AN INCLUSIVE TABLE | What happens when violence interrupts a community’s trust?
In 2013, after having lived in Youngstown my entire life, I was the victim of an attempted home invasion. I was there when the would-be intruder broke the glass in an effort to come through my back door. Naturally, I was left shaken for months. And no one in my community matched my outrage.
It’s not that the people around me weren’t generally concerned about my safety. But being a Youngstown native, I was expected to be used to crime in my community. This attitude and expectation is not unique to our city. In many Black neighborhoods across the country, violence — particularly gun violence — is something we’ve just come to accept as part of what comes with living in certain ZIP codes. We acknowledge it. But we often feel like the only options available to us are to live with it or move.
In order for a community to be truly transformed, the members of that community have to be actively involved in the transformation. That’s something I staunchly believe in. Like Patricia Stokes, the neighborhood steward for the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation says, “You’re living this! You know what’s going on in your neighborhood. So you’re able to talk about what needs to be done.”
Unfortunately, when your community is a transitioning neighborhood — like Youngstown’s South Side — being dedicated to affecting change often means having to deal with or sometimes ignore some of the negative aspects of that transition. This is especially true when you’re a longtime resident.
From August to September of last year, Stokes conducted a door-to-door survey of 700 households in the neighborhoods around Glenwood Avenue. The initiative was YNDC’s way of making sure that the solutions they planned to bring to the area were in alignment with the residents’ wishes. Even while 74% of the people polled said they feel that the neighborhood is improving, an overwhelming 46% identified “improving safety and reducing crime” as their highest priority to improve quality of life.
The beauty of the community, and the reason why it’s so important for the members of this community to be involved in improving its condition, is that regardless of current circumstances, we’re able to see the forest from the trees. In the same survey conducted by YNDC, 69% of those asked reported feeling safe in their neighborhoods. The main reasons: They know their neighbors; they’ve always looked out for each other; and they are longtime residents.
“When I first moved, it was a beautiful place to live,” Stokes says. “We had a grocery store, we had a post office. And eventually, I saw it deteriorate, and I wanted to stay here. The neighborhood was just beautiful and I’d raised my family here. I still live here and whenever you come into my neighborhood, I want you to see that it’s kept up.”
That sense of pride in the place we call home is what Stokes urges locals to bring to the table as they continue to push for the changes the community needs.
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Tomorrow, Mahoning Matters columnist Rev. Lewis Macklin of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church urges residents not to ignore city shootings and gun murders. He highlights local efforts that are building community and public safety. See Macklin’s “Keeping the Faith” column on Sunday.
This story was originally published May 14, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
