The rock that is higher than I
I exited I 64 at 15th Street and turned right. It felt home. Could be Gary, Detroit. This morning I visited East St Louis IL. It’s the rough counterpart to its larger urban cousin to the west across the Mississippi. St Louis MO has rough places, especially its north neighborhoods. But East St Louis is another degree rougher. Or … Read more
Urban Food Deserts: do they really exist?
I admit. It has been easy to accept the existence of what are called food deserts in poor urban neighborhoods. I remember lots of liquor stores and churches in the places I’m familiar with in Chicago and Detroit, but stores with fresh produce and milk, at prices us suburban dwellers expect? nah. The New York … Read more
A Morning of Changed Lives
I am in Indianapolis tonight. This morning, the Center City Corps with Pastor Loretta in charge. Men and women from the streets of Indianapolis. Mothers and children from the Salvation Army’s programs next door in the shelter, Carpenter House and Barton House. A husband and wife, business professionals, who walk to the corps from just … Read more
Men Dressed Like Women
Today, a story in the Free Press of “a person dressed in women’s clothing” found shot to death near Woodward and McNichols in Detroit. Neighbors say the area is “plagued with prostitution … women prostitutes and prostitutes who are men dressed like women” and that made me remember. In 1980s Chicago along Madison Street were … Read more
Friday Night on Arsenal Street
The streets are wet tonight in St Louis. Gail and I arrived at Steve and Ketsia’s 8:30, unloaded, got reacquainted with Kyle and Lou. John walked over with Boone from his place a block away. Tomorrow lunch and an Intersections Gathering across the street at the St Louis Temple Corps. Gigi is cooking and John assures me … Read more
The Whole Thing Started With A Drop of Rain
Mitch Albom can tell a great story. Here’s one about a church in Detroit with a hole in its roof. And the movie made about it and its pastor, Henry Covington, at Pilgrim Church/I Am My Brother’s Keeper Ministry. Henry’s no longer there. But neither is that hole.
The Streets Were Dark
Sometimes the best way to find out about a place is to go somewhere else. Today’s New York Times carries a story about yesterday’s televised address by Detroit Mayor David Bing. Mayor Bing told Detroiters “Simply put, our city is in a financial crisis and city government is broken … the reality we’re facing is simple. If we continue … Read more
Sunday At the Chicago Kroc
This morning Gail and I visited the Chicago Kroc Corps for their Sunday worship. The Corps continues to meet in the Higgins Community Academy at 117th and South Morgan Streets until the new Kroc Center is completed early in 2012. It means equipment setup and take-down in the school gym every weekend by Majors Dave and … Read more
Driver Beaten, Detroit Buses Stop
“I don’t know what’s going on with Detroit. Detroit is just going to hell to tell you the truth .. ain’t nothing running right” Horace Adams, a Detroit Transit bus rider, waiting … This Detroit Free Press article reports on a bus drivers walkout today that disrupted service. Drivers walked out in protest to a … Read more
Holy Week Meditation: A Detroit Inner City Easter
This evening we drove past a church with lights yet on. They’re getting ready for Easter Sunday. Half joking, I told Gail that it stirred up resentment for it caused me to recall an Easter years ago in Detroit. We received a phone call from a nearby Salvation Army corps. It had sponsored an Easter … Read more
