Isn't it a general rule - people who've had restraining orders filed against
them by their neighbors don't get invited to the block parties?
I'm just saying ...
"S. Sharrieff Ali" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) } Melani
I noticed you
removed the sales signature from your e-mail post when you replied.
If you want me to be truthful..than I will. I wish all the sales people who
have invaded this
community discussion listserv would save all your sales for when your not
on this list!! ..
Keep it simple and sign off as
Melani
Simply Me.
So there..honesty from me to you.
I am not going to spend much time discussing racism in our community beyond
these
two stories:
Story 1 takes place directly after the 9/11 attack in New York. My neighbor
rings my bell,
I answer, he is standing there with a flag, he says put this up right away,
I say why,
He says trust me Sharrieff.
Story 2 takes place about 10 months ago, my neighbors are planning a Block
Party at
a neighbors house..not in the street, at a neighbors house. A neighbor is
passing out
flyers and skips my house (I know this because I happen to be looking out my
window),
I later ask why my house was skipped, the neighbor says maybe I just dont
like you.
Keep in mind I am the only African American owned house on the block.
Coincidence?
1945 or 2007? People still fear the black man Melani, even if hes
middle-class.
Let me be a witness, yes Melani, you have given a tremendous amount of time
to our community,
however, beyond many of us, you benefit in a very different way due to the
fact you sell
this community for a living..and judging from you advertised sales success,
to the tune of many
$$$$$$$. Enlightened self interest? Penn doesnt have the market cornered on
that one!
Melani, you are our best cheerleader for sure, I will always be third and UCD
will be our worst-first.
Irrational fear? I think not. Look around you
look at our city, look at the
incidents of crime in our
community over the last two years. Is it really wise to create the spin which
says its really not
too bad, it is not as bad as Center City? Is it wise to ignore the
stickers, banners and vandalism
and blame it all on frat-boys and track-stars?
I think it is smarter to recognize the facts and have a plan. UCD wont
launch a safety related web-site
because it interferes with the marketing of the area, I have asked. The
program which started as the
clean & safe support of the community has become the areas premiere
business and neighborhood
marketing organization full of employees who live in the suburbs!!
Our neighborhood is not broken beyond repair but it is failing in many
ways
failing to support the
diversity which makes us the most unique community in our city, failing to
build bridges between our
strengths, failing to take our heads out of our asses and ACT!
What are we waiting for anyway?
Heads out and up!
S
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2007 6:51 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; UnivCity@list.purple.com
Subject: Re: [UC] plethora of smashed car windows this morning
In a message dated 4/29/07 3:24:46 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
.....Fear is not good for sales right? Well the lack of fear will get you
killed!
Heads up?
S
Irrational fear is not good for anything. Irrational fear - racism - gave
our neighborhood an undeserved bad reputation for way too long. People new to
the area looked around and saw people who didn't look the same as they did.
The new people were afraid. Unfortunately, they had classmates and colleagues
in every department at Penn who lived elsewhere, and shared that uninformed
racism, and fed the newcomers' fear. It still goes on: way too often, I still
run into people who have never been west of 45th St., or 43rd St., or 40th St.,
or some other crazy divider. A new CHOP doctor and her husband, just arrived
from San Francisco, came to an open house I had at 47th just south of
Springfield last weekend. She said she'd been told not to live south of
Springfield Avenue. That was a new one for me: I've often heard "don't live
south of Baltimore," but I'd never heard Springfield.
We spent years - you, Sharrieff, and I, and a lot of other community folks -
working to convince the rest of the world that this is a GOOD place to live,
that the different faces here are a POSITIVE part of our community - one of the
most positive assets we have here. I like to think that we made some tiny
dent, somewhere, in the thinking that has white people crossing the street
every time a young black man approaches.
Do bad things happen here, sometimes? Of course. It's the big city. They
happen in center city and many other respectable neighborhoods, too. Fear is
not good for cities - not sales! City people have to be aware and willing to
take a few precautions. As a matter of fact, four young boys tried to mug my
son a couple of weeks ago as he was vacuuming out his car at the car wash at
47th, is it, & Chestnut. He's a city kid, though, so he saw it coming and took
action to show them he wasn't afraid, and then he left. Like Robin said about
her daughters' young would-be muggers, we need to be aware. But I don't think
we need to go overboard and believe that the neighborhood is failing.
Sharrieff, that was kind of a cheap shot, to suggest that I care more about
sales than about my neighborhood. I'm sure you didn't mean it that way, but
people who don't know me, who don't know how long I've worked for, and loved,
this neighborhood, might draw that conclusion from what you wrote.
Melani
Melani Lamond, Associate Broker
Urban & Bye, Realtor
3529 Lancaster Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
cell phone 215-356-7266
office phone 215-222-4800, ext. 113
office fax 215-222-1101
**************************************
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