Racing In The Street

Note to self: Don’t write off those little advertised and poorly attended committee meetings of the Syracuse Common Council. I attended a Public Safety committee meeting on Monday and it was incredible. Now I may be a policy nerd, but I believe that even real people would have gotten a lot out of this meeting.

Ostensibly called to see how the police department was managing its overtime budget six months into its fiscal year, the Police Chief and the Council actually discussed two of the most intractable problems facing the Syracuse Police Department: 1) How do you aggressively police high-crime neighborhoods without disrespecting innocent residents? 2) How do you diversify the police department so that the force doesn’t resemble a white, male and suburban occupying force?

The meeting morphed into a useful discussion when the Police Chief was asked about Operation Impact, a collaborative effort of the police, sheriff and state police. One aspect is an aggressive effort to pull over all drivers in high crime areas for any obvious traffic infraction. The theory is that the police will uncover other, more serious crimes. While this is true, you also run the risk of alienating law-abiding residents of these neighborhoods. Reports of overzealous and rude behavior have come out in public meetings in our Southside neighborhoods and heard by several councilors.

In their interactions, the Councilors and the police illustrated the divide that is acutely felt in our neighborhoods. The police wonder why complaints aren’t made through proper channels. Residents, seeing no results from prior complaints, wonder why they should waste their time. The police condescendingly lecture the neighborhood on what they should do, oblivious to the damage the flaws in their procedures have done to police/community relations. Residents throw up their hands and believe the worst of the police force--corruption, incompetence and racism.

The meeting featured a fired-up and angry Tom Seals, a 30-year veteran of the police department, but a man with severe doubts about the ability of the police to respectfully deal with his constituents in the largely African-American 4th District on the Southside. His performance was as surprising as it was heartening, given Councilor Seals was largely invisible during his first two years on the Council. The cops pissed off the wrong guy.

Everyone agrees that making the police department more representative of the neighborhoods they serve is the best way to improve police/community relations. Recruiting minority officers has been a priority of the past two Police Chiefs that haven't been convicted of D.W.I. However, the problem isn't getting much better. The Driscoll administration has made a big point of hiring 50 additional police officers. The two classes of police academy graduates that filled these new spots included only 5 African-Americans.

The lack of minority officers contributes to the lack of minority promotions--if you aren't in a position to take the civil service exam, how can you be promoted? The police did point out that 80% of the folks passing the written exam, failed the physical exam. Recruiting police officers from the city should not be this difficult. This is a well-paying, unionized job. The city should hire full-time support staff to assist potential recruits through the hiring process.

Syracuse needs to continue this discussion, next time in a forum where the whole community can participate.

  

Theo Epstein to rejoin Red Sox!

The man with a plan is back! Theo Epstein was the General Manager who turned the Red Sox around and put them in position to win the 2004 World Series. He's young (in his twenties), smart and committed to the new statistical and analytical approach to baseball. He walked away from his job a few months ago, the pressures of Boston and office politics getting to him. He's back!

And Bronson Arroyo re-upped for three years, against the advice of his agents, because HE LOVES PLAYING IN BOSTON!

Bring on the Yankees (even with Johhny D.) We have more pitching and defense than last year. Keep Manny happy for at least another year, stick somebody in center, convert one of the infielders to short--we're going to rock!

The celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and work is important, but every year I wonder why the celebrations are so tepid. I can't help but have misgivings on how both our nation and the heirs to the struggle for social justice are failing to properly honor Dr. King. If we do not step up and make this holiday a worthy celebration, it will not be too long before we celebrate with King Day automobile sales.

I am more culpable for this failure than most. I make my living as a community organizer; I help people learn how to fight to improve their lives. The only thing written on my calendar for January 16th, 2006 was "holiday--day off." The United States has decided to honor a man who sacrificed his life to promote mass non-violent direct action. THIS IS OUR HOLIDAY!

Sleazy landlords, greedy businessmen, absentee politicians--all of the people who are obstacles to establishing the "beloved community"--need to tremble at the approach of the second Monday in January. Our enemies need to feel the power of mass non-violent direct action at their doorsteps. We all have seen the t-shirts with the Frederick Douglass quote: "power concedes nothing without a demand." Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't wear a t-shirt, he hit the streets. He brought with him thousands of oppressed people. We need to honor the greatest of modern organizers by putting his beliefs into practice. What better way to honor Dr. King's life and work than by organizing a protest?

Taylor Branch's editorial in the New York Times titled Globalizing King's Legacy hit on another aspect of the celebrations of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day that disturbs me. Dr. King wasn't just the leader of the 1950's-60's civil rights movement, he was the most eloquent and perceptive spokeman for peace, justice and democracy of the 20th century. Dr. King spoke for all of us, he should not be relegated to one issue at one point in our country's history. His writings and speeches still speak to us today, as our nation goes down the same path of attempting to bring democracy to foreign lands by military means.

Thanks to CNY Ecoblog for linking to this Washington Post article that highlights the achievements of my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. Penn has invested millions of dollars in its West Philadelphia neighborhood, transforming a crime-ridden and poverty stricken area.

Penn has invested heavily in affordable residential housing and education. Hundreds of faculty and students work with community groups and volunteer to help improve West Philadelphia. The university seeks to work with the people of West Philadelphia, rather than dictate development.

Penn financed the building of a public elementary school with 500 students right on the outskirts of campus. Penn's education department works on curriculum and teacher development, and the school has committed $5 million over the next 10 years to fund the school. Penn Alexander school is a PUBLIC elementary school, open to the kids of West Philadelphia.

Penn has also invested millions of dollars to rehabilitate residential housing in the neighborhood, as well as enticing over 1,000 employee families to move into West Philadelphia by offering financial assistance for mortgages.

CNY Ecoblog is hoping that Syracuse U. takes a page out of Penn's handbook and works to bridge the divide between town and gown, as evidenced by its renovation of downtown buildings and promotion of the connective corridor project. I hope that Syracuse decides to focus on developing the low-income neighborhoods south and east of its campus, rather than focusing on financing yuppie enclaves and nightlife downtown.

One of my earlier posts "Ladies on Lynhurst" was an attempt to explain to some of my acquaintances why I work in a low-income neighborhood as a community organizer. This much earlier piece, that I have edited for this blog, is a more comprehensive attempt to explain why I do what I do.


I work as a community organizer for Syracuse United Neighbors (SUN), a small, grassroots neighborhood organization in Central New York. Recently, while interviewing potential new hires, an applicant asked me why I had become an organizer.

I realized that it must be something other than the obvious reasons of long hours, low pay and stress out the wazoo, of course. I was at a loss, never having really stopped to think about what being a community organizer meant. I have tried to explain to my friends and relatives what I do for a living, never achieving this feat in under 30 minutes. Why do I have to figure this out? At the risk of sounding like a Springsteen rock 'n' roller trying to preach to Outkast hip-hoppers, if I can explain what organizing means to me, perhaps some young person will decide to give organizing a chance.

Most organizers care deeply about social justice. We are in this racket to change the world. However, all this passion and fire sometimes gets funneled into a fight for a corner stop sign. Not very exciting, you say? A good organizer will remember the whole campaign every time she stops at the sign. Canvassing the neighborhood, helping neighborhood leaders prepare
their statements, the public meeting with a government official, theshowdown if the official says no--maybe even a protest! That will be the best damn stop sign in the city.

I used to commute to another job, driving through the neighborhood in which I now organize. There is a stop sign at the corner of Cannon St. and W. Brighton Ave. that I passed twice a day. What did I see from the safety of my locked car? Some of the worst drug dealing in the city, gang graffiti and lots of vacant houses. That's usually all anyone learns about this
neighborhood. As an organizer, I have been more fortunate than the commuters. I've had the opportunity to meet the people who live on these streets. Carolyn, a woman who raised four children while she was working full-time and who is now raising several more foster children while in retirement. George, who has lived in the same house on W. Newell for over 70 years. Jimmie, who volunteers at the local high school. These are just a few of the people I have met while working in this vibrant neighborhood.

Even more importantly, I've been able to see neighborhood residents become neighborhood leaders, fighting to improve their streets and their community. It is hard work. Long meetings to discuss strategy and rehearse leaders’ roles. Public meetings designed to hold politicians, bankers and non-profit agencies accountable to the people. Protests at the homes and offices of those that refuse to work with us. More meetings to work out details when we finally win an agreement.

The long hours have resulted in some mighty victories. SUN won a ten-year battle to force the city to reform its discriminatory property tax assessment system. The city built a new Fire Station #6 on the city’s near-westside, after SUN refused to listen to a Mayor who declared a new station was “a luxury we can’t afford.” SUN leaders putting pressure on
City Hall has resulted in laws dealing with abandoned cars, drug houses and city business licenses for corner stores and bars. Syracuse United Neighbors v. City of Syracuse is even cited as legal precedent under New York State’s Open Meetings Law, the result of our successful lawsuit to drag the city’s Common Council out from behind its closed doors.

What about the neighborhood with the stop sign that once interrupted my commute? SUN leaders convinced the city to buy the vacant Enrico's restaurant at W. Newell and Midland Ave., avoiding a sale of the building to a bar owner. The site was sold to a housing non-profit and now boasts four, new single-family homes. On the corner adjacent to the stop sign, SUN
leaders convinced the city to build a playground on what was a vacant lot. I found out shortly after starting at SUN that the stop sign exists because of a SUN victory several years earlier. SUN leaders brought the city's district councilor out to the site, showed him the dangerous corner and won the stop sign.

That same councilor is now our U.S. Congressman and he helped secure $2 million in federal funding for helping families repair their homes in our neighborhood with the street sign. I guess that’s what being a community organizer is all about--not stopping at just the sign.

My 89 year-old Babcia (Polish grandmother-in-law) spent nearly 11 hours in the Crouse Hospital emergency room today due to the ill-effects from a case of shingles she has been fighting for the past couple of weeks. She spent 7 and 1/2 hours lying on a rolling bed in a hallway, where she had blood samples taken and once was wheeled away for about five minutes to receive a CAT scan. She then spent another 3 hours in a treatment room where she was finally examined by a doctor and admitted to the hospital.

My mother-in-law was with Babcia for the entire ordeal, the rest of the family was there for 6 hours. One of my New Year's resolutions is to more frequently ask myself the question: What did I take away from this experience?

1) Health care professionals work their asses off. Whirring around in constant motion; nurses, doctors, orderlies and medical technicians deal with scared and emotional people in a professional and caring manner.

2) Why does it take almost half a day to perform a CAT scan, a spinal tap and draw blood? The time to actually perform all the procedures didn't exceed 20 minutes.

3) If Syracuse is actually faced with a real emergency situation (heaven forbid a plane crash at Hancock, an accident at the nuke plants or some natural disaster) the capacity of our medical facilities will be snapped like a twig.

One of the big tasks at my job during the month of December is helping homeowners file their applications for property tax exemptions. Senior citizens and folks with disabilities can get up to a 50% break on their tax bills, depending on their income. This is a sad year, the first time since starting at my job that I will not visit the Ladies on Lynhurst.

Stella lived at the top of the block, near S. Salina. Cora lived at the dead end of the street. They were so different, they were so similar. They both passed away recently and I will miss them both.

Stella was born near Niagara Falls, but moved to Poland with her parents when she was three. She hightailed it back to the States as soon as she hit eighteen. When I met her, she was widowed and retired from the last of many jobs that she held in her life, working at the cafeteria up at Syracuse U. Her husband had been very sick during the final years of his life. She had two sons, both of whom work outside Syracuse. She had a 2 family home, half of which hadn't been rented out in decades.

Like many seniors, she had the television on all the time for company. Unlike many seniors, Stella tuned into C-SPAN and CNN. Stella was a devout Democrat and wondered aloud why people persecuted Bill Clinton and why Republicans didn't care about working folks. Her house was neat as a pin, despite the fact that she seemingly saved every utility bill, letter and receipt she ever came across. All of them were neatly stacked, kept in date order and kept together with rubber bands. Stella saved some amazing things. I was particularly intrigued by her pay stubs from Lipe-Rollway Bearings during WWII. She worked in the factory when it shifted from gear shifts for cars to bomber parts for war production.

Cora was born into a sharecropping family in Florida. Her parents both died when she was young and she was raised by her grandmother, a woman who was apparently quite strict and not shy about using a switch for discipline. She came to Syracuse in the great diaspora of African-Americans from the South in the 1950's, lured by the plentiful jobs in the North. Cora worked several jobs during her lifetime, often two at a time. She worked in hospitals and as a domestic for rich families in the suburbs. When I met her she was recuperating from knee replacement surgery and in terrible pain. She finally had a second procedure and ended an entire year of agony.

Cora's home was also scrupulously clean, but overflowing with lamps, china, glassware and other houseware. She had several more households neatly packed into her basement. Many of the pieces had been given to her by the various families she had worked for as a domestic. Cora also had one of the largest gardens in Syracuse, an entire building lot next to her house, right at the end of the dead-end street. She always said that Mayor Lee Alexander promised her she could keep the lot, as long as she would take care of it and plant her garden.

Two woman, both of whom who lived into their eighties. One African-American, one Polish-American. Cora and Stella lived on the same one-block dead end street for over 30 years, most of that time living alone in houses filled with memories. The only reason they ever met was because they both belonged to our neighborhood organization. When they were younger, both of them would come out to public meetings. I even saw a picture of Cora at one of our protests in the early 1980's, looking really sharp in a wide-brimmed hat. At the end of their lives, I was their only common connection. Neither woman got out much, so they both asked me how the older woman at the other end of the street was doing.

The New York Times has another great article in its seemingly unplanned series on how wealth and the housing market in NYC are creating new types of suburbs.

"At 150 Edgars Ave, Changing The Idea Of Home", tracks the ownership of a house in Hastings-On-Hudson, NY since its construction in 1925. The house was built for $10,000 by the original owner (about $111,000 in current inflation-adjusted dollars). It sold for $890,000 in 2002 to the current owner. The article describes how the astronomical increase in home prices has effected how families view their homes and the changes this imposes on towns.

The outrageous costs of NYC real estate has created more homogeneous communities. Even in suburbs like Hastings, where there was once a significant blue-collar and ethnic population, that feeling of diversity has become more "a feeling than a reality." With average home prices topping $750,000, families will be restricted to the Wall Street types that have been the two most recent owners of this property, rather than the school teachers, small business owner and New York City municipal employee that had owned the home in prior years.

The article uses the term "embedded wealth" to describe what has become a huge investment, not just a place to roll out the futon, hang a couple of pictures and put on the tea kettle. The massive amount of money invested in these homes has led to a surge in home improvement work. Why? According to the article: "many home owners, the Hirschfelds among them, insist that quite apart from status and comfort, what was once mainly a dwelling in a compatible suburb now assumes even greater personal importance in an age when families increasingly focus on themselves."

That is the concern that I have always had about suburbs, probably at the core of my back-and-forth blogging with NYCO and Balogh on neighborhoods last month: they are a place for rich folks to cocoon and forget about the rest of us. As Balogh pointed out as well, the trend of building all of your entertainment and socializing into your own home has a chilling effect on public services and the livability of communities.