A few blocks in the South Side Slopes of Pittsburgh

Since my first visit to Pittsburgh on four warmly remembered days in February, 1980, I have had a love affair with the city, with a large part of that residing in its hilly neighborhoods. In combination with an old urban landscape, the city often has a sense of intrigue and adventure, of literally reaching new heights and not knowing what discoveries are next.

On my most recent trip to Pittsburgh, I had that joy again on Fri., Jan. 4 inside of just ten blocks of what is sometimes called the "South Side Slopes". Prior to reaching the area I explored, its hills beckoned, as in this view looking south from 26th Street below Carson....

Besides crossing Sarah, a long side street south of Carson, little did I know that I would meet at least two new women, including Josephine, who lives right near the railroad tracks that run along the south end of the "Slopes" area, and can be seen to the right in this image....

Just one short block later, I started up the hill on Kosciusko Way, whose name suggested a  Polish neighborhood, at least in the past...

As with a number of streets I've begun to see in "Da Burg", the alleyways look pretty interesting too, but given their semi-private nature, I'm ok just looking, as with this one on the east side of Kosciusko Way between houses at 23 and 25....

just prior to the next phase up the hill, walking east on a "step street" portion of Leticoe....

As elsewhere, you have nice views along the way of two of the city's "nerve centers" - Downtown and the cultural/university center of Oakland - with downtown visible to the upper right here...

looking west from Stella, with Leticoe straight ahead 

...in a close-up here....

looking northwest from Stella near Leticoe [taken across from 73 1/2 Stella :)!] 

 and Oakland below...

looking north from Stella near Leticoe, with the University of Pittsburgh's "Cathedral of Learning" seen behind the crossing electric wires :) ! ] near the upper right side

Turning south from that vista, I was eager for what came next on Stella (with my assuming the name was chosen to either continue the theme of ladies' names in this general area or to imply being just a little closer to the stars)....   

looking south (and up!) on Stella from Leticoe

Within a block of that point, I had the choice of more enticing hilly streets to the east or finding out more about a church to the west on Mission Street, seen in the background here...

looking west on Mission from Barry

and in a closer-up view....

but first, an early 20th-century building on the south side of Mission caught my interest....

and the mosaic image of a bird above its entrance, which I imagined might be one of many famous symbols from the fraternal organization of the Polish Falcons....

Inside the building, after entering its foyer....

I learned from two staffers of the Pittsburgh Binding Company that their edifice was indeed said to have been a Polish Falcons center as well as bowling alley and a roller rink, and that the Binding Co. had been there for 18 or 19 years.

On the way to more (and modified!) information on 2538 Mission Street, I saw what turned out to be the closed and once very Polish-American St. Josaphat's Church...

peered inside at its vacant and forelorn but beautiful state....

and learned from an older lady that there have been hopes to turn it into residences. More importantly, she had approached me to ask if I would mail letters for her because of icy surfaces between her and a mailbox, and while she modestly declined my request to include her in this writing - after having said she had been in the neighborhood for her whole life and that she was "80-some years old" - she was very helpful in saying that the structure of the Pittsburgh Binding Company had not housed a Polish Falcons club AND, pointing to the very nearby Garvey's bar at the corner of Mission and Sterling....

 she said there was an "old-timer" inside who could tell me more about the section.


After taking a picture of a memorial for members of St. Josaphat's who served in the first and second World Wars, across from the church on the south side of Mission....

and seen more closely here....

I walked into Garvey's Bar and met Don Wojtowicz, who is 83 and is seen here with his son, Paul....

Don, who said that his baptismal name was Daniel, generously began to share his memories of the neighborhood where he was born, raised and has spent much of his life, including his Dad's beginning a store on Leticoe west of Kosciusko Way (so, generally, within the sixth photo above, just before the downtown skyline close-up) and his starting to work for him there when he was 16 or 17 shortly after World War II. Don took over the business in 1957 and 12 years later moved it to Mission and Eleanor, where I am guessing the new "Mission Market", since closed, was in the light-brown level of this structure (but welcoming corrections if necessary!)....

2400 Mission Street, with a "step-block" of Eleanor Street at the right edge of the photo

Don was proud of his family's reputation on the South Side, and aspects such as their one-time market's great Polish food, including kielbasi ("fresh or smoked"), "kiszka" (blood pudding) and "krakowska" (a popular lunch meat).


To him, it is very important to not forget where he came from, and while he has moved to the nearby suburb of Baldwin, he faithfully, happily and at least weekly returns to the neighborhood to visit friends, with Don noting that "I still loaf in the South Side"; it appeared that his son Paul, who is 48, may do just the same; he works in food-wrapping in the Shop-N-Save there, adding that he "stayed with the grocery business". Don emphasized that success is not just about the outward trappings of good fortune in business but that it has to include someone being a real person (or down-to-earth), "not putting on airs", and knowing the difference between the two.

Don also began to shed light on an earlier way of life, with one difference between "then and now" coming with his good-natured response to a friend at Garvey's when I asked him "what hospital were you born in?" and he said "I was born at 2505 Leticoe (above his Dad's market)" and "the lady next door was the midwife". He added that "you're better off having a midwife deliver (your baby) and then "take care of (your wife)".

Around 4pm, late for time with part of my own family, I left, knowing the many pathways I would love to return to, such as Sterling looking south (and again, uphill) from Mission, besides the steps up to Garvey's Bar....

and knowing that I had only scratched the surface as well with Don Wojtowicz, who said "I could tell you stories of the whole hill  - how it was, how it progressed...but change happens everywhere."
 
A block east of Garvey's, I was willing to take an Iron City Beer buzz (just one small bottle, but with my low tolerance compared to many others, I'll bet) down the slippery steps of Eleanor, seen here from Mission looking north....

and in reverse, or looking up Eleanor from Josephine....

as I came back to the "South Side Flats", with hopes for more exploration in the future!!

*************************

An additional note on 2538 Mission Street....

To the best of Don Wojtowicz's recollection, the evolution of the Pittsburgh Binding Company's current home took it from days as a private club at first, then, successively, a location for a roller rink, the "Penny King Company" (see below), a club again with bowling alleys, and the Bova Sheet Metal company.

The "Penny King Company", as per Don, made machines from which many of us once got gumballs or trinkets...for a penny! A tiny bit of its history can be seen through a quick google, and two examples respectively are found at sites you may wish to "cut and paste" [while we would all prefer to "click" on these addresses:)!]...

-- http://www.timepassagesnostalgia.com/&pm=0&searchkeywords=Pittsburgh+Penny+King&sin=b535, where a 1955 invoice not surprisingly gives its address as 2538 Mission and identifies it as the ''WORLD'S LARGEST MANUFACTURER OF MINIATURE CHARMS''

and an article, also from 1955 and a trade publication known as "The Billboard", at...

 http://books.google.com/books?id=OSMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=Penny+King+Company+Pittsburgh&source=bl&ots=MRbW45ZIJZ&sig=LP-1_EFIO5deGy7bVgleYnGzjWM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XCPzUNv3EtSI0QGnnoCQBw&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Penny%20King%20Company%20Pittsburgh&f=false,

which again notes its 2538 address on p. 79 and, on p. 78, refers to its opening a plant to make charms in Puerto Rico, which was remindful of Don's noting that Penny King ultimately moved its operations out of the U.S.

Looking up in Downtown Pittsburgh

This will mainly be a celebration of two classic Pittsburgh skyscrapers, the Gulf and Koppers Buildings, respectively of 1932 and 1929, and presented with the support of a skylight window in a double-decker "Megabus" leaving Pittsburgh (with this photographer aboard!) in late March, 2012, but with a few more recent salutes to them as well....

For those keeping geographical score, my bus went south on 10th Street from under the David Lawrence Convention Center, with the Gulf Building in the center here, the Koppers Building in the right background and part of the UPMC (formerly US Steel) Building in the left background....

...we continued south on William Penn Place past the east elevation of the Gulf Building and with tiny slivers of the UPMC and Koppers Buildings coming into view below the right center of this photo....

more revelations here....

 and then riding eastbound on 7th Avenue between the beautiful gauntlet of the Koppers and the Gulf Towers on the top and on the bottom respectively (or south and north sides of 7th to confuse and amuse!) as far as this view goes....

and an adios for the time being looking back as the bus went to an eastbound freeway entrance.... 

Two nights ago (and now nine months later), I was glad to say hello again to the colorful top of the Gulf Tower, apparently renewed in 2012 for its long-time role as a weather beacon for Pittsburghers. While you obviously cannot rely on my photos for that purpose, they are hopefully sufficient as semi-abstract art exercises, as seen from 6th Avenue east of Grant Street, and looking north....

May these buildings never flail as in this last picture and may their flames long burn bright as in the second last one above!

Barriers to Preservation - a walk south of the Bridge on April 8, 2012

The Sidaway Bridge from the Rapid, April 8, 2012

While summer and fall work commitments have been among the bases for the delay in this writing, it is possible that my less conscious apprehension about being perceived as critical or negative was also a reason for my putting off this posting.

To counterbalance any sense that this article IS critical of the neighborhood that I am observing here, I realize what I will present is, in a sense, a small fraction of 1/365 of its annual life and I believe there is a large well of goodness there as well as - I'd like to think - in every neighborhood.

On Sunday, April 8, now over eight months ago - and not for the first time in the area - I received some of that goodness, whether it was in 8-year old De'Andre Taylor inviting me to visit the next time I came back, the renewed hospitality of Ms. Luvenia Hardges and of Lou a few blocks away (see my other blogs for past references :) ! ], and a man following up with a phone call to me that night - such follow-up being rare - and even if it was to say he would not want to be interviewed by me.

That day, I gave up a one-time paradise in Cleveland that I hope is still a paradise for many people - the Cleveland Zoo - turning down a visit there with my oldest friend, his wife and kids, when I felt a sense of duty to spend some time in the "bridge area".

Looking back, I would emphasize, especially for neighborhood people who I hope will read this, that on April 8 I was getting a small slice of negativity - based on reasons I would have to at least sympathize with - and in a sea of complexity which also includes that of the two "critics" who were nice enough to talk with me.

At the same time, there is, I assume, real negative feeling in all neighborhoods which are struggling economically, the love of what is shiny and new, and the sense - understandable if respectfully opposed here - that the perception of the Sidaway Bridge may be that of an old, dark, jagged, corroded object out there, surrounded by a jungle including the weeds, trash and other waste (that readers of an earlier blog will remember) AND that given all that, it may be better to start fresh as the best way to go against the small neighborhood crises that really happen way too often, with ONCE being too much when it comes to house fires, tear-downs, shootings and occasional death. Not to mention that a focus on financial survival may give you little concern for a largely unseen piece of history, however close it is to you.

This secondary perception on my part has been borne out in e-mailed comments to me by both Tim Tramble and Marie Kittredge, the respective directors of the two "CDC's" (Community Development Corporations) whose areas flank the bridge - Burten Bell Carr to the north, and Slavic Village Development to the south.

Tim wrote of preservation, in his opinion, being a low priority for residents of low-income neighborhoods, with "[such issues being] luxuries of people in stable circumstances", and adding, "[a]sk yourself, if you were jobless, didn't know where your rent payment was going to come from, didn't know how you were going to pay all of your bills, had concerns about the security of your possessions and loved ones, and were challenged with getting to and from places of necessity, would you be proactive about saving a vacant building or unutilized structure of any kind?"

He continued..."[t]his coupled with the fact that most people that live in the neighborhood did not live here when the bridge was functional. Therefore, there is no sentimental regard for the bridge by newer residents."

His ending was a modest open door to saving landmarks: "[t]hat said, most people like to see revitalization of any kind in the neighborhood that does not create disadvantageous circumstances to their family."  

 Marie Kittredge wrote that, with essentials like the ones Tim separately noted - talk of historically preserving the bridge is "irrelevant".

Both at least are open to the goal of its preservation (Tim at the meeting this past March of which I wrote) and Marie in supporting the idea, but not wanting staff resources focused on it, at least at present with a crucial need to strengthen housing and other assets (a decision I might make myself in her role).[Endnote 1]

My thoughts, in a respectful augmentation of theirs, are that there is still very much a role for private citizens, clearly identifying themselves as such, and thus separate from "CDC" efforts, to lobby for neglected structures as well as for human beings, because these landmarks also should be an essential if less urgent part of the human experience in all neighborhoods - and indeed, any well-intended communication can at least modestly fill the gaps which are so plain in the teaching of history and, more broadly, could enhance peoples' capacity to dream and to envision a better place. Beyond that, I am assuming that, as with preservation in other economically challenged neighborhoods, once a will to save something is there, the financial way will come from governments, foundations and any willing individuals.

There is so much that remains undone in the inner city, low-income America, whatever you wish to call it, but I have faith that there are many people out there who see that historic preservation is one part of the puzzle - for jobs, for a greener world that saves the built energy of the past, for community pride and for other reasons.

But in the meantime....

Even though I disagree with the critical views which I received below, I also feel that if I do not have the respect for the people who express them, how can I expect they will give me the time of day?

"They", in this case, were primarily two younger women - Sandy, on 66th, and Ashely, on 65th near Francis, who should certainly be understood in terms of an assumption that they absolutely want what is good and pleasant, as opposed to the jagged and corroded (to quote the above), but, I think, could also have a genuine fear of what is little known rather than thinking of what could be a kind of mini- if land-locked Golden Sidaway Gate Park, once again with that good old imagination.

I thank them for their openness to talk to me, and hope it can continue, with respect on both sides.

Sandy, who at 27 was studying forensic investigation at "Tri-C" (Cuyahoga Community College) and responded that she had lived in the neighborhood for about two years, said that she had not known about the bridge but added in regards to the valley below it that "that's where they hide the bodies" and, that, to "reduce the murders in Ohio," it should not be kept.

I wonder in retrospect if she may have somehow vaguely heard about the Kingsbury Run Murders of the 1930's, and perhaps tales in this section of Cleveland such as that of a doctor who was a suspect living in a house not far away seen here in a view from this past winter....

6011 Butler, Jan. 2, 2012 

After I told her about those relatively ancient crimes, she at least acted stunned, and proclaimed from her porch - with perhaps an entertainer within her and as a visiting friend was nearby - "I'm movin' outta here tomorrow!"

Ashely, who was 21 and is seen here on 65th....

 

 

felt that "you should tear it down" because (due in part to my saying it had stood there unused for 46 years), it was no longer useful and "there's no point in doing anything with it", because of safety and other factors.

I was glad she at least listened to my sense of why it should be saved, and hope her time since we met, in a job she mentioned at a McDonald's on nearby Broadway Avenue, and otherwise, has gone well.

As much as anyone's life is moving forward, it would be hard not to be influenced in your outlook by at least two murders in the immediate area in the months before this past Spring.

The most prominent one was at a house at 6104 Butler Avenue, at the west end of the block where I had interviewed the Taylor boys, Ms. Hardges and Joyce Hairston (in Aug. 2011), with the residence seen here on April 8 after it was boarded up following the killing on October 26th, 2011 of 21-year old Shawn Geiter in front of it....

 

the west side of 6104 Butler

It was clear since that tragedy that he has been widely and deeply missed in his neighborhood (AND on-line), with a memorial in front of the house as of April 8 in these three increasing close-ups of its front entrance area....

    

numerous homages on its west side....

 

graffiti in his memory on nearby homes, as in this one very close to his....

2903 E. 61st Street, at the northeast corner of 61st and Carpenter, to the right, and the home where Shawn Geiter had lived visible (and light-brown in color) in the left-center background

...and shirts remembering Shawn Geiter by his nickname of "Smurf", including one which I saw on 12-year old Andre Taylor, one of my acquaintances on Butler Avenue.

 

On a visit I made on Weds., Aug 8, remembrance for him had continued....

but it seemed likely that it would somehow be swept away with the house, in greater deterioration since April...

 and marked for demolition according to Ms. Hardges, who lives on its immediate east side and was disheartened that as a tear-down it would add to three that she said have happened immediately to HER house's eastern side in the seven years that she has been on this block of Butler. 

At the same time, she hopes that the pine tree in front of Shawn Geiter's house will be saved....

 

looking west to the home where Shawn Geiter had lived [See also endnote 2 for further references to Shawn Geiter.]

Another less publicized but perhaps more brutal murder happened on a quiet cul-de-sac I had admired last year on 66th just south of Wren, just three short blocks south of the bridge.

I heard about it from Lou, who recounted that its victim - Steven Hart, Sr. - "was executed" - shot two times in the back of the head and his house burned with him....

 Steven Hart, Sr.'s home at 2989 E. 66th on April 8, 2012

and Lou briefly memorialized him as "a good dude, laid back" but added that "he wasn't no punk - he didn't go down easy". I did not confirm the exact reason for his murder, but my sense then (and less precisely now, to be sure), is that his murderer had no personal vendetta, except against a world which had somehow made him hardened and angry. [Endnote 3]

While these two tragedies were the deepest valleys I glanced at on April 8, I personally felt the cluster of negative emotion continue in two other encounters as well.

One was with David, a 42-year old man near 61st and Francis who had lived in the neighborhood for virtually his whole life and said of the bridge that "I could care less about it; I've never used it".

Echoing the fact that I was just getting slices of the neighborhood, if meaningful ones, and that you cannot know individuals in all of their complexity, David may very well have cared about at least one piece of the area - the house that he was working on as I walked up his driveway, which he explained had been his grandparents', with his adding that "everybody else used to live here, they moved away, and I'm the only one who's here."

Another somber moment may have just been ordered by the Gods of social dynamics - as they saw the dominant tone of my once-possible "Cleveland Zoo" afternoon -  when I started talking with an older man at the back of a house near 64th and Carpenter. He was not interested in the bridge, or probably much of anything that day, based on his needing to mourn the day before, when, according to him, he had gone to his granddaughter's funeral, volunteering that his son had to take him out of the church because of how emotional he became.

There is no inroad to either David or this man, or at least there would have been no easy and appropriate one at times like those, but arguably to Ashely and Sandy, the young women above. There I hope that my readers do not mind a return to Lou, certainly someone closer to having a pulse on his neighborhood then I do.

His response to their opinions on the bridge, while he had not met them, was that "they don't understand...they have no idea about the value [of it] to the people who have lived around it all of their life".

In a reiteration of something he had said to me on an earlier visit he observed that every 20, 30 or 40 years, neighborhoods revive as an outgrowth of it taking, in his estimation, 20 years of people "bitching" about their area to get improvements, and he used the example of Tremont, a section of the city's near South side, saying it was one of the worst parts of the city in the 70's.

While I personally think that Tremont - with its semi-exotic Orthodox churches, scenic perch on top of a bluff overlooking the city's industrial valley, etc. - has perhaps three times the historic and visual assets of the area next to the south side of "the bridge" -  I once researched how it suffered through a miserable rash of poverty, arson and other ills 30-40 years ago and start to think as I write this about how, three decades ago and more, it was a place beginning to have artists and other pioneers there with great imagination about how it COULD be. Today, I bet that its poverty continues, but its assets include several popular restaurants and clubs, eclectic architecture, and a popular park for arts events, etc. It is far different now than then!

The challenges for the neighborhood of this writing may lie partly in decline not yet rousing enough anger for big change (which I still am concerned would be loads of bland new housing and a proportional loss of character), to the extent that Lou could be right, and his theory could be strengthened by reference to how long it took the CMHA, the City of Cleveland and other players to BEGIN to sweep away the ill-reputed Garden Valley projects for the first phase of the Heritage View homes. [Again, reference to those "other blogs" - or questions and comments - are encouraged!]

At the same time, while part of what's below could contradict what's just above (!)...

...Any weakness in the status of what has at times been called the "Hyacinth" neighborhood around 65th Street may lie partly in its being the northernmost section of what is known as the "North Broadway" or "Slavic Village" neighborhoods, farther from the "heart" of its area - a mile south near 55th and Broadway - as opposed to the sense that the big splash of the Heritage View development, just north of the bridge, may have been relatively less difficult in its being so close to the bigger adjacent influences of both Kinsman Avenue and the "BBC" community development corporation right across the street from it.

In part of the e-mails noted above, Marie Kittredge expressed great support for this northern reach of her CDC's area, saying that "[t]he reason...the Hyacinth neighborhood suffered so badly over the past 5-10 years was a crime spike by some real troublemakers which scared people, at the same time that the foreclosure and fraud crisis was heating up, and that the neighborhood was losing an anchor (St.Hyacinth Church)." She also commented that "[i]n the past few years there have been some very positive developments, including the wonderful Elizabeth Baptist Church making the neighborhood its home, and embracing residents there with all sorts of activities and resources, including the gym for basketball and a regular free meal, and the new RTA Rapid station [at 55th St.]".

She added that [SVD] is in the early stages of launching a new housing development initiative in the vicinity of the Church and the RTA station. [Endnote 4]


Additionally, while there actually IS a pretty large piece of preservation in this immediate section of ("North North Broadway"??) - the Hyacinth Lofts which I noted in my "big blog" of last September - it seems to be in but not of the neighborhood, partly as it is somewhat separated from a number of other residences, standing in isolated attractiveness on the west side of the City-owned Waterman Park. At the same time, I wish it continued good news, am glad it has been reborn and hope for it be more interwoven into a mixed-income neighborhood, as I think about the real and perceived problems with gentrification. [One of the websites with pictures of the Hyacinth development offers a profile from September 2006 of its creator, David Perkowski, at http://realneo.us/David-Perkowski.]

Whatever the case, I hope that there will be an enlargement of positive efforts in the neighborhood, such as a garden I saw near 61st and Francis and the nearby Elizabeth Baptist Church noted above and occupying the structure of the old St. Hyacinth Catholic Church...

 

(as seen in my Sept. 2011 blog)

...and that of course a barrier will someday become a reborn bridge @ 67th and Sidaway....

April 8, 2012

Endnotes

Endnote 1 - E-mail from Tim Tramble, Aug. 27, 2012; e-mails from Marie Kittredge, Sept. 4 and 5, 2012.

Endnote 2 - In recent days (writing here on Aug. 17), I first looked under Shawn Geiter's name on the internet, and, being apprehensive that his murder would follow the long pattern of seemingly anonymous and forgotten young men (and others) killed in various neighborhoods, I easily found items on him, including a notice just after he died mentioning his parents and siblings, giving the time of a funeral service for him in Cleveland's Buckeye neighborhood and displaying a rotating series of short testimonials for him [http://obits.cleveland.com/obituaries/cleveland/obituary.aspx?n=shawn-devon-geiter&pid=154435788#fbLoggedOut].

[On Friday, Oct. 26, I happened to be in the Cleveland area, and, after a visit to Ms. Hardges, was glad to see a number of people who had arrived early that evening for a memorial to Shawn Geiter, making contact with two to whom I will be sending this article.  The house, as expected, was no longer standing, but the pine tree which had been in front of it remained.  {JS, 10/30/12 and 12/12/12}]  


Endnote 3 - Here and elsewhere, I realize that these are sensitive subjects so I hope that whether it is a matter of responding to my comments or my facts, that I will get responses to this writing.]

Endnote 4 - Marie Kittredge in an e-mail quoted earlier of Sept. 4, 2012.

Stories near the Sidaway Bridge

[Note - As with several other blogs so far, thanks for dealing with the need to cut and paste footnote sources, as opposed to clicking on them, if you choose to look them up:)!]

Here, I will start an occasional group of accounts on various people I have met who reside, once lived and/or have worked in the blocks near the Sidaway Bridge. While I may be working to define the purposes of this particular series for a while, I want to honor other peoples' stories with an interest in them alone, but also - with my hope that these individuals will help to save a landmark which is also one of my "stories" - I feel that it is a natural balance to honor theirs.

I have the urge to tie together the experiences just below, but other than living and/or working on the north side of the bridge, the ladies in question here may or may not be highly intertwined; still, you can at least say that they are motivated to enrich their lives and those of others - from sources of energy including a proud family past, a craft skill and the love of one's children.

The biggest story here is the one I am honored to get from Ruby Alexander, already a part of my recent "Chance to Communicate..." blog, seen there [and here just in case!]....

Her biggest observations to me, in a way, were very much of the dreams - quite often realized - of her parents, now deceased - in all they did for the Kinsman neighborhood, and how that continues to fuel positive efforts for the area from her and others.

In the late 1950's, her father, Reverend Marcellus Chatman, started a church northwest of the Kinsman neighborhood, at the major intersection of 55th and Woodland. A few years later, quite possibly in 1961 (with the bulk of this account an oral history from Ms. Alexander), he and his wife - Anna Chatman - noticed that a movie theater building, probably that of the Sun or the King Theater, had become available very close to 71st and Kinsman, and acquired it to have a better location for their Original Harvest Missionary Baptist Church.[Endnote 1]

In offering just a quick sense of her parents' efforts for the community thereafter, Ruby emphasized their dedication and determination in a few different ways, including the picture of her father as a walker - "he would walk everywhere" and her Mom as someone who was "feisty" and "would fight a bear"; still, the most distinctive image for me is of how Ms. Chatman started on the path of improving the lives of children, as she sat, according to her daughter, day after day in the Cleveland City Hall at one point in the late 1960's to hopefully get the ear - and tangible support - of Mayor Carl Stokes.

After a full month of daily visits to the City Hall's lobby, not knowing the Mayor at all when she first began her treks there, and "in fact [catching] a really bad case of the flu [due to the Hall's draftiness]", the Mayor, from what I heard, began to take more and more notice and admiration of her, and finally said "you know what, I'm gonna find you some money".

Her dream got off the ground at that point with support from a large community redevelopment effort known as "Cleveland Now" [Endnote 2],  which gave the then-meaningful seed money of $27,000, with $21,000 of that for building renovation and the rest for salaries. Initially, Ms. Chatman charged as little as $1 to take care of children and up to $15 for a week's worth of day care.

While Rev. Chatman died thereafter in 1972, Ms. Chatman continued working for the community until her passing in 2006, not only in running the Harvest View Day Care Center, but in ways including an anti-violence march which I understand she started at the age of 80 in 2000, with her daughter noting that it would have its 13th annual occurrence this year. Ms. Alexander described it at least generally as a walk up Kinsman Avenue followed by a gathering in the open space next to the Original Harvest Church, where the mood sounded as if it can be festive but also a serious time "to talk about why we want to stop the violence".

Ms. Alexander conveyed that her father was "everybody's Daddy", "if your Momma or Daddy needed food", or if some other request came to him, and similarly, Ms. Chatman was "everybody's Mama", in her strong support for others, one location for that being up a rise from the Kinsman area in another neighborhood centered on Kinsman Avenue - Mt. Pleasant - where, at 140th Street, blocks on the north and south side of the Avenue have been renamed for her, in part because she owned "the first building on 140th" (while I did not clarify which one that was)....

  sign at the southeast corner of 140th & Kinsman [with a counterpart sign at the northwest corner of the intersection as of March 2012]

   
The high regard for the Chatmans went from "everyday people" to the top man or woman in Cleveland (and beyond) - one example being Ruby Alexander's recollection that in her latter years her mother would exclaim "Jane, I need this [or that :)!]" to Jane Campbell, Cleveland's first female mayor - the implication being that she'd be likely to get a positive response. Prior to that, she served under Mayors George Voinovich and Michael White as the head of the city's zoning board and is seen below upon her retirement from 17 years with that agency, which would have been in 1999, based on Ms. Alexander noting that the photo shown here came from the time of Congressman Louis Stokes' retirement that year, after 30 legendary years in Washington which began during his brother Carl's tenure as Mayor. [Endnote 3]....

Here, Anna Chatman is seated and Cleveland's Mayor Michael White (in office 1990-2001) is standing to the immediate left. 

Ruby noted that "my mother was not a politician, but she did know people". From her first impression upon the Stokes brothers, "[they] fell in love with her" and her reputation spread, Senator Ted Kennedy at one point asking "where is that lady named Anna?", and both "Lou" Stokes and Congressman Dennis Kucinich attesting, in the latter's words, that they "spent some time with Anna" - wanting to be in her presence at the funeral home where her service was held, but where, as noted, her good works did not come to an end.

It is interesting that the next neighborhood figure I am fortunate to write about here - Prisicella Fayne [in a repeat performance (!) from an April "...Chance to Communicate" blog and seen here at the Heritage View Community Center]...

also reflected immense pride in her own mother, in part the day of her funeral service in 2007 - describing its bad weather when it was "stormin' so bad" and "ice [was] everywhere" but people came - figuratively speaking - from "all over the world" - including Tennessee, Arkansas, Kansas City, Youngstown, Atlanta, South Carolina and elsewhere, so it is tempting to play up a mother's role, but all I can say is that one of Prisicella's great passions has crafts-making genes from somewhere.

I met her at the March 24 neighborhood meeting I have described earlier (see the above-noted  "Chance to Communicate...." article) where a raffle included her giving away 20 pieces of her jewelry, samples of which she later showed me at her home, which was, like the meeting, in the Heritage View residential development. Prisicella proudly noted that her work is "elegant", and it is here in two small doses for further sharing and hopefully active interest....

Posting this tiny exhibit is intended partly to encourage a quick update on her business (!), and also to promote her wishes for her neighborhood this past March, voiced perhaps deliberately in part within the idea of beauty and appearance, but largely from the sense of pride she wants other neighbors to have in what has risen on the site of the Garden Valley projects.

Prisicella said "I hope that they keep it like it is - beautify it, pick it up - what it's gonna hurt? How you live is where you live [and] we all must bring about [the change we want]."

For another interviewee in my April writing on the bridge - Cathy Parris - one of the changes she wants is short and simple in a sense, but deeply felt within her as a mother - for her son Octavius, with whom she is seen here this past March....

Octavius, who is 35, has multiple sclerosis and one of the challenges which Cathy expressed coming out of that is of not being able to get burial insurance, saying that companies she called denied it because of his condition. Cathy, perhaps not distraught or discouraged, but saddened, said "I don't know why people don't want to bury people with a disability - it's just dirt. How hard is it to dig a hole in the ground, and why should anyone be denied [that opportunity]?"

Here too, I hope to share that the pursuit has seen progress since early in this year and to see if others are dealing with similar situations....

....................................................

Endnote 1 - As of last December, a stone plaque to the right of the church's door at 7101 Kinsman, which I then wrote down with accuracy but not exactly (!), basically read: "Harvest Missionary Baptist Church - organized August 4, 1957 / Mrs. Anna L.Chatman First Lady / Rev. Marcellus Chatman / Pastor / Built April 2, 1961 / Rev. Marcellus Chatman Founder and Pastor".

I am not sure as to the "Built [4/2/61]" notation here, guessing the current church building dates from the last 30 years at the most and that "[b]uilt..." may refer to the renovation of the one-time movie theater at the site of the current church.
 
Endnote 2 - A quick sense of "Cleveland Now" is provided within a biography of Mayor Carl Stokes at http://cleveland.about.com/od/famousclevelanders/p/carlstokes.htm and an article on the program from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, at  http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CN3.

 
Endnote 3 - Two brief biographies on Louis Stokes are respectively at the website for the University of Texas System Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) (http://research.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=36851) and one within the "Biographical Directory of the United States Congress" at http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=s000948].

The Sidaway Bridge - A Chance to Communicate in Kinsman, March 23-25, 2012

The big headline here - if its "front page" is a tiny bit yellowed as I write this on April 20 - is in regards to an unexpected chance I had to talk at one of a number of at least seasonal meetings in the Kinsman neighborhood, on Sat., March 24, 2012. I felt it was generously offered and part of a positive time over three days of talking with people who live and/or work on the north side of the bridge. As the number of people with whom I spoke expanded, I also decided to venture into a side-bar to the Sidaway Bridge, of relating other stories, inspirations and causes in the "bridge area", and I hope - by the end of April if I can manage that - that you will read that part of my blog as well, under the heading of "So Many Stories".

Thanks to a chance encounter....

[As I begin this write-up, please bear with an initial "picture desert", partly because several important points come up in the paragraphs below!]

On Friday, March 23, I was at a rummage sale at the back of the Garden Valley Neighborhood House just off of 71st and Kinsman, partly because I wanted to find out more about what is happening at the front of "GVNH" as I have begun to refer to it, with there appearing to be historic preservation in the making, of a structure which happens to be six years older than the bridge (with a 1924 cornerstone within its Kinsman Avenue facade). In addition, I was dressed for an interview with a neighborhood leader that Friday, but I had not taken a more casual shirt which would be better for going down through the underbrush around the bridge.

I told a lady who was folding and arranging clothes at the sale why I was in the neighborhood and she informed me of the meeting I've noted, saying it would be at the community center of the Heritage View homes the next day and hosted by Burten Bell Carr (BBC), which you may recall from my first "bridge" blog of Sept. 2011 as the CDC (community development corporation) for Kinsman and at least two nearby neighborhoods.

To make a long story shorter, I was in the entry area of BBC shortly thereafter writing a note to its director Tim Tramble (also noted in my first blog), in which I said I'd like to meet him after my first meeting, when I received an audience much better than that. He came out, I said "I'm writing a note to Tim Tramble", and he said - "I am Tim Tramble".

Good enough, in a sense, but what followed was a half-hour plus with him prior to a deadline he had, including the possibility of my speaking to the community meeting the next day, and perhaps more importantly, a few key subjects, which I'll boil down here.

Welcoming dialogue on my interest in historic preservation, his main point may have been a wariness about introducing visions such as one of saving the bridge, without the tangible support to get them achieved. He bolstered this by saying that everything that BBC said it would do or support in an action plan in 2006 has been realized or is being started, including the building of much of the Heritage View homes to replace the Garden Valley projects and a repaving of Kinsman Avenue.

At the same time, I was glad that he was positive about the component that someone like me could bring to goals such as saving the bridge - in short, with no money and no active plan for that, but being part of a dialogue, which, if sufficiently positive, can help to create the political will for money and plans to be developed by citizens, foundations and governments.

An enjoyable and spirited neighborhood gathering

On Sat., March 24, while I did get an opportunity to speak to at least 60 area residents, I feel my time at the meeting, just off of Kinsman Avenue, would have still been upbeat without that.

One of the meetings' positives is that so much of it dealt with ideas and plans very much underway for a greener and more environmentally friendly city. While I personally am more interested in historic than environmental preservation, I would reiterate that both are hugely important and the more "natural" cause might literally be the main base for my main "cause" here, with the bridge crossing a real and potential green space as it does. 

The meeting agenda included an urban farm near 82nd and Kinsman and a cafe with that farm's produce and other nearby foods being planned for "Bridgeport Place", the development noted and partly pictured early on in my September 2011 writing here. An update was also provided on another farm at nearby 82nd and Otter (endnote 1) run by an organization known as the "Rid-All Green Partnership", whose representatives came attired in shirts with the phrase "green 'n tha ghetto". 

This brief green spurt reminds me of something Tim Tramble noted to me, that a number of people in Kinsman (and many other big-city neighborhoods I'll bet) want all of the present houses to remain, and new ones to be built in place of the old ones which have been lost, and that he would agree with that in the ideal situation, but as Cleveland has hemorrhaged population, that is sadly unrealistic and a positive adaptation is in large part one of greening the city.

My perspective, somewhat similarly, is a wish to save as many as possible of the houses of Cleveland's boom years (largely 1870-1920 for the north side of the bridge area), but - if to a different degree - I agree with Tim Tramble that that cannot be a reality, in a city which has shrunk from a 1950 high of 914,808 to a 2010 census figure of 396,815 (endnote 2).  In that regard, and hoping this is a useful paraphrasing of earlier comments here, if you have lemons, make green lemonade!

Returning though to the Sat., March 25 meeting, Tim announced towards the end of it that I would make a brief presentation, and he prefaced it with an idea of my passion for the bridge and the observation that I had come all the way from Philadelphia (!).

My sense of peoples' response is at the very least of an attentive listening, after a long but at times lively meeting.  In terms of opinions on the bridge, my general conclusion would be that four or more people freely voiced their feelings and that, with one exception, they were positive, including one lady saying that "that bridge" is as important as any church (or other landmark) in the neighborhood.

One resident with whom I spoke, Prisicella Fayne...

 living in what is at present the sole mid-rise of Heritage View, at 7230 Kinsman, definitely had an appreciation of history around the bridge, if in a form I had not heard before. She noted that she had become acquainted with the bridge as the "Hyanasac" Bridge, a name which I will definitely listen for in future talks with residents.

The one attendee who was in part critical of saving the bridge - at present - was Cathy Parris, seen here on a later visit with the bridge as a backdrop...

and also a resident at Heritage View.  She said to the gathering that saving the bridge did not have her vote, at least as long as there would be security concerns with the overgrowth covering it during warm weather.  With that, while I was so appreciative of the community hospitality and with the handful of residents who approached me after the meeting, my main interest was meeting Cathy, partly to honor all viewpoints, and partly - quite honestly - because I always want the chance - as I assume others would - to present my total bases for any policy, proposal, etc., in hopes of people listening and considering different viewpoints.

Today's Anxieties, yesterday's fears and hopes for the future

On Sunday, March 25, during a friendly and leisurely discussion, Kathy clearly shared her concerns about security vis-a-vis the bridge, and it was easy to understand them in a somewhat tangible sense, since she lives RIGHT next to the lawn next to its north side, as underscored in this view from her house....

With scenarios of looking outside at, say "12:30, 1 o'clock in the morning" and wondering "why is these young guys coming across?", she concluded that "after certain times, shouldn't nobody need to be crossing that bridge".

In the end, though, she said that she would be in favor of renewing this landmark if there are definite safety provisions for its reuse, including a clear view of it heightened by lights, cameras and perhaps closure of the bridge late at night.

Our talk reminded me of the "charettes" pursued in many places by neighborhood residents, urban design students and the like - often theoretical but hopeful and solution-oriented as well, but Cathy moved on to another basic - and somewhat similar matter of "hearts and history" which still, decades later, might not be as easy to solve as common-sense security matters.

Here, her sharing of views came from her exact location, which not surprisingly has begun to prompt new visitors to her home to think and reminisce about the bridge, and one of them, a man who drives her son Octavius to medical services, "remembered when [people on Francis Avenue, south of the bridge] set it on fire during the [Hough] riots of 1966...in the wee hours of the morning".

Once again, the 900-pound gorilla of race (both summarized and at times detailed in my September 2011 writing) entered the picture, and on this visit, my internal voice said "can you spell truth and reconciliation commission?" as I thought that such a group, which seemed to partly bridge a monumental gap in late 20th-century South Africa, may also be needed when stories are told of a dyed-in racism in Cleveland and other 20th-century Northern cities during the same general period.

Still, against the backdrop of anxiety that one side may be more to blame than the other for the bridge's long demise, the driver whose anecdote Cathy gave me was an older white man, and Lou, on the south side near 65th, also said that whites burned the bridge's planks in response to the riots (a repeat of brief histories cited in my first bridge blog).

A "north-side" echo of this came from Debbie Wilson, a life-long Kinsman resident currently living near 69th and Kinsman and seen here at the Harvest Day Care Center, where she has been an employee for 41 years....

Ms. Wilson said of residents from the south side of the bridge that "they used to burn the planks", and "we used to run out [to watch] when the fire trucks came" with her and other neighborhood residents not knowing "why they did it", but, again, this seemed to be delivered factually, with no recrimination, and was partly in the context of other, happy memories of the landmark.

Not as adventurous as Greg Wallace or as Lou (both noted here, at least in earlier blogs) - with her saying that "my mother told us not to go [on the bridge]", Debbie told me that "me and my sisters used to play on it" as "we'd go a little bit halfway", sneaking on to it, and "I'd talk with my boyfriend [on the bridge]".

As we spoke on Friday, March 23, we were joined by Ruby Alexander, the head of the center...

all of us there courtesy of Judy Johnson, who I hope will be remembered from my first blog!

Debbie Wilson was in agreement with Ms. Alexander's thought that a renewed bridge would strengthen the community now, giving another option, for instance, to get to the "Metro Health Clinic" - which Ms. Alexander mentioned, and perhaps two miles below the bridge on the key thoroughfare of Broadway Avenue. She also observed that if the bridge were still functioning in these last few years, she would have been able to easily walk to and from a building (noted in passing in my March 25 blog) that was until recently an active distribution center for the regionally famous "Dan-Dee" potato chips", when their food company made donations to an annual anti-violence march which will continue this year on Kinsman Avenue.

Both women cherished not just the memories of Kinsman but its special qualities today, with Ruby Alexander saying that despite decline because of drugs and other forces that the neighborhood "is still vibrant and wonderful". While Debbie Wilson has devoted her life to the area, Ruby Alexander represents part of the second generation of her family's long-term service to the neighborhood, and I wanted to debut an occasional segment of this series with a short account of that commitment, especially of her father and mother, under the title of "So Many Stories", seeing these coming accounts as brief journeys into a few of the memories and aspirations today, on both sides of the Sidaway Avenue Suspension Bridge.     
 


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endnote 1 - 82nd and Otter is roughly 5-7 blocks northeast of 72nd and Kinsman, and pointed out here: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&q=Otter+Avenue+-+Cleveland&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x8830fb1404897b25:0x7d757ebe5cd3868a,Otter+Ave,+Cleveland,+OH+44104&gl=us&ei=uMiQT8b5FsTM6QGMoIWABA&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CB4Q8gEwAA.

endnote 2 - Cleveland's 2010 figure is noted in a number of places, but confirmed here with a March 9, 2011 Cleveland Plain Dealer article "2010 census population numbers show Cleveland below 400,000; Northeast Ohio down 2.2 percent" at http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2011/03/2010_census_figures_for_ohio_s.html and the 1950 U.S. census's "Table 18. Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1950" as reproduced at http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab18.txt.

The city's 1950 peak is based here on the above 3/9/11 "PD" article and on "State & County QuickFacts" for "Cleveland (city), Ohio" at http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/39/3916000.html.