so that makes 10 vacant housing units. And two units of the four-plex are vacant, making 12 vacant units.
If you're good at math, this will be easy: 12 vacant units out of 30 units equals what vacancy rate?
Got your answer? It's 40 percent.
I ask you to imagine waking up one morning and seeing that 4 out of 10 houses on your block are vacant.
Pretty weird, huh?
I know that these houses did not go vacant overnight, but it happened quickly enough so that it felt like overnight. I know that a couple were owned by elderly people who relocated. I've heard about the owners of one going into bankruptcy. And I saw what looked like a tax sale notice posted on another. But for more than half, I don't know what happened.
(I must be too busy minding my own business --ha!)
I also don't know what their owners intend for them. Only one of the houses has a "for sale" sign in the yard. However, I do know that these houses have entered into a pattern that I seen repeated over and over.
Here's what probably will happen with each house: It will be broken into and vandalized, stripped of whatever elements drug addicts and other desperate people think they can sell. It will then be occupied, either sporadically or daily, by the same people who made it unfit for habitation.
The owner(s) will stop paying property taxes, and it will be seized by the city. The city will list it for sale and no one will buy it, partly because most sane and qualified real estate investors can buy three or four houses in the time that it takes to buy one from the city (a year or more).
Rather than own a property that constitutes a hazard to public health and safety, the city will demolish it. Then, because the typical lot is 2,500 square feet and the building code now requires 5,000 square feet to build, the vacant lot will remain vacant and will never generate tax revenues again.
That is what happens when a house dies, and it has been happening all over Homewood for years.
My best understanding of the primary cause is that the people who bought homes here 40 or 50 years ago are dying or moving into senior residences, and their sons and daughters, long gone, are neither returning to occupy them nor learning to manage them as professional landlords.
Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto has done ground-breaking work, described in his books "The Other Path" and "The Mystery of Capital," in some Third World countries to demonstrate that the poor of the world are not nearly as poor as we imagine. Many of them own significant assets in the form of real estate, but their countries lack the legal structures that would allow them to use their land and buildings as collateral for the money they would need to move forward economically. DeSoto refers to this unused wealth as "dead capital."
Many of the homes in Homewood have become, in effect, dead capital -- assets whose value has been locked up and frozen. And the craziest thing about it is, they are good, solid houses, with nice features. I was a real estate agent once, and I had the opportunity to enter a lot of houses here and in other neighborhoods.
This is what is typical here: A living room, dining room and kitchen on the first floor, plus three or four bedrooms and bath on the second floor and two attic rooms. Stained glass windows and hardwood floors. Carved mantles enclosing marble tile fireplaces. And brick construction that could withstand a nuclear attack.
Okay, not a nuclear attack, but you get my point. These houses are not modern, but they are built to withstand any force of nature. But social forces are an entirely different matter. Unless something changes, the economics of discouragement will destroy them.
4:28 p.m. 10/12/2005
One thing I've learned during the past week: a lot of people care about Homewood. Here are a few more that I've heard from:
Leah S. responded to my question about fathers: "I am married to my children's father, and I am proud to say he is involved in my children's life every single day of their lives."
According to the Pittsburgh Urban League, more than 70 percent of black families in this region are headed by singles mothers. Leah continues:
"I am angry. I am angry because black women have done it for far too long by themselves. And as much as we are supposed to be strong black women, we are incapable, biologically, of being a father. So we cannot be dads. I'm not saying it's all the black man's fault, either. We have perpetuated this myth that it is possible for a woman to be both mother and father, so that the black man feels as if he is unneeded. I'm not giving anybody any excuses but feeling expendable doesn't convince anybody to stick around."
I'd like to hear some discussion on this: Do you think Leah is right? Do black men feel expendable, even as fathers? If so, what's the solution?
Gail B., formerly of Schenley Heights and now of Charlotte, N.C., said: "I grew up on the Hill, and it is no better there. I believe the court system needs to send these young men to Iraq. Let's see how crazy they are when an Iraqi child as young as 10 is willing to kill himself and others for what they believe ... if they want a war, then help us to make the country safer."
I don't know about sending them to Iraq, but I'll cast my vote this way -- for many of the kids shooting up our neighborhood, military service could be the best thing that would ever happen to them, psychologically, intellectually and financially.
And Morris G., a Homewood expatriate now in San Antonio, Texas, gave this bit of historical analysis: "Homewood changed along with the rest of Pittsburgh when heavy industry left. People who had good jobs left to find new ones in different places, some left reality, some drifted into crime, most had survival first and foremost in their minds. Over time more and more folks, good folks, left. Some who still had decent well-paying jobs left for Penn Hills, Plum borough and Oakmont. Even more left for Houston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Ft.Lauderdale/Miami/West Palm Beach. These people who left were part of the fabric that kept Homewood alive and vibrant."
In other words, Homewood is Pittsburgh intensified. See "collapse of steel," "brain drain."
1:02 a.m., 10/9/2005
We promised you a conversation, not a monologue, so it's time to let all of you hear what some of you have said so far. Most of your emails have been mostly encouraging, as former Homewood residents wrote from as far away as Atlanta to express affection and concern for their old neighborhood.
A student teacher at Helen Faison Elementary, Homewood's new elementary school, said that regardless of what happens outside its doors, the school provides a culture of "dignity, pride and knowledge." I'll have to pay Faison Elementary a visit.
A Homewood resident, Thomas M., asks if Homewood's crimes are being solved, and "if they are, at what rate - slow, fast or years from being resolved?" Do any of you readers know how the resolution rate for crimes in Homewood compares with that for other neighborhoods?
Robert F. wrote, "Let's not sugar coat this anymore, our children (not all) are the ones out there making our street unsafe. BUT WHY? There are many reasons but the ones that stand out are, no opportunities, no guidance, drugs, nothing for them to do in the summer or after school and last but not least fear. Fear, is what these thrive on, they want us to be afraid of them."
I agree with the last part - that the knuckleheads thrive on fear. But I have never understood the argument that kids become knuckleheads because they have nothing to do. A lot of things have changed since my Cenozoic childhood, but I think kids today could still do three things we did after school then: homework, housework and reading.
And if you know any youngsters who believe that reading is "white," please remind them that our ancestors risked death to read.
11:31 p.m., 10/8/2005
Homewood Square is nothing like Market Square. It's prettier.
Homewood Square is the place I referred to earlier as one of the most beautiful spots in the city. What is it? A flower garden, which by my guess measures about 7500 square feet, located at the intersection of Frankstown and Homewood Avenues. I started to call it a patch of green, but there's a lot more than green there - reds, purples and yellows of flowers that change with the seasons. The plantings encircle and point to, of all things, a gazebo, sitting dead center of Homewood Square.
I remember when Homewood Square was being created, about five years ago, from a vacant lot - I asked one of the workers what was going to be there, and he said, "A gazebo."
I thought, "How wonderful!"
What's so wonderful about a gazebo, you ask? The fact that it is totally impractical, as are the flowers that surround it. They do not make anything, they do not sell anything, they neither clothe nor shelter anyone. They don't even "mean" anything, like a play or a poem would.
Except ... the flowers and the gazebo mean that somebody in Homewood decided one day that beauty is worth the trouble it takes to create it.
I think it was Steven Soderbergh who, when accepting an Oscar a few years back, thanked everyone who takes the time and the trouble to create, whether painter or dancer or musician.
On behalf of everyone who passes by Homewood Square, here's thanks to the Community Empowerment Association, the organization, headed by Rashad Byrdsong, that created and maintains Homewood Square. People who only know of Homewood as some sort of cauldron of crime would never guess, and might not believe, that such a thing could happen here. But there it is. And not only is it here, but as Byrdsong proudly points out, it has never been violated or vandalized.
That makes Homewood Square, created as a memorial to murder victim Taylor Coles, an even greater sign of hope. And even more beautiful.
9:27 a.m., 10/7/2005
It's a cool, gray day in Homewood and a light rain is falling. August Wilson is making his final visit here today, receiving visitors at White Memorial Chapel at the corners of Homewood Avenue and Thomas Boulevard from 11 am to 6 pm.
Rather than add to the eulogies being spoken for him, I'd like to quote a reader of this blog who wrote in a couple of days ago. The Rev. Shane Austin wrote:
"As a minister, I have presided at too many funerals of young African-American men, and I wish I knew how to say to those who continue to shoot at others, that life is much more valuable than they have come to believe... We all need to see that there are more August Wilsons among us -- among our young people, even in Homewood. They only need a chance to live and thrive."
Amen.
1:16 a.m., 10/7/2005
Okay, that was dumb.
I ask, "Where are the fathers?" Then I propose a survey of the mothers.
DUH.
My apologies to any fathers reading this, and let me revise the survey to include you. Speak for yourselves: how are you involved in your child's life?
2:22 a.m., 10/6/2005
A quiet night tonight. My wife told me that she saw something this afternoon that she had never seen before: cops on bicycles, patrolling the block. And that a couple of cruisers also drove by. That's good, but I wonder how long it can last, and how long after it ends will the knuckleheads re-emerge.
Tawanda Carlisle, our councilwoman, was on the news, calling for some sort of town hall meeting. I hope that happens and that it produces some practical, concrete guidance for us
There was a clip of another lady who, the reporter said, believed the real answer was strong families. But when the woman spoke, what she actually said was, "It's up to the mothers to deal with this."
My editor talks about the importance of "asking the next question" when reporting. When I heard that woman's comment, the hugely obvious next question that sprang to mind was, "What about the fathers?"
The reporter didn't ask that; or if he did, it didn't show up on the video clip. So I'll ask: what about the fathers?
I'd like to conduct an informal, nonscientific survey. If you are a mother in Homewood, please answer this question: How is your child's father involved with his child? You don't need to give names or a lot of detail, just a very general description of what he is doing for his child. (I'm saying "his child" deliberately, because we tend to speak as if the child is only the mother's.)
That newscast distracted me from what I'd intended to write about -- the place in Homewood that is one of the most beautiful spots in the city. You'll have to come back for that one.
8:50 p.m., 10/3/2005
I just learned that my estimate of casualties was low.
Five people got shot.
My only positive hope -- is hope even the right word? -- my fervent wish is that this time, somebody who knows something will tell the police.
No, correction: that everybody who knows anything will tell the police everything they know.
If I could rally people to one commitment, I think that would be it: to tell the police everything they know. The more people who make that commitment, the more people who commit to shining whatever light they have concerning a situation, the less darkness there will be for insanity to fester and for arrogant criminality to grow.
7:58 p.m., 10/3/2005
Pay close enough attention, and Homewood, a community of 9,300, becomes a place of glaring contradictions.
Saturday afternoon, some 50 or 60 people -- young, old, black, white -- gathered on Frankstown Avenue for the dedication of "Season of Hope" a 20-by-200 foot mural that sprawls across the brick facade of the Meadow Lanes bowling alley on Frankstown Avenue. The mural was painted over a period of six weeks by West Mifflin native James Maszle, and resulted from a process of extensive discussion with community leaders, all under the aegis of the Sprout Fund.
It has 12 panels that alternate between abstract images of community and portraits of actual Homewood residents, replacing bleakness in the streetscape with brightness. The dedication ceremony -- and I call it that simply for lack of a better name -- consisted simply of a variety of speakers expressing their delight and pride in having such an affirmative piece of art prominently placed in the neighborhood. Somewhere along the way, it also took on a distinctly religious tone, as some of the speakers expressed gratitude and devotion to God.
Indeed, one speaker, Sarah B. Campbell, an 83-year-old who has lived in Homewood for 50-plus years, and whose image, along with those of two other senior women, graces one of the panels, went beyond gratitude and devotion to a statement of faith.
"We know that God has his arms around this community, because otherwise we wouldn't be here."
The statement brought forth enthusiastic "Amens" from the crowd. I find both the proposition and its endorsement striking. In how many communities would someone say such a thing at a civic gathering, and in how many of them would they receive "Amens?"
This must be acknowledged: There is faith in Homewood. Not just formal religion, but time-tested, shameless confidence in God. I don't know how much of it there is. But then, I hear it doesn't take much to do great things.
There is faith, and there is art, and there is hope.
And tonight, again, there is bloodshed. About 7:20, the steady pop-pop-pop of semiautomatic gunfire made its way down the block. I called 911, as did I don't know how many others. The focus of the assault seems to have been a group of youngsters at the other end of the block; I think three of them are wounded.
One of them, for some reason, made his way toward our end of the block, limping. A group of friends and/or relatives surrounded him, several on cell phones, calling for help.
I think it was the first time I'd ever seen anyone who had just been shot.
I wished that I knew first aid, that I knew it well enough to go over and help. I don't, so I kept my distance.
It would not surprise me if there was retaliation before the night was over.
My downstairs neighbor said her five-year-old daughter knows the drill: She dashed to her room and got on the floor. After the shots had ended, she asked her mother, "Did I do good?"
"It's a shame," my neighbor said, "that she should have a drill."
But since she must, her mother had to tell her, "Yes, baby. You did good."
The block is cordoned off now, blocking all traffic except that from the church parking lot as people leaving the service across the street make their way home. The church building seems well constructed. I wonder how many of them heard anything?
