This site is closed to new comments and posts.

Notice: This site uses cookies to function.
If you are not comfortable with cookies then please don't browse this website.

A word to all CH'ers new and old — Brooklynian

A word to all CH'ers new and old

ch pastor
ch pastor
edited November -1 in Crown Heights/Prospect Lefferts Gardens

Subject: A word to all CH'ers new and old

As a contributing member of the welfare of CH, I wanted to post a few points that have been reaccuring in my mind as I read through the various topics/responses on this post. (FYI: I am the pastor of a church in this community and work closely with the 77th precinct, and other various community related organizations)

As CH begins to grow more in diversity, mostly through the process of gentrification that is and has been occuring for some time. I wanted to draw your attention to some things:

To the newcomers:

Many people in this community have been extremely affected by many various injustices in their lives. Racism, classism, lack of social services, poor schools for their children, and I could go on and on.

As newcomers, especially to the affluent, middle-class, or up and comers, I would advise that you come in with an attitude of grace and with an open minded spirit. Many who live in this community, work hard to provide for their families, and are great people, are extremely concerned that by you moving here, they will be forced to leave due to rising rent costs.

We have already lost many people due to this in the past three years. So, as you advocate for better services for this community, and I implore to do so, remember to advocate for fair housing as well. Many of your now fellow community members will never be able to stay and enjoy the improvements but will be forced to move into yet another poorly resourced 'hood'.

So, understand were people are coming from. As for the youth in our community, many have never been in contact with people that are different from them. There cries of disrespect need to be met with love so that they may see that these 'newcomers' are not threatening. Not in a violent way but in an economically distructive way to these youth and their families.

To the old heads:

Give the same grace to these energetic newcomers. Many of them have the connections, resources, energy, etc. that we need to see CH become the neighborhood we all want and need it to be.

To all:

Talk to each other about these topics. So often we assume things about each other that are entirely untrue, or misinterpreted. Dialogue is a huge key to community cohesion.

Any thoughts on this are greatly needed!!
Thanks and hopefully together we can make CH great!!

Comments

  • dailyheights
    dailyheights
    Thanks for this interesting post... but to be deliberately provocative: this seems like a lot of busy talk, and no action.

    These "gentrifiers", being young, liberal New Yorkers, already believe that they "come in with an attitude of grace and with an open minded spirit." So how will you harness that? Have you even considered that you could?

    We are not really changing anything by making speeches.

    You have positioned yourself as a leader in this community. So help us understand what do you propose to do about this problem? What if someone came to you with a group of people who were willing to make a difference in your community, right now? Would you have a plan, right now, before they disappear? What would you propose to do to capture their "connections, resources, and energy"?

    It would be nice to be enthusiastic about your intentions... but in America, there is such a disappointing disconnect between the truly needy and the undirected desire to help those less fortunate. The system is set up to absorb "guilt payments" that rise and fall with media hype on the next 9/11 or Katrina. And on the local level, we have volunteer groups and "community related organizations" that rarely seem to efficiently or consistently help the needy.

    Are you different? You say you are a "contributing member of the welfare of CH." So what do you propose to do that will combat the racism, classism, lack of social services, poor schools, and all the other things you could go on and on about?
  • anonymous
    anonymous
    Hello,
    I am moving in to CH at the end of the month, your post confuses me.
    I grew up in downtown Atlanta in a lower middle class area. The "ethnic" breakdown was 60% to 40% african american to cauacasian ( which I happen to be ), but we were all in the working class together, there was no racial division. That is how I view my new neighborhood, I work 40+ hours a week, don't get enough sleep and scrape by. Your post makes it seem like anyone "different" moving to CH is trying to capitalize on it or change it. All people just need a place to live. I hope that my new neighbors welcome me as I would, as I will welcome them. I look foward to my new neighborhood.
  • ch pastor
    ch pastor
    Thank you for the responses.

    To Allan: I realize that not all 'newcomers' are bringing these assumptions/attitudes into their new neighborhood. Sometimes my rambling thoughts seem to pigeon hole people into certain types. Is was not my intention to portray that...sorry. :oops: I would encourage you though to seek to understand where others are coming from on this issue .

    To dailyheights: I will first humbly say this...I do not have all the answers. That is why this issue is so important. In order for things to progress in a positive, constructive way, people need to come to the table and come up with solutions together. But, so that I don't sound speechy, here is what we are currently doing. Realize though, that we are a church so some of our functions have double motive (strengthening the community as well as point people to our faith). One reason we feel qualified to speak on and for this issue is that we are one of the only multiracial church in the neighborhood...we have a bi-racial pastoral staff as well. One African-American and one white pastor.

    So with that: In addition to being a normal functioning church, we have two summer camps with over 100 children, an afterschool program for teenagers, an ongoing GED class, a reaccurring welfare to work program, we have a Christmas store where select families who are struggling from the community can come and buy presents for 10% of the retail cost for their children, and many other periodic activities. And we are only a small store front church with less than 50 members!!

    We work closely with the Crown Heights Mediation Center (a great organization to get involved with) on Kingston and Lincoln Place, as well as the James Davis Stop the Violence Foundation. We are currently working with them to help find rental apartments (that will be paid for by FEMA), for the 48 individuals still in hotels @ JFK that were displaced by Katrina. There is also a group of pastors from CH that meet regularly to discuss these things and how we can work together. Etc, Etc, Etc.

    You said in your post that "on the local level, we have volunteer groups and "community related organizations" that rarely seem to efficiently or consistently help the needy." We have over 150 churches in a two mile radius in CH and many of them are doing just as much as we are...some are doing more. So to say the they don't "seem" to be helping the needy is a misinformed. Are you in a position to make that statement? I ask that seriously, not rudely like it probably sounds!! :)

    I say all these things and then say this...we desperately, almost daily, need volunteers to help make these things happen. The struggle is finding them, getting them involved, etc.

    You said in your post that "These "gentrifiers", being young, liberal New Yorkers, already believe that they "come in with an attitude of grace and with an open minded spirit." So how will you harness that? Have you even considered that you could? "

    We already have roughly over 100 volunteers throughout the year come through our doors to work with us in reaching the community. The main issue is that 95% of them are not from here so the progress we make in informing/teaching/empowering them make a difference is put to use in their hometowns. If we can get and keep volunteers that live, work, contribute to CH, what a difference that would make in our CH.

    I hope you can understand and appreciate that I do not have all the solutions. But I am willing. All this to say, we need to find ways to bring people together to discuss these issues and move forward. Any suggestions??

    Its so easy to be guarded, resentful, angry, etc with these issues. But lets be bigger people and enjoy this process. It could be fun, enjoyable, and life changing for many!!!
  • dailyheights
    dailyheights
    Alright, so what can people do? It sounds like you have the desire to reach out to people who want to help.
  • armchair_warrior
    armchair_warrior
    if you cant get people to reach out. give a reach around LOL.
  • jack krohn
    jack krohn
    I can see that you mean well, Pastor, but your post comes across as a lecture. Your address to the newcomers is four paragraphs in length, whereas the one to the old timers is a mere two-sentences. As usual, the "gentrifiers" are expected to be the understanding ones. I was particularly annoyed by the statement about the youth. Just because the younger residents of the area have had little exposure to people from other backgrounds and are worried about their housing, the community has to lower its expectations of how those residents behave in public? If my wife gets a bottle tossed at her or I get mugged, I'm supposed to hug my attackers rather than call the police?

    Gentrification is a force too powerful to stop. When a neighborhood has brownstones as beautiful as those in Crown Heights, change will inevitably happen. Displacement based on class is and always will be an intractable fact of life in New York City.
  • armchair_warrior
    armchair_warrior
    change is a good thing in a city. without change and there would be no new blood, some neighborhoods become stagnant and die off. new waves of immigrants come and go. doesnt matter if they are from outside the US or the gentrifier from within.
  • hal
    hal
    I can see that you mean well, Jack, but your post gives the impression of entitlement.

    My impression of the pastor’s post was that of a gentle plea. Perhaps he has more to say to the gentrifiers because we probably represent a higher percentage of those who are participating in this forum, while his “old heads” are people he sees every week. As for "gentrifiers are expected to be the understanding ones”, the pastor asks the “old heads” to give us the same grace.

    He’s not asking you to lower your expectations, but to increase your understanding. Also, the young people he’s talking about that deserve understanding are here in Crown Heights, not the ones where you live in Prospect Heights that are throwing bottles at your wife. That’s not to say we don’t have our share of troublemakers.

    I agree with you that gentrification is inevitable. But it can be done gracefully. And I expect it will be here in Crown Heights judging by the mix of newcomers and old-timers we have come to know as friends and neighbors. Thankfully, in my opinion Crown Heights will gentrify slowly because it is and has been a stable community for many years.
  • anonymous
    anonymous

    Subject: question for CH pastor

    Pastor-
    Thank you for your wise comments. I've lived here for a few years, and experienced both the kindness and friendship of neighbors, as well as episodic agression from young folks. Often as I walk by the abandoned buildings, on kingston ave and elsewhere, I wonder what would need to be done to turn these into low-income coops/condos for local folks to buy. Obviously this is a huge undertaking, but seems to be an important strategy to allow people to feel invested in the neighborhood, etc.

    I have a little time I could spend on this (and have a couple buildings and am fairly resourceful dealing with the city, etc..) and am wondering if there is a non-profit etc. in the area that might already be focused on this and appreciate some help?

    Any thoughts?

    Thank you.
  • capt. planet
    capt. planet
    catinthehat:

    Interesting you should mention a desire to work with a non-profit. I was once the employee of a non-profit housing developer, BEC (Brooklyn Ecumenical Coop) that did a lot of housing in Crown Heights. In fact, we renovated 81 condos on Bedford and NY Aves and sold them for less that $100K each back in the early 90's. More recently BEC acquired 35 one-to-four family houses in Crown Heights that we delapidated city-owned buildings and was supposed to renovate them and sale them to community residents for affordable prices.

    I say supposed to because the renovations were never completed. I just rode by several of the properties that are sitting partially renovated and boarded up. It's a tragedy that in the middle of this affordable housing crunch these buildings are just sitting there.

    To the best of my knowledge the persons most responsible for this situation are HPD, the city's housing agency and LISC, Local Initiatives Support Corporation. The head of the LISC office lives or used to live in Crown Heights. If you are interested in getting more information you might call Denise Scott at LISC. LISC was funding the program to pay for the renovations. The LISC phone number is 212-455-9800

    At HPD, the person involved is Ann Marie Hendricks. Her phone number is 212-863-7301.

    A few of the property addresses are 54 Rogers Avenue, 102 Utica Avenue, 160 Utica Avenue and 223 Schenectady. There are several others I'm still trying to get a hold of but that should do for a start.
  • ch pastor
    ch pastor
    I apologize for not posting a reply sooner. If anyone is interested in continuing this dialogue, in volunteering their time, or just in meeting a fellow community member, feel free to stop by and chat or send a private message to me

    Greater Restoration Baptist Church
    1156 St. Johns Place
    718-735-1564
    Pastor Jared Webb (me)
    Pastor Ken Bogan

    Also, there are many great organizations, community based services, and such in CH. I would be happy to direct anyone to any of these places. CH is such a great community and I desire to see all people come together and see that by working toward bettering CH, as well as preserving the good that already exists, we will achieve a healthy, vibrant community that all can enjoy.
Sign In or Register to comment.

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In

Categories