Community Matters

Last Friday afternoon, I nervously took the podium in front of a small audience at The Municipal Art Society’s Summit for New York City. I was honored to accept the Yolanda Garcia Community Planner Award. I prepared a speech that I hoped would be able to tell the story of how I became involved in urban planning at the community, grassroots level.

I knew the facts, I had to it was my story, but what I didn’t know is how deeply I had been hurt as an a small child by my own housing conditions and my family’s inability to access decent affordable housing in our economically and culturally diverse community – The Upper West Side.

I felt a lump in my throat while tears rolled down my face as I shared with everyone how devastated I was when my mother had to tell my brother and I that we wouldn’t be moving into 65 West 96^th Street. Also known as Tower West, a newly constructed Mitchell-Lama building in 1971, was to provide affordable housing for low and moderate income tenants. My mother applied for Tower West when I was 10 years old back in 1971, but we were ineligible because my mother did not earn enough money to pay the monthly rent of $300. 

We would have to remain where we lived at 328 West 96 Street, just off the West Side Highway near Riverside Drive. It was a very scary building where muggings often took place and heroin junkies used to shoot up.

I didn’t know until I shared my story at the MAS Summit for New York City, how painful that memory was for me.  Last Friday, as I recalled how I became involved in community organizing and planning I uncovered how deeply hurt I was by these particular events in my childhood. I discovered that my personal pain was the fuel for the important work I am involved in at Strycker’s Bay. It wasn’t only the injustice I believed families of this community were facing; it was my own very painful experience as a little girl that drew me in. I knew what it was like to be a child living in a place that was not only over crowded, but unsafe. 

Home should be a decent, safe place to live. Without the safety of a place to call home, it is difficult for children and their families to thrive. Research has shown that "risk factors such as poor physical conditions and low economic resources in a neighborhood threaten school outcomes" (Woolley et al.) The West Side is and has always been a wonderful place to live and working to maintain its diversity as a community for ALL has always been part of Strycker’s Bay’s mission. 

All of our programs focus on supporting families and their efforts to thrive and remain in their community. As I discovered a longtime ago affordable housing matters, community matters, and people matter. 

Strycker’s Bay programs include:

Eviction Prevention Helpline

Affordable Housing Helpline

LACASA After School Program

LACASA Summer Camp Program

Projects Now Under Development

LACASA Parent and Student Advocacy Program

LACASA Academic Tutoring and Support Program

Community Matters

We have a "Community Matters" event planned for early December where we will hope to network with our neighbors and share the projects and programs we are engaged in. We also want to hear from our neighbors on the work they are doing to create and maintain a livable West Side.

Until the next post...

Kelley