In My Hood

Today I felt the need to write this because of the level of pisstivity (yes I made that up) that I experienced today.

I have been on my health ish for the last 28 days and no matter what happens after I get home from work, I must do some type of physical activity. It was a nice day today and I decided that Jaz (my daughter) and I would go to the park. I would take my walk while she rode her bike. There's a park right around the corner, McCarthy Park. It's convenient and it's walking distance.

Sounds like a nice park right? WRONG! The last time I went to McCarthy which was last Spring, there had to be at least 100 kids up there fighting, threatening to shoot each other and whatever other types of bodily harm you could imagine. I felt like I was in danger so I said I would never go back because of that. New year, new feelings...maybe something has changed. WRONG again.

As soon as we entered the park I see little hoodrats chillin along the fence cussin like aint nobody's business. The tables were full of kids just sitting there, not running or playing; just sitting and cussing. So i avoided the crowd and went the other direction. More rats, grown ass women just walking mad slow and talking mad loud. I kept walking. Broken glass all over the track. I was so disgusted. All I could think was "Delaware Park don't look nothing like this". I was so mad that I went home and just worked out there.

Some of you that will read this will agree with me when I say that this is unacceptable. Some of you will say well at least we have a park in the hood. I will agree with the latter BUT just because it's in the hood doesn't mean that we need to treat it like crap. And when we treat things like nature like crap, guess what? WE get treated like crap.

For those that live in or have lived in Buffalo you already know the difference between the two parks. Delaware is located right on the edge of North Buffalo. The landscape is beautiful, the Buffalo Zoo is right in the park. There's four well kept basketball courts, tennis courts, volleyball field, a small golf course, a few man made ponds, a bike path, a huge circle to walk around for exercise, etc. And there is heavy police presence there as well. You get the gist.

McCarthy has the same stuff believe it or not (except for the Zoo). There's even a football field at McCarthy, a small one but there is one. What's the difference? It's near one of the worst neighborhoods in Buffalo, Central Park. There's litter everywhere, vandalism, the landscape is not appealing at all. It's not very well lit at night. There's no police presence. The only time I see police in that park is when they're looking for someone. People are sitting in their cars smoking, drinking. It's a neighborhood hangout. I don't want to go there to exercise. I feel scared and unsafe.

My question is why is that we treat Delaware Park like a gem and McCarthy like a shithole? They are both a part of the Olmsted Park System. Even MLK Park gets better treatment. I have the answer. Black folks in certain areas don't appreciate the gift of nature. They don't appreciate the fact that there is a park that was put there for children to play, a place to relax, a place to get fit. I should be able to go to the park and exhale. But they see it as a place to get loose and act niggerish. I should be able to let Jaz go to the park with her buddies and not have to worry about of she is going to get jumped by some disrespectful kids. My mom used to let us walk to park by ourselves. I cant do that. I see kids gets jumped over here all the time.

People are going to get offended by my words and say that I ain't hood. I grew up in the hood, right on Genessee and Fillmore. Now I'm on the other side of town which isn't so bad for the most part but I'm so over it. If we have to live here, why can't we respect it just like we respect North Buffalo when we visit there? I don't see anybody walking around Delaware smoking weed out in the open. I have never seen a broken beer bottle, a dirty diaper anywhere in that park. People say well the city don't clean up the park. Why don't they clean up McCarthy?? Because ya'll keep tearing it up! We don't care so why should they. Why don't they clean up some of these neighborhoods? We don't care so why should they.

Why don't we care? Why do we continue to make the neighborhoods worse and worse? Why don't we take a stand? Sometimes it takes one person to get up and say "enough". MLK got a new splash pad because somebody stood up and said enough. Yeah it's taking forever to finish but I would take Jaz over there to play. Look at what's happening with what used to another bad neighborhood the Fruitbelt. The medical campus is expanding. That neighborhood will be full of 100K houses soon. If we don't change our neighborhood, someone will come along and do it for us. I love my people but everyday, I'm starting to not like them so much because of things like McCarthy Park.

Should I be that person that stands up and says "enough"? It's a thought but it starts with the community. Until then, back to Delaware I go!