Corrected version.
I’ve spent some time in the West Main Street-Chili Avenue area over the last few days, first to listen to Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard talk to residents gathered at Junior’s Barber Shop & Unisex Salon on West Main, and then to observe a Lovely Warren campaign event at the Iglesia Educational Center on Thurston Road. Warren, who is running for mayor, came to talk about education, but also ended up discussing crime, drugs, parenting, and other issues.
The events were less than two miles apart in an area of the city struggling with poverty, crime, high unemployment, and other seemingly intractable issues. I was struck to see that while people in both places are interested in higher-concept, longer-term discussions like neighborhood schools versus school choice, they also want to know what Sheppard and Warren can do to help them right now: How is the Rochester Police Department going to protect the beaches and other public places given this trend of youth using those opportunities to stage fights? (Sheppard talks about the youth fight at the 2013 Lilac Fest in the above video). A woman at the Warren event said she has a son with attention deficit disorder and no school seems to be able to handle him. Could Warren help her?
The point is, their needs are immediate. They can’t wait for committees and studies and prayers to pay off. Sheppard talked about how the RPD monitors social media so they know where fights might take place. And Warren gave the woman the names of a couple of schools that might be able to help her, while promising to also follow-up later with more information.
A common theme that emerged at both events was the need for, and the lack of community responsibility. Young people need adults to take an interest in them, the people at the events said, as well as discipline and guidance. If the parents can’t or won’t do it, then the community and the system need to step up, and they need to be held accountable when they fall short, they said.
“Not everybody’s a gangbanger or hanging on the corner,” Sheppard said. “They just need to know someone cares. Those little conversations you have with people make a difference. It’s not just about cuffing those boys up.”
A woman at the Sheppard event said the city needs to get back to a time when everybody knew each other in their neighborhood and were all involved in bringing up the children.
“I need you. You’re my history,” a woman said to a young man at the Sheppard event. “Why are we killing each other? Our families are so destroyed. We see each other killing each other in droves. We need you. We don’t have to know you to hurt.”
Karen Iglesia, founder of the Iglesia Educational Centers, said the young men she sees often refer to the “3 C’s” as the only ways out of the “ghetto”: the classroom, the cell block, or the cemetery.
“You have to show them that there’s another way,” she said. “I have 28, 29 year old grandparents. I have parents who’ve never set foot in their child’s school.”
This article appears in May 22-28, 2013.
This story is heartbreaking because it is so real and the situation is truly dire. I am grateful to both Chief Sheppard and Lovely Warren for confronting these issues head on. And there is much for us all to do. Yes, parents need to be involved. Yes, everyone in the community needs to be involved, as well the police, the City schools, and community leaders. But I am concerned that no one is ever asking Maggie Brooks what her responsibility is for these children. These kids are the children of Monroe County, not just the city. In fact Brooks basically blames these kids and their families for Monroe County’s high taxes. That is not at all constructive. Until we hold Brooks accountable for her pure neglect of these kids, we will never have a community-wide appreciation for the need for us to act collectively. We are all, especially the media, letting her off the hook for no good reason.
I’m sorry, but this article is too, too cute for words.
Sheppard trots out the fact that, several years after the rest of the country, the RPD has finally gotten around to monitoring social media to combat violence, and it’s hailed as an example of how he came “prepared” to this event with immediate responses to public concerns.
And likewise Ms. Warren’s concern for education seems more tardy than “immediate” given that she’s had over three years as city council president to focus her attention on the city school situation (and to convince her colleagues on the council that this area should be their first priority). But for some reason the subject never seems to have come up (nowhere in her biography and personal “mission statement” on the city council’s web site does she give the condition of Rochester’s schools even a passing mention) until she decided to run for mayor. Then it became the centerpiece of her campaign.
Isn’t it about time for City Newspaper to get back to reporting the news and stop acting as shills and press agents for their political pals?
Unfortunately we’re all responsible to one degree or another for the sorry state of Rochester. The suburbs provide too much of a buffer for whites to get it and the wealthy and well-educated in Brighton, Pittsford, Mendon, Rush, Webster and the East side of the city who are largely the power brokers in this community are too insular and self-interested to really care. Without the crippling concentration of crime, poverty, illiteracy in their communities, etc. to motivate people in Greece or Chili or Pittsford to action, the problem is largely going to stay the same. Likewise the citizens of Rochester are often too passive and/or submissive to the status quo, or thwarted by previously-mentioned elites who wish to maintain a certain community appearance. Rochester was called the Image Centre in the ’50s and ’60s. Unfortunately it is still the Image Center, for the Smugtown crowd.
I live in the area this article talks about. The parents of the children mentioned here are all out working two to three sup-par paying Mcjobs. Blaming the parents for “not taking responsibility” is an invalid argument. We are in an economic race to the bottom. Employment figures go up and so do the number of people on food stamps. That tells you that old jobs are being replaced by even worse jobs. So don’t count on things getting better anytime soon.
Here’s what the kids want. This is what they told the GRCC and Baptist ministers several years ago. The kids want safe spaces for respite open 24/7 so they don’t have to be involved in chaotic situations outside of school and home. Disorganization at home often means absent parents out working all those sub-par jobs to keep the family going–a pressure imposed by society. Jobs pay less and what is left of the social safety net is under attack. Things will not get better and the young people will keep becoming vulnerable to gang activity. Don’t blame the kids and their families. Look further.
These people, my neighbors, are under tremendous social and economic pressure. It’s a powder keg. I found Shepard and Warren’s responses shallow. But the reporting of the conversations may have ignored anything substantive either of these officials said.
You hit the nail on the head, Louse!
I didn’t know this publication censors and removed comments. There was nothing that was unrtue or profane in my comment it was factual and my opinion. It may not be popular iwth a liberal publication but id guess I didnt realise that opposing thoughts would be deleted. Not cool!
Truth girl, if you spend more than a few seconds on our site you’ll see that we do, in fact, welcome opposing viewpoints. What we do not allow, however, are insults or personal attacks. That will not change.