Gabber Reporter: ‘I Am A Racist’
May 12th, 2007 by Alex Pickett in Blogroll, Flashbacks & Updates, The Morning PapersBack in April, I wrote a piece on the gentrification of the Bartlett Park neighborhood in St. Pete and the tensions simmering in the community. In one of my subsequent blog posts, I mentioned a blog written by a Gulfport Gabber reporter and Bartlett Park resident, Cathy Salustri. Her entry “I Had A Dream,†in which she admits that living in the majority African-American neighborhood has turned her into a racist, is now a front-page story in this week’s Gabber. The 15,000-circulation Pinellas County weekly has recently begun reporting on Midtown issues, and I have to wonder if this piece will come back to haunt the paper’s main scribe. On her newest personal blog entry, Salustri says people have told her she has courage for writing such a potentially inflammatory piece.
I’ll let you make up your own mind. Read it here.
May 12th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
I met Cathy Salustri on two occasions. While I don’t know her I think that she is an honest journalist who strives for objectivity while having great concern for the wellbeing of Southside residents. I don’t believe that she is a racist.
Its interesting that both she and Alex Pickett lived in the Bartlett Park neighborhood and wrote about a subject that they knew well. And had seemingly opposite conclusions. They lived in the two opposite corners of our neighborhood. Alex was near the lovely Bayboro waterfront and Cathy was in one of our remaining drug holes. Male and female perspectives can be quite different.
Cathy had the misfortune to live on a block with an extremely high level of drug traffic. Our Community Service Officer reported on this to a group of residents last month. This cop has seen a lot but he seemed amazed by the volume of traffic. He told us that while on surveillance he counted 35 cars in one hour. This sale of drugs goes on 24/7. Her home is also close to the notorious Harbordale neighborhood where a mother and a 15-year-old were recently murdered in two separate incidents.
Could anyone not be influenced by two years of being surrounded by crime, violence, gunfire and disorder?
If she had given the neighborhood more time she would have found a large number of black residents who are the best neighbors you could ever meet.
The folks hanging around the street corners are not representative of the majority but they are all you see unless you go to neighborhood meetings or are invited into peoples homes.
Until recently most black families didn’t care for this area or our people. I have known many upwardly mobile black neighbors who sold or rented out their homes here and moved to safer places like Lakewood and Pinellas Point. A housing agency was practically giving away a home near here but they were turned down by one family after another. Would you call these black families racist because they didn’t want their kids to grow up among gangsters and wannabes?
A young black woman recently told our neighborhood meeting that she had thought that buying her home was the “worst mistake I have ever made in my life”. Her opinion changed when the drug hole across the street from her home was cleaned up and the XXX bookstore at the end of her block closed in anticipation of a new Starbucks.
The good news is this neighborhood is rapidly improving. In the year after crime watch was organized drug sale reports to police were up 400%. This crime had flourished because residents did not report crime. Chief Harmon reorganized community policing to beef up patrols here and in other areas where they are needed. Rental units are being sold to black and white families who want to live here.
Next Saturday hundreds of religious leaders will meet to plan a transformation of South St. Pete. They are moving to practical crime prevention tactics.
Stay tuned for more positive news.
May 13th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
From my blog (cathysalustri.blogspot.com), in response to Tom Tito:
Tito makes some excellent points about our neighborhood, but he says one thing that I believe is flawed:
“If she had given the neighborhood more time she would have found a large number of black residents who are the best neighbors you could ever meet.”
While he may be right, I believe that life consists of little moments rather than the big picture. If I stayed here longer I might, indeed, see that. But here’s the thing that haunts me, the thing that has prompted me to call a Realtor and list the house:
525,600 minutes.
If you’ve seen Rent you get the reference, but if you haven’t, let me explain. That’s how many minutes it takes to measure a year. I have almost a million minutes of my life spent here, a million minutes spent having to call police. A million minutes spent having things stolen. A million minutes spent disgusted with the City, my neighbors, the absentee landlords, and, finally, with myself.
A million minutes spent learning to hate.
Those are minutes I will never get back and I cannot change. Sure, if I give the neighborhood more time that might change. I believe the neighborhood will change, probably for the better.
I used to work for Pinellas County. In our building we had a lot of career employees. I watched one too many people suffer through decades of what amounted to abject misery because the County had pretty decent retirement. They had goals, dreams, plans… and they suffered because the end, they believed, would justify the means. And I watched more than one of those people die just before retirement or immediately after. They never got the prize, just the rough road along the way.
I don’t know what’s going to happen in my life. Five years ago I was on a different track altogether. Three years ago I had no intention of ever leaving Gulfport. Two years ago I had high hopes for this adorable little house on 21st Avenue South. And today I want more than anything to sell that adorable home and move somewhere that lets me enjoy the minutes that paint the big picture.
That’s all any of us have is right now. It’s 8:07 now. 8:08 is not a guarantee. All I have is how much I like who and what and where I am right now. I love who I am, I can admit what I am, but as for the where? It isn’t where I need or want to be.
If you can promise me- PROMISE me- that I have another 20 years left, another 10, or, hell, even another day, I will stay here. I’ll wait it out.
Any takers?
May 14th, 2007 at 3:45 am
Hey Cathy,
i understand why people have said your post is courageous. We like to think of racists as truck drivin, rebel flagging waving tv show stereotypes but…How many arty, progressive, urban pioneer types harbor these same thoughts but keep them to themselves or find euphemisms to hide the essentially racist nature of their thoughts and beliefs.
Bartlett Park didn’t make you a racist, it uncovered it, made it impossible to ignore, it moved like a freight train through you because the tracks had been laid long ago.
One year in a neighborhood gave you permission to access the ugliest thoughts. How much more do you think a lifetime in a neighborhood where drugs were allowed to flourish, where calling the police might get someone killed, where the contempt for those living there shows up in the lack of services.
Institutionalized racism is real and thinking good thoughts and imagining a world where we all live together in harmony does not change the realities.
Black economic strength–availability of livable wage jobs in the urban core leading to a resurgence in the black middle class will create stability and ownership in neighborhoods, political clout to get things done.
You should read up on history and see how the black economic opportunites have been undermined time and time again. But you don’t have to read up. You don’t have to educate yourself, or rededicate yourself to finding solutions or asking tough political questions.
The issues are complicated, hundreds of years in the making and require action by all parties to even begin the remedy most of us will not see come to fruition in our lifetime.
Problem is most people aren’t willing to do what is necessary. They hold out comforting ideas that their good hearts are alll that it takes to reverse the legacy and continued impact of racism subtle and overt.
You are a racist, but Midtown didn’t make you one.
May 14th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Cathy, I think you’re confusing poverty with skin color. You live in a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood; blacks are predominately poor, the ones in your neighborhood have probably never lived any other way and will probably never have the chance to do so (or don’t even know how to), the cops aren’t trying to make things better, and neither are you with your attitude. Had you lived in Town n’ Country and had the same problems, you’d call yourself a racist and blame the Latinos.
We live in a society where minorities aren’t afforded the same opportunities as white Anglo Saxons. You even mention in your article how your skin color gives you an advantage, though you don’t seem to recognize the fact that blacks (and minorities in general) are disadvantaged for the same reason.
I know you feel justified and it’s nice you can be honest, but your arguments just seem like excuses to me and are (in my opinion) just the symptom of a greater societal problem: our need to use our experiences as the foundation for the broad generalizations we make about other races. In sum, your article feeds into the neverending cycle of racism.
May 14th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
I’d also like to add that it’s pretty damn sad that a news publication actually picked this up. It’s a sign of the times, I guess.
May 14th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Leilani,
I’m poor, too. I live in that neighborhood. It doesn’t justify anything.
I appreciate your comments, but I wonder: how would you suggest I make things better?
I’m not sure if you follow The Gabber, but if you do you know that this piece is the third in a three part series. The second part addressed how others on the southside perceive St. Petersburg’s efforts in their neighborhoods. I’ve attempted to cover this issue from several angles, AND I have attempted to report on the failures and successes of the City’s initiatives. One of the things I want to make crystal clear, to you and everyone else who has only seen this entry, is that the St. Petersburg police, in my perception as well as almost everyone I know in the southside, are NOT the problem. They are limited, many say, by the city. They’ve attempted to be honest with me in telling me to move; they should not be penalized for that. I have tremendous respect for what the officers in my neighborhood are tasked with, even if they fail.
The argument that “they won’t have a chance to do so” falls down when you consider that the world is peppered with success stories of people who pulled themselves out of situations like those that exist in my neighborhood. Being poor or poor parenting or alcoholism or whatever is not an excuse. At some point you must stop being a victim of your upbringing.
And I think you’re missing the point: I don’t like how I feel. I know right from wrong, and I know what I’m feeling isn’t right.
As for a news pub picking this up, I’d like to point out that your paper has given this far more press than mine.
May 14th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Ah yes, the old “boot strap” gambit. The last refuge of the flailing moderate.
Doesn’t matter how bad things are for you. Doesn’t matter that they can accurately predict the need for prison beds based on standardized test score by the 5th grade. Racism enforced by law and by custom, by noose and by gun.
By action and neglect. Interstates placed through the heart of black business districts, environmental pollution. Substandard services, limited opportunities. Doesn’t matter because one out of 500,000 made it out, overcame the odds so I don’t want to hear your little sob story.
I guess I’ll quit working and saving money because people keep winning the lottery and it could happen for me too. Or hang on, I’ll get a recording contract, or get recruited by a sports team.
You point to exceptions to lessen your guilt about the rules. Police suggest that the nice white lady ought not live in this neighborhood. Realtor suggests the nice white lady shouldn’t move to this neighborhood. (illegal by the way…did you call the police? Oh I see, you didn’t want to snitch on one of your own)
Yeah the hood can give you an attitude. One tough enough to take care of yourself, but hopefully not so tough it makes you a target. It only took one year for you. (Does your dog bite? HELL YES) Imagine if you grew up there. By the way, being broke and being poor aren’t the same thing.
I think you should move. I hope people stop trying to convince you to stay. I prefer a straight up racist over someone who inflicts the same pain while trying to make me feel sorry for her.
May 14th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Cathy,
I’m grew up poor, I’m poor now and I, too, live in a multi-cultural (non-white dominant) neighborhood. But I can’t even BEGIN to imagine what poor blacks have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. I’m sorry, but neither can you. Regardless of how you’ve attempted to cover the issue and how thoroughly entrenched in the Southside/Midtown issues you claim to be, the bottom line is that you’ve decided to label your ongoing frustrationas racism without examining the root of the issue — an issue you claim doesn’t justify anything.
You can argue that St. Pete police aren’t the problem — but what are they truly doing to make things better? They shouldn’t be telling you to move; they should be taking steps to make the neighborhood liveable for the noncriminals, ESPECIALLY if they [the police] know it’s a problem area. How can a problem be solved if everyone — including law enforcement — is unwilling and unable to do more than tell the whites in the neighborhood to move somewhere else? How does that SOLVE anything?
You say “the world is peppered with success stories of people who pulled themselves out of situations like those that exist in my neighborhood. Being poor or poor parenting or alcoholism or whatever is not an excuse. At some point you must stop being a victim of your upbringing.” How can people stop being victims of their upbringing when nothing is done to improve said upbringing? Regardless of all the steps people try to take to make things better — the “success stories” — there are 100 more obstacles to keep the poor, poor, and the rich, rich (or richer). “Peppered” is right, if you mean that the success stories serve as seasoning to the huge number of failure stories. I blame the government, I blame the media and articles like the one you wrote, and I blame myself for being unable to more than offer a defense for those who can’t do it themselves.
It seems like you, as a journalist, would want to avoid make sweeping generalizations about racism just because you have a few years of experience living and reporting on a bad neighborhood. That’s how I suggest that you make things better. And I didn’t miss your point — I get that you feel really uncomfortable and unhappy about how you feel. I just think you need to re-examine where you’re coming from.
May 14th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Keith and those that preach that same old tired rhetoric are every bit as racist as a Klansman. Wielding race as both carrot and stick as they see fit. We whiteys will never understand, we have it so much easier than our black brothers and sisters merely because of our skin color. If those statements are your truth, then what hope is there friends. We\\\’re forbidden to empathize with them simply because we\\\’re white, because no matter how hard life has been, they\\\’ve had it worse. You\\\’re judging us based solely on the basis of our skin color, so why are you so much better than those at whom you cry racist? The problem is that yes, the system is broken, but that system includes current black popular culture, and those black leaders who use race for their own ends. It\\\’s going to take respected people of color to stop explaining away these behaviors and casting blame at the system, all the while sowing dissention between races. We need to stop decrying what\\\’s wrong and start working to make it right. Stop tolerating a lack of education and ambition. Stop accepting unsustainable birthrates and absentee fathers as \\
May 14th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
*continued from previous due to error in submission*
“that’s just life in the hood.” Like we hear time and time again, we whites are outsiders. We can’t understand, but those of you that have been there, and aren’t automatically dismissed because you’re black can make a difference even if it’s one child at a time.
Yes, those raised in poor black neighborhoods have a very tough time. But, unless you’re born with a silver spoon, it can be an uphill battle all the way no matter what color you are. It’s just as tough to grow up in a trailer park in tattered hand-me-downs, with an alcoholic mom and a weed-dealing pop with Lord-knows-who crashing on the floor tonight as it is in most ‘hoods. I had to earn the grades and take the loans to get into college. The only hope, we as a nation, we as a people, have is to stop looking at each other as the enemy simply because our skin is a different hue. That goes for both sides of the issue.
May 14th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Keith,
Before you judge me I’d like to point out that you know nothing of me other than this post, and you’re making a few assumptions. I apologize for how I feel, because I wish I didn’t feel that way, but some of what you say is flawed. Some I’d like to see you back up with fact or at least a source. Tell me what rules I have guilt about. Tell me whether I’m broke or poor. And tell me where you live- what neighborhood.
You can visit my blog and comment there; if you want to actually have a dialogue about this I welcome it. You can e-mail me at CathySalustri@TheGabber.com. Feel free to write a letter to my editor- send it to Publisher@TheGabber.com. I may not feel how you wish I felt, but here’s what should scare the hell out of you, because it sure as hell scares me: I have had many people tell me they felt the same way, and those sentiments bother me far more than yours and Leilani’s. I don’t want to feel like I’ve said something that rings true. What I hoped is that people would read it and realize that midtown/southside isn’t some rosy place with new condos and pretty stores and people singing Kum-Ba-Yah over drum circles every night. The south side has problems. I am part of the problem. But I refuse to pretend it’s all happy and pretty here. We have crime. It has changed how I see the world. It sucks and it isn’t fair. And still the mayor insists that midtown has good things going on. I just want people to see the other side of that.
Leilani,
I have a friend who lives in a different neighborhood several blocks away. Poor black people populate his street. He is one of two white people on the street. But does he have the problems I do? No. On his street I see a community that takes pride in their homes. They get up and go to work; they keep their homes tidy and well-maintained. And these black people, I would argue, have faced the same hurdles as the black people on my street. But they have not, by all appearances, faced through problems through the haze of crack smoke and crime.
I know that I can’t imagine what it’s like to grow up black in any economic strata (poor, middle class, or rich). I’m not sure I feel “entrenched” in southside/midtown, but I have looked at the issue and researched it outside my own opinions. I have looked for proof that I am wrong about what I am about to say; I have not found it.
The St. Pete police are not the problem. The problem comes when St. Pete has a mayor who accuses me of “spinning” a story when I interview him about crime in midtown. The problem comes when St. Pete can have a media event when they cut the ribbon on new stores in midtown/southside but it takes me five months to get Mayor Baker to consent to an interview about the area- and only then because I ran into him at the aforementioned ribbon cutting the day before the article went to press. The problem comes when the media reprints press releases instead of doing their own research. And the problem comes when I see people and talk to people who communicate a sense of entitlement and a lack of desire to change. There are a wealth of opportunities within walking distance- financial assistance to buy a home, lifelong learning, scholarship assistace, help wanted signs in storefronts- but how much more do you expect from the people offering the help? The help is there, the chances exist. I’ve reported on several opportunities for kids and adults, I’ve passed the press releases along to the paper, and I don’t know what else to do. People who want to find help have found it. Maybe not all of those who want it, but many have. Some people do not want to change. It’s unfortunate that my street houses so many of them.
And, yes, Leilani, the problem comes from me. I have had long discussions with my editor about my biases and opinions and we’ve looked at how it will color any reporting I do on midtown/southside. Part of the reason he chose to run that piece, I think, is so that people could see my bias up front.
Every person- reporters included- have biases. A good reporter should try to not incorporate them into the reporting. I don’t know if I can do that on this issue.
Yes, I want to avoid sweeping generalizations. Can I? I have no clue. Here’s where I want desperately to argue with you but I can’t. I definitely don’t agree with you on all points, but you’re right on this one. What I’m doing isn’t right, from a journalistic standpoint. But… would it be better for me to have not written that and reported on midtown/southside anyway? And consider this: right or wrong, reporter or regular person, this is how living where I live has changed me. I moved there because I found an inexpensive home and - this is key- I believed that the City of St. Petersburg was committed to the area. I expected some crime, yes, but I also expected the City to demonstrate their commitment to reducing crime in this area and improving quality of life issues.
The police can only do so much. Is it their fault that the budget only allows so many officers? How do you justify a higher budget and, by translation, higher taxes, when the people paying the majority of those taxes don’t live in midtown/southside and won’t see a change in their day to day lives, save the higher tax bill? How can you fault the police when the County has judges that accept ridiculous excuses like “my client had a prescription and mistook the Ecstasy for his prescription”? How can you fault the police when the state attorney can’t or won’t prosecute a case against the guy the police caught on a stolen scooter, with drugs on him and two violations of probation for other drug charges? How frustrating it must be to work as an officer, and when they behave like real people and speak their mind, we crucify them for saying what they believe. How frustrated must that officer have been to feel as though that was the best advice he could give me?
Look, all I’m saying is that I have changed because of my experiences. I used to feel like you do now- possibly more so; I don’t know the extent of your convictions. I was NOT ambivalent about race and discrimination. I still am not. But if taking the city of St. Pete on faith and making the move here has contributed to the dissolution of what I thought was a solid belief system, what will it do to others? What about people who don’t feel as strongly as I did and move here simply because they feel they have no other choice?
That’s the real problem, as I see it. I am one person and, in the grand scheme of things, I don’t matter. But take several of me and add us all together and it scares me.
May 15th, 2007 at 10:08 am
All I’m saying is that at it’s core, it’s a socio-economic issue, not an issue of race.
May 15th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Tom,
Thanks for your letter Tom. You made some outstanding points and I think the majority of our neighborhood would agree with your opinion.
Cathy, I think you made a lot of great points in your letter that unfortunately will be ignored because of your decision to describe yourself as a “racist”. I’ve met you and think your frustrations are currently overwhelming your intelligence and ability to make sound decisions.
Over the past 15-20 years, St. Petersburg established opportunities for citizens to take a greater level of responsibility for the quality of life in their neighborhoods by establishing Neighborhood Partnership Services, and the Police offering to assist neighborhoods in forming Crime Watch groups.
Through the re-forming of Bartlett Park’s Crime Watch last July (it had been inactive for 10 yrs) and the recent increase in our Neighborhood Association membership, we’ve had a significant impact on significantly increasing amount of calls to Police (by 400% over the past 1 1/2 years) and subsequently an explosion of drug busts narcotic sales and arrests on warrant.
It is very simple …Bartlett Park has crime b/c people hardly called the Police for nearly 30 years. It has nothing to do with poverty, race, creed or color.
In the Spring of 2006, our community police officer encouraged you to get involved in our organization and I visited your house a couple of times to provide fliers of our meetings times. You never attended any Crime Watch meetings or got involved in the Association to learn more about our problems and share information on how to solve them. If you chose to get involved I think your life would be in a very different place right now.
Words of Wisdom I Live By
1) Those who get involved will get results……..those who do not…will not
2) If you choose to become part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
May 15th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Correction to one of my “Words of Wisdom I Live By”
“If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem”
May 15th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Mostly correct, Scott, except… last spring Officer Santiago encouraged me to get involved in a Neighborhood Association, not a Crime Watch. BIG difference. Here\\\’s another issue: meetings I attend - the one in Bartlett Park last month as well as ones I report on in other areas- are designed to improve quality of life issues. That\\\’s fine, and I\\\’m not demeaning them in any way, but tell me how that would have changed how many police are staffed for our neighborhood. Tell me how it would change the courts who let criminals go. Tell me how it would change Mayor Baker\\\’s accusation that I \\
May 15th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
*Earlier comment truncated due to error in submission*
Mostly correct, Scott, except… last spring Officer Santiago encouraged me to get involved in a Neighborhood Association, not a Crime Watch. BIG difference. Here’s another issue: meetings I attend - the one in Bartlett Park last month as well as ones I report on in other areas- are designed to improve quality of life issues. That’s fine, and I’m not demeaning them in any way, but tell me how that would have changed how many police are staffed for our neighborhood. Tell me how it would change the courts who let criminals go. Tell me how it would change Mayor Baker’s accusation that I “spun” a story because I asked him about crime in midtown and asked him what the city was doing about crime in midtown/southside.
My point here is that crime watch groups are citizen driven and cannot change the level of a city’s commitment. I like Officer Santiago; I like most every officer I’ve met as a resident of Bartlett Park. But I believe that the level of governmental commitment to the area ends with the police, and until that changes the neighborhood will not. I applaud your optimism, I applaud your efforts, and I’m glad you like it here. But wasn’t it you who said recently YOU were about to call it quits here? And you’re the most involved person I know.
Finally… I’m not sure what the Bartlett Park crime watch meeting actually accomplished, at least not the one I attended. And it seems like the one Alex went to was the same way. If I had reported on that meeting it would have made some people who care very deeply about the neighborhood look silly. What tangible results of these meetings can you give me? Has the crime rate changed in the past year? Do the police have a log of more calls? Give me quantifiable results; I don’t have a closed mind, I’m open to listening, but show me something other than good feelings.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Some feedback and answers to your questions
I cannot answer for Mayor Baker regarding his comment. However it was disappointing.
What happened to you regarding the stolen scooter was disgusting…but dammit let’s use that example “credibly” to wake people up and start requesting that more money be spent on jails so Police can arrest and judges can sentence. Use that example to recruit for Court Watch; they are an organization whose representative appear at sentancing hearings and often influence sentacing of the most violent criminals.
We only had a Neighborhood Assocation when Officer Santiago advised you to get involved. Once we had identified a group of people who considered crime reduction their number one priority, we met with Officer John Harris and reformed our Crime Watch.
Our 1.5 hour Crime Watch meeting merely a summary of a month’s work by our members working with residents and the Police to resolve crime. That encompases a few hundred emails, phone calls, and conversations. I’d be happy to meet with you anytime to review what the Crime Watch has accomplished since last July. In my opinion judging an entire movie by seeing only one scene is not wise and usually just serves personal objectives.
The city has has a very open ear to our needs and made numerous accomidations to meet them. Right or wrong groups have significantly greater power and credibility than individuals.
True, I was ready to pack it in a few weeks ago. Because of my work witrh teh Association & Crime Watch I I was being threatened by drug dealers and people were assulting my home and car regularly. I have been going through chemotherapy for the past 7 months and the combination about wore me down. In Pennsylvania I had no problems with crime, property insurance or taxes and I wondering what the hell I was doing here. But some great people in the neighborhood/city encouraged me that I was doing the right thing, to hang in there and stand my ground. I have and recently formed positive partnerships with people that were once assulting my home. It was hard for me to forgive but I knew I had to in order to build something WITH them. They are now allies to our Crime Watch & Associations.
30+ years of crime and poverty combined brought this neighborhood down. It is on the upswing with numeorus homes once borade up being renovated, and new, affordable homes being built on vacant property
I have numerous “critics” in the neighborhood who never seem to volunteer for anything or contribute toward the neighborhood’s goals. They show up. complain, and leave. However, that inspires me because they obviously care but have no idea of how to use their talent to change their envirnmonet.
I hope you will consider joining our organizations and contribute your incredible intelligence and passion toward helping the neighborhood move forward one step at a time
May 15th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Please excuse my multiple spelling errors. I wrote my reply while talking on the phone with someone about a completely separate topic and fogot my spell check!
May 15th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
BTW - the number of calls rec’d by a neighborhood is directly correlecated with number of Police assigned to that area. Last year (and past years) when we we had high crime and no one was calling about it, we had 1-2 officers assigned to Bartlett Park per shift. They did not have a chance to even make a dent in the crime level.
So our Crime Watch focused on educating people on this and encouraging them to call call call! call everytime you see something….and consistently…..and people are!!
Well we now have 3-4 officers patrol per shift making numerous arrests and keeping criminals on the move. It won’t be solved overnight and there will be no gain without some pain
May 15th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
I would like to comment on the article and some of the replies made here.
First of all, it surprises me that you are so upset about what is going on in your neighborhood and yet you have done nothing to help change things. Instead of using your energy towards becoming a member of the Crime Watch Committee, you choose to use it to complain. That is how I read your article, as one big complaint.
How many people are members of the Crime Watch, 20? How many of your neighbors do you think feel the same way that you do - that nothing will get accomplished in those meetings? I bet a lot more than 20, 40 maybe? Well if those 40 stopped complaining and joined forces, you now how 60. Sixty voices are a lot of voices to be heard. Sixty voices, may make criminals in that neighborhood start to take notice and realize that need to watch what they are doing because you never know who is looking and who may report you.
I think it was Scott who said that calls to the police had increased by 400% in the past 1.5 years. That’s a lot. Just think how much higher that statistic could have been if those other 40 voices stopped complaining and started helping. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. If the community doesn’t make the police aware of everything that is going on then nothing will change. If you want to live in a safe neighborhood than you have to help make it safe - you can’t pass the buck or make excuses. That’s like not voting in the 2004 elections and then complaining because Bush is in office.
Also, you stated that the community and your neighbors have upset you and turned you into a racist. No one can make you feel or become anything, but you and you alone. If you are upset, they did not make you feel upset. No one can make you feel anything. You are upset because you allowed them to upset you. No one can make you into a racist, but you. It seems to me you are taking the easy road by sitting back and doing nothing but complaining how everyone has hurt you. Quit playing the victim. You obviously have a lot of energy and talent, try using it in a more positive way than merely complaining.
May 16th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Hello in there … They ran the Interstate through two neighborhoods that I spent most of my life in and at the time there were no ONE but whites living there. That portion of the interstate is MUCH longer than any portion that ran through a black neighborhood. Basically they didn’t run it through bayshore. Or Frankland Estates.
It ain’t black/white. It’s class/poverty.
And, cathy is allowed to choose where she lives. I had a similar experience at a job.This was after a job working with all the same mix where we all got along and shared life like a family …
At the new job none of the white guys treated me disrespectfully the way the latinos and the blacks did and it sure did make me question beliefs I’ve had all of my life.
The belief that we were all created EQUAL.
If that’s so then where were the good manners of those other guys?
Just sayin ………….
Of course, looking back I now believe that this was the start of this kind of gang behaviour where they try to intimidate you. In this case it was out of a lucrative job. More room for their friends and fellow gangsters and now they’re all delivering my mail. Not many of my old friends there, now. All got out as fast as they could because most people don’t dig the confrontation these assholes start. I couldn’t care less; the job was so boring. I’m not putting on the golden cuffs for anyone for any bmw.
Don’t tell another person what they experience because you cannot walk in their shoes.
I almost married a Mexican man I was wildly in love with. Guess what??? Oh my GOD, people would come up to me everywhere mentioning he was Mexican (as if I hadn’t figured that out) His family was a little apprehensive but very kind. They were very biased against OTHER Mexicans. Demanding they speak english right there on the ariz/mex border ….. Luckily it didn’t work out but — his manners were IMPECCABLE. He treated everyone kindly. Does that mean all mexicans are cool? uhhh hell no.
I never have a problem with anyone until they get in there and create one.
I don’t walk by latino and black guys making rude noises. Or white or mexican guys, either. Or anyone else, for that matter. I do call one guy a loser because he gives me long stupid looks and stalks me but … hey, he earned it.
It’s cultural you say, perhaps …. but EVERYONE knows the difference between good and bad manners or AT LEAST how to act at work. At the very least if they see their behavior bothers another they should cease if they like being part of the human race and loving everyone.
Don’t say cathy harbored racism til the worst came out. You do not know that. It simply isn’t true. Yeah, she was a closet racist that moved to a black neighborhood. LOL !! That doesn’t even MAKE SENSE. I lived in Ybor City. I loved the house. They did the same thing in that neighborhood that occurs in my current neighborhood only this time I’m on to them because of family history knowledge of the value. The house in Ybor that I owned and sold cheaply ready to go now sells for over 200,000.00. About 180% more than I paid. Fucked me over good, just as they are trying to do now and just as they are doing to Cathy. I smell it. Rick Baker is sanctioning it just like Pam Iorio is. It’s a fact
As soon as I left that job I began to see the difference in the real world and how those assholes acted.
And you weren’t there, I was. So I can relate it the way it was as you relate your experiences.
The point is: We’re all rowing the same boat.
Set it down and let’s move on.
Some time in my lifetime I’d like to believe that will happen but people so worried about skin-color that they disucss it ad-nauseum and the shades of such, I believe therein is a problem.
White people don’t do that. But, we DO pick on each other for different reasons.
We’re ALL EQUAL. That’s not a dream and it’s not a fantasy. It’s a FACT.
If you think differently, I think you should check inside and leave the outside for another day.
Oh and also I think I recognize this anonymous poster’s style. Just speak up. I had no idea you were such a racist and I am shocked that I did not catch it … but I’m just as horrified when I see it in anyone. That’s sad.
live together
love each other.
that’s all ya gotta do.
In this big beautiful world that’s ALL you have to do.
It’s so simple.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
“Yeah, she was a closet racist that moved to a black neighborhood. LOL !! That doesn’t even MAKE SENSE.”
Your statement doesn’t make sense. Every white racist I’ve ever known lived/lives in a minority community. Cuz they are poor. To say a racist wouldn’t move to a minority neighborhood is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. They move there for the same reason most of them prob moved there: it’s cheap.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Only because my name was mentioned, I am going to respond in a professional manner. When I took over 1.5 yrs. ago in Bartlett Park, it was in bad shape. Nobody was calling the police and nobody wanted to talk to the police. After gaining respect in the community and the trust, there are now elderly people calling the police. This neighborhood has come a long way and is growing. This neighborhood is unique in the sense that there is a good mixture of white and black people. Hell I am trying to purchase vacant land and/or properties if I can afford it. However, where Cathy lives, we served two search warrants at two different houses and it seemed like it did nothing. The problem is the court system. One day in court, the Dept of Juv. Justice was recommending a 6 month sentence to a known drug dealer who terrorizes the neighborhood along 7th Street South. I got up and spoke to the judge about this person’s character and the judge went over the probation officers head and doubled the sentence. Unfortunately the court watch group cant attend the court hearings for juveniles, citing privacy act reasons, but we need a better system.
I blame the parents of the kids…Cathy, you are not a racist…the area where you live is near a big roadway and attracts more drugs then to say where Scott lives. I wish I knew the answer that would rid the drugs off the streets of Bartlett Park, but you were right in the sense that we are limited in resources at the department and have 250 other communities that we have to concentrate on also. I wish our department could have as much officers like Tampa. Our crime rate is the same. The other thing that is needed in this community is consistency…Keep calling, keep being involved…Although only 10-15 people attend the crime watch meetings, alot does get done. This weekend you will see a product of the crime watch group.
I could go on all day, but I’m gonna end here….
May 17th, 2007 at 9:40 am
JoB : Actually what a racist does is MOVE AWAY when other colors than theirs appear in the hood. OR, they attack when another hue moves in.
I hope that was not your reaction to feeling I ridiculed a portion of your statement I won’t take the time to re-read to discern. It was not meant as ridicule, it just doesn’t make sense to me, at all.
We have a responsibility to create a NEW discussion. This same old discussion is getting us exactly nowhere.
Labeling cathy doesn’t work any better than labeling anything. She made a mistake labeling herself and I want us all to stop making mistakes in our dialogue. It’s very apparent to me that some still cling to old generalities. They divided white and lation neighborhoods with interstates TOO and created major problems that go ignored with no racist rack to display them on.
We can’t help what went on in the past but we CAN help what happens from this moment ON. Right?
Please work together with others who CARE. Of any color. (or shade)
May 18th, 2007 at 12:42 am
I am covering this weekend’s Bartlett Park event for the paper. Ya’ll can criticize me for not getting involved- as much your right to do as mine to not get involved, per se, but I will be there. No, I will not be “involved”; I’ll be working.
How many other papers in the area can say that they’ll be there? That, by the way, is not a dig at CL; props to them for covering what many papers think is an “unprofitable” section of town (not enough advertisers, I suspect).
But as for any others? Any “mainstream” media out there even care what the hell happens south of Central and north of Pinellas Point?
Just checking. See you Saturday.
May 30th, 2007 at 1:30 am
I know this is old news, but I have to chime in.
First of all, I think Jon Wilson does a pretty damn good job of covering black communities. But I do agree most minority issues are ignored in Tampa Bay– by all media outletts. And I don’t think the first step should be a white woman saying black men scare her. It really doesn’t seem like much of an olive branch, no?
Anyhow, I also think it does seem racist to suddenly think black people are criminals just after two years of living in one neighborhood. I dont get it. What about when Kathy sees black professionals? Do shes think they are going to steal her scooter, too? Or is just the blacks in the ‘hood? There had to be some kind of social conditioning already in place for the racism to so fester so easily.
I think what a lot of people are saying in this blog is that these crime issues affect most low income neighborhoods– regardless of color. And there are many sociopolitical reasons why this is so. I grew up in extremely poor Hispanic and Black neighborhoods in NYC and Miami, much worse than any in St. Petersburg. I am not Anglo, but I am very pale skinned. I was bullied for looking different. Called a cracker. My bookbag was stolen by a gun weilding crack head at a bus stop in front of five black people who did nothing to help me when I was in middle school. A friend of mine was raped by one of the black men down the street. I couldnt care less in terms of racial views. Those people are not the Colin Powells and Thurgood Marshalls of the world. They are not what defines a race. That’s like saying some red neck yokel should be the basis of my opinion on anglos, as if everytime a white person makes a racist comment (which drives me crazy) I should write off white people as a whole. As if everytime President Bush pronounced something incorrectly, I can say all whites are ignorant. Kathy speaks of minutes in a year. In our lifetimes, how many times have we witnessed whites behave just as poorly as Mexicans, Blacks, Indians, Jews, etc, etc.? It has nothing to do with skin color, and everything to do with human nature.
What Kathy did WAS brave. It was a very raw article and illustrated a viewpoint most white liberals seem afraid to openly express. Her opinions are her own and she is entitled to them. I have met Kathy in her reporting and she seems very bright and pensive. I just dont think this race article was a fair portrayal of black neighborhoods in general.
May 30th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Wow, sorry for all the bad stuff — THAT SUCKS. I’m sorry.
I have no problem with people expressing their views. I’m white and I have no friends who have ever expressed any racism of any kind. I know it exists but it’s not talked about around me (if they’re ever around me) because by now they all know …. I’m NOT a racist.
I dislike labels as a whole and in the beginning the ‘race’ word was merely created to define who was ‘not white’. Not of the white race. Of the not white race. Who gives a damn?
I too think cathy made a mistake labeling herself a racist but glad she got the party started. I think she’d have been angry at ANYONe who stole her stuff. I don’t even get bothered by stuff like that. But, that’s a whole nother subject. People need to go easy on each other. I’ve seen the meanest looking black men do some of the kindest things I’ve ever witnessed and I’ve seen some of the pollyanna-est white chicks be bigger asses than can be believed. It’s NOT race. It’s decency. Or human nature, if you will.
I’ve managed to live in a few lower-income areas and never had any problemos at ALL BUT when I lived in Temple Terrace, right next to the police station almost, I was robbed. Of course, now, the X believes it WAS they who did so. LOL. And, it probably was. For years law enforcement here locally has been driving this idea that there will be a race war and the whites better be stockpiling weapons. You get a look in some of those trunks and you wonder…. how many guns can one man shoot?? How does that car keep air in it’s tires/?? These guys are loaded for bear. It WORKS for them to keep us divided along any kind of line they can draw. Police were only ever created to protect the rich from the poor. Bank on it.
I’m going to be cute and say I know it’s true because my boyfriend told me but actually that is why I know it’s true. LOL. That man knows everything. And where he found it. Except for what I know. And I don’t mind sharing. Hope everyhing in life is kinder to everyone …………….
anyway …..
(oh most of the time when I am at peace rallies I guess these are white liberals, also we have a # of latino, black, etc.. no asians I have ever noticed ….) but among these people I have never once heard anything racist expressed. Sometimes it’s perception and the company you keep. Some of the people are a little wack and undoubtedly some are CIA (thanks george!) but you won’t hear anything ignorant from them.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Having read all this I can’t help but relate the following story. I was walking alone down a street near my home just after sundown, past a group of black males. Rather than say hey or anything I minded my own business. Next thing I know one of them throws a butane lighter at me. He missed but I still stopped and looked back. They stared at me, waiting for my next move. I was way outnumbered so I kept walking. Having grown up with this shizle and knowing these things work both ways, should I consider those guys racists or assholes?
June 28th, 2007 at 2:18 am
Look, noticin that blacks act like animals does not make you a racist.
It just means you’re not an idiot.
Never complain. Never explain. Do not apologize.
Riley
June 28th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Kathy, you’ve simply discovered what our parents’ generation always knew was obvious. Racism grows from experience — it’s not something that people simply make up for no reason. No one decides to look down upon another group of people for no reason. They do it when they are convinced by facts and events that the people are a problem, and when they see vast discrepancies in ability and behavior between them.
Have you ever heard of a neighborhood like this where everyone is white? Have you ever heard of white suburban gangs dealing drugs, murdering, and terrorizing people? Even poor whites are far more civilized than what you find in most poor black neighborhoods.
I am just about your age, Kathy, and I have also recently rediscovered the common sense fact that the vast majority of blacks are simply not up to par with whites or asians. In my case too, this grew out of the piling on of fact after fact, over many years. That’s what it took to overcome the rainbow-sky dreams of the 70’s that we were taught growing up. We all wanted everyone to be equal, but nature doesn’t produce equals — it produces DIVERSITY. Diversity in ability, in intelligence, in physiology, etc.
As you know, there is not one successful black-run country in the world, except perhaps Botswana (and that’s being generous), which luckily has decided to attempt to maintain the laws and government installed by the British — note, none of their governmental system was developed by them. Every other black-run country is a complete mess. The successful carribean countries have whites running most of the economy and government, whether outwardly or behind the scenes.
South Africa is quickly turning into the pile-o-crap that is the rest of Africa, since short-sighted and utopian liberal westerners pressured them to ignore their common sense and give up the segregation that allowed a civilized society and economy to actually prosper.
Blacks have been shown to have, on average, in the U.S., an IQ 15 points lower than whites. That means that the number of blacks in the high IQ range (over 135 or so) becomes close to nil. How many black scientists have you ever heard of? Mathematicians? Paul Erdos was destitute and yet one of the most prolific mathematicians in history. There are no such stories about blacks.
Every majority-black school in the U.S. that I have ever heard of is massively inferior to even an _average_ non-majority-black school. If I am forced to send my children to a public school in this country, I will choose it based on the number of black and hispanic students, as this is the greatest predictor of the quality of the school and the level of violence and gang activity there.
These are verifiable facts. As you show, Kathy, the disparity between blacks and whites is backed up by experience whenever anyone wishes to test it. It’s just common sense.
So what next? The next big question is — how well will blacks be able to admit and accept their inferior place, without hard feelings? How will we get to a situation where no one is afraid of talking about what they see every day in front of their noses?
June 28th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
I was raised to be “liberal†and taught “we are all the sameâ€.
I became a “racist†after being violently attacked 5 times by black men. These attacks were not even robberies, just unprovoked attacks. In one of these attacks I was stabbed 4 inches deep in my neck and almost died.
In every single unprovoked attack I was called, without fail, a “white motherfuckerâ€.
Don’t try that tired old “you hate blacks for the color of their skin†BS.
I know many people from India who have skin much darker than most American blacks, yet these Indians are far more intelligent and civilized than just about every black I have ever had dealings with (which has been a lot).
Black men and their stupid violent behaviour were the only things that ever made me a “racistâ€. I too went through an agonizing period of transition from “tolerant liberal†to “racistâ€, and it is all because of BLACK MALE CRIME.
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