Nov 20 2008
Greetings, all. Over the past two weeks, as I have thought about the potential impact of the Obama presidency, my mind has returned again and again to a declaration by my favorite political commentator of late, actress and comedienne Wanda Sykes (of the CBS series, "The New Adventures of Old Christine"), who said to Jay Leno months ago, "If Obama wins, we [black people] are gonna need a new excuse!"
In the 70s and 80s (perhaps even now, but less so), it became common for people to express frustration about an apparently unsolvable problem by saying, "We can put a man on the moon, but..."
Over the next few years, I predict that this phrasing will become popular: "If Barack Obama can become President, then I/you/we can do X."
That could be very empowering, by helping people to get past excuses (even good ones).
In the spirit of "no excuses."....On Oct 30, I announced a "Save Race Street" meeting on Nov. 1 at Baptist Temple Church. I attended, with perhaps two dozen other people from the length of Race Street. We agreed to work with Operation Better Block to set up Block Clubs on each of our blocks. I was named "block rep" for 7200 Race. I'll let you know how that goes.
Real Estate Watch
Homewood is simmering; all the transactions below are just from last week's RealSTATs report. Notice that there is only one foreclosure in the group:
7110 Apple Avenue, for $12,050
2041 Frankella Avenue, for $54,000
7349 Hamilton Avenue, by sheriff's deed, for $1,721
7722 Susquehanna Street, for $10,000
2018 Swissvale Avenue, for $29,000
More than a nuisance
A man was shot to death last night at Denise and Earl's bar, 7709 Frankstown Avenue. This is at least the third shooting at the bar in the past six years. On December 19, 2004, two men were injured in a shootout; On October 2, 2006, 31-year-old Jonathan Bunday was shot dead while sleeping at the bar.
Which raises the question of why this continues to happen. Even if I did go to bars, which I don't, I think I would stay away from one where people have gotten shot, and killed. But Denise and Earl's is not the only spot where people have been shot in Homewood. A search for the term "Homewood bar" on the PG Web site brings up a pathetic string of stories about the mix of booze, guns and stupidity resulting in flying bullets. Here's a sampling, from the past three years or so:
August 1, 2005 - the 7101 Lounge, 7101 Frankstown: an unnamed Braddock man receives multiple gunshot wounds.
February 7, 2007 - the 7101 Lounge, 7101 Frankstown: Rodney Poindexter, of Duquesne, is shot dead.
March 30, 2008 - Mac Can Do, Brushton Avenue: John Allen is shot dead
April 19, 2008 - Club 22/Rendezvous, Hamilton Avenue: two constables are shot; one of them, Aaron Jenkins, dies from his wounds afterward.
May 15, 2008 - Earl the Pearl's, 7200 block of Kelly Street: an unnamed man receives multiple gunshot wounds.
If I drank, I think I'd drink at home.
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Nov 05 2008
What can the Post-Gazette and I do to make "My Homewood" better?
Please email responses to myhomewood@post-gazette.com. Thanks!
See you Nov. 19.
Nov 04 2008
Barack Obama's campaign set up an office at the Greater Pittsburgh Coliseum over the weekend, and tonight, after an insanely long and grueling campaign, three hours after the closing of Pennsylvania's polls, some thirty people lingered in that cavernous space, some putting away campaign materials, perhaps half of them crowded around a conference table with a small television set at one end.
I wanted to capture some video of this group. I didn't know that in a different room, a larger television was tuned to CNN. That was what enabled Robert Kennedy (I kid you not), a volunteer from New York, to bring the news to the others: CNN had just pronounced Obama the winner.
In an instant, those thirty-something people made enough noise for hundreds, and began shedding rivers of joyful tears. Everybody began hugging everybody, and those who weren't hugging were on their cell phones, except that one of them announced, "All circuits are busy!" - the news lighting up the wires all across the country.
A few minutes later, it was CBS' turn to concur with CNN. And a few minutes after that, it was John McCain's turn to make his concession speech.
It's official. It's done.
Kennedy said, not to me, but to the room of people watching McCain, "This is a moment where character and policy triumphed over everything else."
Outside, drivers began honking their horns. A lady across the street stood on her steps, banging pots together. A man walked down the street, banging pots together. It was a racket, but honestly, I had expected more. But perhaps most Homewooders, like those folks in the Coliseum, were busy hugging and weeping.
I was more than a little tempted to go out and act a fool myself.
And now it is past midnight, and Barack Obama has made his first speech as President-elect. I am proud. And I am hopeful. Whatever else happens, this has been a great day. A joyful day.
I've been thinking a lot lately about Douglas Turner Ward's "Day of Absence," and I feel kind of obligated to say this to my fellow citizens...don't be surprised, don't be even a little bit surprised, if a whole lot of your Black co-workers don't show up tomorrow. When I asked my friend at Staples if he was going to work tomorrow, he just laughed. Some of us may call in sick, some of us may tell you that our third cousin twice-removed died, some of us may not say anything at all. But don't be surprised.
As for me, I'm going on vacation, to return November 19. I look forward to reading your thoughts about what this momentous day will mean for Homewood, not to mention the nation. When I get back.
Until then, be well.
Nov 04 2008
My tenant asked for a ride to our polling place, Bethesda Presbyterian. We got there about 6. Again, while there were several people inside, there was no long line.
By 7, there was a crowd of a different sort at the intersection of Frankstown and Homewood Avenues. Some two dozen Obama supporters spread among the intersection's corners, the largest group standing in front of the KFC with a large "Obama-Biden" sign, chanting Obama's name and shouting encouragement to passers-by. One of them used a megaphone, the others relied on plain old lungpower: "You still have time to vote!" - along with "Honk for Obama!", then as the final hour wound down, "Honk if you voted!"
There was a lot of honking.
At 7:30, a half-block from the corner, at Homewood House, a seniors' high-rise that serves as the voting place for the 13th Ward's 2d district, poll worker Judy Long was taking a break on a bench in the rear courtyard. Things had quieted down from earlier in the day.
"For us, this is the best turnout that we've ever had," she said. "And so many young first-time voters. The brothers - I'm real impressed. The mothers were even bringing them."
Besides residents from surrounding blocks, some 75% percent of Homewood House residents had voted, she said.
Despite widely-expressed concerns about voters still being in line when polls closed, there was no sign of a last-minute rush at Homewood House. Nor at Belmar School, where the only people left at 7:45 were the volunteers. In midafternoon, they said, the school gym was filled with voters, and there was a line across the playground, a "fabulous" turnout. The final tally of 801 voters was "60 percent or higher" of the three districts - 3, 4, 5 - served by the school, they said.
At 7:55, the workers at Baptist Temple were closing their books and turning off their machines. As at other locations, there had never been an overwhelming crush, although at midafternoon there might have been as many as 10 people waiting outside. But even without an overwhelming crush, they logged 296 votes, nearly twice the norm of 150.
Qadira Daniels echoed one of the themes of the day: "We've had more young voters this year than I've seen in ages."
Nov 04 2008
Like other places I've visited so far, the Homewood Carnegie Library at Hamilton and Lang looks deceptively quiet. No queue of people snaking out the door and up the street. Just Pamela Moore, registration clerk at the Homewood-Brushton Branch of the Community College of Allegheny County, emerging from the building after coming down during her lunch hour to vote.
Besides voting, she has encouraged others to do so, in her own way.
"I'm telling students if you don't vote today, I can't register you," she says with a laugh.
She voted for Barack Obama. Asked what she thinks an Obama presidency would do for Homewood, she grows thoughtful.
"I hope it can help to bring the communities together with unity. We need it so bad. There's a lack of communication in the community ... I hope he can bring everybody together as one. We're not all on the same page."
And then another laugh: "No dream is impossible."
Inside, Marguerite Bryant, who has worked the polls for "maybe 20 years," says that today's turnout so far has been "excellent."
"This has been three times as great as last year, or even May," she says.
She is not certain how many first-time voters have come in, but "there are a lot of young people, which I am very proud to see. They are turning out very well. I was surprised."
"A lot of them turned out for the May primary, and have since turned 19 instead of 18," she says with a laugh.
Mary Savage, Homewood's flower lady, is also working the polls today, and agrees with Ms. Bryant's assessment that the turnout has far exceeded the norm.
"I thought we would have a lot trouble, but we're not," she said.
Like Ms. Bryant, like my friend at Staples, like the stranger at the Chinese restaurant, Ms. Savage is all smiles, and I can feel myself catching the infection, yielding to the belief that this is a day to cherish.
Nov 04 2008
I went to Staples in East LIberty, and a friend of mine who works there spotted me.
"Did you vote?" he asked. I said yes, and returned the question.
"Early this morning, before coming to work," he replied. "I believe it's done!"
He was beaming.
I stopped for Chinese food, and as I waited at the restaurant counter, a fellow customer, Black, about my age, wearing an Obama pin and cap, asked me, "Did you vote?"
He had a couple of inches on me, and more than a few pounds, so I was glad that I could honestly say "yes." I felt sure that I didn't even need to return the question.
While we waited for our orders, he told me about his mother, who, when she first saw Obama four years ago, said, "That boy's gonna be all right."
He spoke about how proud she would be to see this day, except that "She's no longer here."
So perhaps it was as much for her as for himself that he said, after we received our orders and started to go our separate ways, "It's a joyful day!"
Nov 04 2008
My wife and I stopped at Bethesda Presbyterian Church to vote, on the way to dropping her off for an appointment. There was no line outside, but the polling area inside, at the rear of the church basement, accessed from Fleury Way, was more crowded than usual. No backlog, just a steady flow. But then again, they had five voting machines set up.
In previous elections, there have been two.
Anonymous worker: "People are coming in wheelchairs and with walkers."
Nov 04 2008
In the basement of Baptist Temple Baptist Church, 21 folding chairs are set up, most of them occupied. As voters enter, they give their names to the poll workers, then take a seat to wait, rather than going directly to one of the three machines. The backlog was created when the polls opened at 7, and the machines were not working.
"The machines weren't taking the votes," said Maria Sommo, a volunteer with the A. Philip Randolph Institute, one of several groups who have turned out to monitor polling places. Some voters left, she said, promising to come back.
"They didn't want to take the emergency ballots, because they were scared that if they took it, it wouldn't count."
The machines are working now, and the chairs are emptying out as elections judge Tonya Todd calls out the names of those waiting and they go up to vote. When John T. Smith, a slight 61-year-old with wide eyes and thinning hair, gets in line to give the poll workers his name, things are moving along smoothly.
Smith, who cleans vehicles for the Pittsburgh Transportation Co., says that he is changing his party affiliation from Democrat to independent because he is tired of "the rhetoric of either side... the backbiting."
"Obama promised there wouldn't be any retaliation" during the campaign, Smith said, but "neither he nor McCan had no control over their people in the primaries.
"What control would either one of them have once they got in that position (the Presidency)?"
He gives his name to the poll workers, they give him his voting card and he goes to the center machine, where another volunteer divides the card, giving him back the small stub. Smith does not need the help that some others will in using the machine; he has voted here for 16 years.
Who was the new independent's choice for President?
"Oh, Obama, definitely," he said. But with a caveat: "You can make all the promises in the world, but you've still got the Senators and the Congressmen. If they don't help him out there, all the ideas he have won't go through....hopefully, there will be change."
Oct 31 2008
In four days, history will be made, one way or the other.
In four days, you will decide which way.
Okay, okay: you and I will decide.
Not the pollsters, not the media. You and I.
Come Nov. 5, nothing you or I believe will matter much. What will matter is what we did Nov. 4.
Will Nov. 5 be a day of rejoicing in Homewood? A day of despair? A day of apathy that has persisted right through the making of history?
I would love to launch a meme throughout the blogosphere, and then out into the larger world: On November 4, SHUT UP AND VOTE.
Everybody, everybody....For just one day, stop fussin and fightin with folks from the opposite political camp. SHUT UP AND VOTE.
For just one day, stop making messianic declarations on behalf of your favorite candidate. SHUT UP AND VOTE.
For just one day, stop complaining. SHUT UP AND VOTE.
For just one day, stop letting the undecideds decided because you were too lazy to decide. SHUT UP AND VOTE.
When you do, you might see me out there; I'll be blogging live from polling places in Homewood. You might even get caught on video, so behave yourselves, ok?
Lessons learned from junk mail
John McCain sent me a letter a few days ago that I didn't even open, and not just because it was from him. I probably would not have opened a letter from Barack Obama, either. But Barack Obama didn't send me a letter, he sent me a four-color oversized postcard that I didn't need to open. Interestingly, it didn't say "Vote for Obama." It said, "Vote." And, um, had a big ol' picture of Obama. It also told me where to vote.
Think about that: Somebody in the Obama camp took the time to match addresses with polling places (which may not have actually been much time - it may simply have been a matter of passing data from one computer to another), and sent out oversized postcards to tell people where to vote.
That's smart. This is even smarter: the postcard also told me that it is okay to wear Obama gear to the polls.
Why is that smart? Because of this email that is making the rounds, and that I myself received not long ago:
"Please, please, please advise everyone you know that they absolutely can NOT go to the polls wearing any Obama (or whoever you are voting for) shirts, pins, hats, etc. It is AGAINST THE LAW and will be grounds to have the polling officials to turn you away. This is considered campaigning and no one can campaign within X amount of feet of the polls. They are banking on us being overly excited and not being aware of this long standing law that you can bet will be ENFORCED THIS YEAR!!!!!
They are banking that if you are turned away, you will not go home and change your clothes and return to the polls to vote. Please just don't wear ANY gear of any sorts to the polls! Please share this information with as many people as you can. If you are already aware of this, Please don't take it as insulting your intelligence."
Based on my experience with information forwarded by email, I called the Allegheny County Division of Elections. The poll worker who answered did not want to be named, but he said that in Pennsylvania you can wear whatever you wanted, "long as you go in, cast your vote, and leave right out." In other words, no malingering, dilly-dallying, chilling, or hanging out. Simply hanging around wearing your candidate's gear, "that is considered electioneering," and that will get you in trouble.
But you can wear what you want, he said, and "it's always been that way."
A Commonwealth Court ruling yesterday in Harrisburg seems to leave the whole matter up in the air again, and the safest thing may be not to wear any political gear. But my point is that Obama's people know about that e-mail, and that they're counteracting it - maybe because they know that they are dealing with a lot of folks who haven't voted for a while, maybe ever.
Does that mean that Obama should be our next president? No. It does mean that his people continue to run a very smart campaign.
And for Homewood, so what?
Maybe we who care about Homewood could learn from Obama's campaign. Not so much in terms of specific techniques as in terms of a general approach, which has to do with using the best tools available to operate in the smartest way we can. That means letting go, not only of things that don't work, but also of things that have worked, when they can be replaced by things that work better.
"Things" could refer to actual physical objects or processes, but it can also refer to attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.
In the past, I spoke about envisioning a Homewood that is "beautiful, prosperous and safe." Later I amended that to "beautiful, prosperous, safe and green." Now I want to help Homewood become beautiful, prosperous, safe and green...and really, really smart.
How about you?
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Oct 30 2008
I just spoke with Minister Terry Fluker, who lives in the 7600 block of Race Street, and he shared a story that I would like to share with you.
He had a relative living with him who attracted bad company.
"When I would leave home they would just set up camp on my front porch," he said - "they" being ne'er-do-wells who openly engaged in both using and selling drugs while he was away from the house.
He confronted them about it, and they said that his relative said it was okay.
"I don't want to call the police. I'm a black man like you," he said. "But you can't do that here."
They kept congregating. He called the police. More than once. And he evicted the relative.
They don't congregate there anymore.
A lot of the mess in our neighborhood would go away if more property owners simply said, "You can't do that here. Do it somewhere else if you have to, but you can't do that here."
Even if they have to say it to relatives.
FROM REACTION TO ACTION.
Minister Fluker has gone beyond clearing the riff-raff from his porch. With the help of Operation Better Block, he has scheduled a meeting for residents of Race Street to begin organizing block watches.
"Race Street has always been one of the prime streets in Homewood," he said. Now that the city has done some heavy lifting in terms of cleaning up the physical environment, he said, "We want to look at how we can help the city keep it clean."
The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Baptist Temple Church, at the corner of Race and Sterrett Streets. Besides Operation Better Block, representatives from Mad Dads and the Coalition Against Violence will also be present.
If you live on Race Street, please show up. If you know someone who lives on Race Street, tell them to show up. This may be the best chance we ever have to re-establish the understanding that some things will not be allowed on our street.
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