New Haven Independent

posted by: Mother of Boys on June 23, 2010  12:14pm

Thank you for the inspiration… I’m coming from the perspective of a single mother with two young sons. I encourage the community to come together to create change for our youth. It’s our responsibility as adults to set forth that change. IT IS time to build the community back up.

posted by: Cedarhillresident on June 23, 2010  12:16pm

2 words…..

LOVE IT!

posted by: Mr. Big on June 23, 2010  1:01pm

That’s what happens when you have total deteriation of the family unit.  Simple values like RESPECT, that were once traditionally handed down from parents to children, are no more present in these depressed neighborhoods.  You got one single parent homes where the parent works all day and the kids don’t pick up on these values at home.  They pick up their values on the tough streets.  Parents aren’t parenting like they used to. ...

posted by: Townie on June 23, 2010  1:20pm

Quote,“People in this neighborhood are very proud”. Really? Proud of what? The violence, the drug trafficking, the dilapidated buildings? Instead of painting walls maybe we should concentrate on raising respectable and functional families? By looking at that neighborhood and the activity that occurs in it, I must say the people who live there must not have much respect for themselves or their community.
It sounds harsh but many in this city are tired of the seemingly constant and perpetual culture of selfishness and disrespect that originates from the Hill section and other areas. Every once in a while someone will come along and paint a wall or build a playground, but no real effort is made by the people living there to reform their culture and their community.

posted by: davec on June 23, 2010  1:28pm

Katro Storm makes New Haven a better place.

posted by: Gary Holder-Winfield on June 23, 2010  1:51pm

Townie:

Are you seriously trying to lump everyone together?  When we start of there we start of wrong.  here are plenty of people in this community who are doing work that you either are not of aware of or don’t care to acknowledge because it doesn’t fit your perception of the people here - nevertheless, they are here and doing it. 
Of course there are people who just don’t want to do right but to act as if everybody here is like that is just plain wrong. This was a nice article about soem people doing their part (whatever you think of that).  The woman stopped and helped paint.  Others came along to clean and cut the grass.  Those actions say that your net is cast too wide.

posted by: walt bradley on June 23, 2010  2:04pm

Nice job Katro.

posted by: Erica Rice on June 23, 2010  2:17pm

I think this project is amazing and inspiring…a renewal of pride and “respect” in a community where it may go unnoticed a lot of the time.  However, what disturbs me is the title of this article…if this is a positive message to be conveyed then why are we spotlighting a “murdered teen”, i think it may be relavant to the story but is NOT the main focus of what is going down.  This is an uplifting story with a “shock value” heading.  I would like to commend Katro Storm on his dedication to this project, and his willingness to put himself out there…for that I give him a great amount of RESPECT.

posted by: Morris Cove on June 23, 2010  2:42pm

Townie, did you even read the article?

This neighborhood has faced so many challenges throughout the decades; you can’t expect it to change overnight. It may take years or a even a generation or more to turn Newhallville into a stable neighborhood. But it’s community-building and healing actions like this one that help change the culture of a place. Mr. Storm gets that - just look what he was able to inspire in others.

posted by: Community Member on June 23, 2010  3:06pm

Speak for yourself… MR. BIG
I am a single parent with tons of positive support within my community. I work AND manage to teach my children values. I do not allow my children to pick up “values” from the street nor do I allow them to bring it home in any form. Why? Because I AM a parent WITH VALUES. I need to speak up on behalf of the parents out there who do teach our children morals, values and ethics.

posted by: Townie on June 23, 2010  3:08pm

Morris Cove: Exactly, decades and they have nothing to change their neighborhood. It’s a common American attitude that is especially prevalent in inner-cities; ‘wait for the government to fix it and if they don’t we’ll complain but we won’t work to improve our situation’. Government will not help you, you must help yourself.
Actions like the one described in the article don’t do anything to improve inner-city poverty, blight and violence. If they did their problems would be easily solved, just a few coats of fresh paint and a lawn mower.
I agree with Winfield there are some people who do make serious efforts to improve the inner-city culture. But, it appears that these people are in the minority and like anyone else who tries for improvement they are blocked by a massive wall of ignorance and apathy. But, don’‘t worry, just paint a mural on that wall and everything will be okay.

posted by: streever on June 23, 2010  3:50pm

Townie, I don’t think your comments belong here. Incredibly inappropriate.

Storm, wow. Good work. I’m incredibly impressed and proud to be in the same city as this story. You working, taking the criticisms and then turning everyone on to your vision is incredibly inspirational. I’m really grateful that people like you live here.

posted by: Townie on June 23, 2010  4:06pm

Streever: I don’t see how my comments are inappropriate. I was commenting about the story and superfluous act of mural painting in an area that urgently needs much more than paint to fix it’s problems. A lot of liberals will use stories like these to point to the “positive” aspects of inner-city life, but the reality is that stories like these only distract us from the systemic problems with inner-city culture, problems which ultimately effect everyone in New Haven.
Real change is possible, but it is going to take a lot more than paint. I don’t think that this supposition is inappropriate at all.

posted by: Newsflash on June 23, 2010  4:14pm

Something Good Happened In Newhallville

posted by: Uncle Egg on June 23, 2010  4:44pm

Townie: I don’t question your sincerity and understand your point, but I think you’re only seeing one side of the issue.

Yeah, it’s kind of hard to gloss over the problems in that neighborhood, and in New Haven in general. There are drugs, crime, poverty—and yes, many people in those communities are doing little or nothing to resolve those issues.

So here’s an example of a New Havener who is trying to embolden the people in the neighborhood to take on these problems—and the neighborhood seems to be responding.

Poor neighborhoods—and the people in them—are too often written off as lost causes. And there’s no question that it’s difficult to make lasting change in these areas. But it’s possible, and that’s the artist’s point (and yours, too, to some extent): It starts with people having respect for themselves, their neighbors, and by extension, the neighborhood.

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on June 23, 2010  6:26pm

It is very difficult to describe any traditional (pre-1930s) neighborhood accurately with generalizations, because they are often very diverse, intricate, and constantly changing places. Many commenters, myself included, often make the mistake of talking generally, which is usually caused by a desire to be brief.
In Newhallville (or the Hill, Fair Haven, Dixwell, West River, etc) the neighborhood can change drastically from one block to another, even from one house to another. In terms of numbers, most people in “lower-income” neighborhoods are employed and supporting families. It is a minority that is unemployed, and it is a small group of mostly young men committing crimes that range from random muggings to planned shootings.
Unfortunately, people often have trouble understanding how to interpret crime statistics, which leads to wildly imaginative perceptions of safety and threat.
Two major things that will contribute to quick rejuvenation of this city’s neighborhoods are 1) reallocated public funding, grants, subsidies, etc for projects to physically improve the neighborhoods and 2) for individuals to get over their misconceptions and bring jobs, commerce, privately developed housing and public assembly spaces back to neighborhoods that have the demand and the development capabilities to handle it, which happens to be pretty much every inner-city neighborhood.
Non-profits and residents have been doing great work for decades, but it will never reach that turning point until the business community, the home builders associations, the automotive companies and individuals get over their ignorance. Businesses that couldn’t afford expensive downtown real estate are quickly learning that suburban office parks aren’t cheap either when the cost of providing oceans of free parking, cafeteria’s (because no food places are within walking distance) and all other services required to power suburban sprawl are accounted for. There are abandoned factory buildings and vacant lots galore in many neighborhoods. The home builders association also needs to get off the suburban-building project in favor of a much more sustainable, lucrative and worthwhile urban re-building project. American automobile manufacturers also need to stop trying to convince people that 30 or 40mpg is anywhere near acceptable and start building trolleys and trains to go on the rail lines that the government should contract millions of Americans to rebuilt right now across the country. And people need to stop being afraid of places where plenty of parents are raising children, shopping, working and playing already. If one finds themselves on the corner of Winchester and Lilac at 2am on Friday night, then they would have a legitimate cause for concern, but so long as you don’t sell dope, walk around with a giant chain, and do some other common sense things all that opening a business or a store or moving into a house is gunna do is leave a lot of extra money in your pocket that you wouldn’t have if you went to East Rock, Downtown or the suburbs AND it will help rejuvenate a neighborhood to the point where standing out on a corner at 2am is fine.

posted by: Bruce on June 23, 2010  11:31pm

Very inspiring.  Way to go, Katro!

posted by: Townie on June 24, 2010  7:57am

I understand the artist’s intention, and I will concede it is a sincere effort to create a positive message in a troubled area. However, I think a lot of people are blowing his small act way out of proportion and describing it as some sort of catalyst that will initiate real and lasting change, it won’t. In fact this whole idea about painting murals in New Haven’s poorer neighborhoods is just another liberal project meant to alleviate their guilt about the economic disparity that is so obvious in this city.
John Hopkins makes some good sociological points, but even his analysis reaches far beyond the very simple solution. “Poverty” does not excuse poor judgement, and that is what has lead to the decay of the inner-cities. The prevailing culture in the Hill neighborhood and similar areas is one of selfishness, entitlement and dependance. We tiptoe around what nobody really wants to say, some cultures in this nation are deficient and this deficiency has created the perpetual cycle of poverty and violence that even Martin Luther King, Jr. couldn’t break. What will it take? I am not sure, but I am sure that murals aren’t the answer.
The reformation of a cultural ethos must come from a sincere and radical effort to re-adjust the collective attitude. Until that happens we will work to help those who work to help themselves.

posted by: Uncle Egg on June 24, 2010  9:16am

I agree, Townie, that one small act by this one individual won’t solve this neighborhood’s complicated and difficult problems. What is required is lots of small acts by a lots of individuals.

posted by: beefair on June 24, 2010  11:43am

One thought, one act, one person, one street, one neighborhood at a time can rebuild a community that has been lost to decades of community and societal neglect.If all sections of the innercity were given equal attention New Haven would become a vibrant, safe city again. Katro you are an inspiration.Maybe the actions of this “one” can cause a firestorm that spreads. Suggestion: add “Love” and “Brotherhood” to the mural. Important to remember as you move forward: Those who don’t understand the plight will never understand the process/remedy for change. Don’t waste air on them. Someone once said, “never argue with an idiot because it’s a waste of precious time, and after a while noone can tell who the idiot is”.

posted by: Erica Rice on June 24, 2010  12:27pm

@Townie…“The reformation of a cultural ethos must come from a sincere and radical effort to re-adjust the collective attitude. Until that happens we will work to help those who work to help themselves.”  This is an excellent statement and I agree wholeheartedly, but I to point out that this is exactly what is going on.  Change doesn’t happen overnight, it needs to start somewhere, there needs to be encouragement in the right direction.  Poverty is a plague that takes a toll on individuals as well as whole communities and the main problem is a loss of hope.  Changing surroundings can and will inspire positive energy, out of which a sense of hope can be reborn.

posted by: Townie on June 24, 2010  1:06pm

I am not as optimistic as some. Being a student of history I always look to patterns and so far the pattern of inner-city culture has been one of continuing decay. A lot of good people have come out of this environment, but the majority remain stagnate. As I said before, MLK is a great example of a person who appeared to have captured and reformed the collective consciousness, but when he was killed the inner-cities went up in flames, any progress he and those who worked with him may have made was destroyed.
Many people point to poverty as the cause, but I disagree with this assumption. While poverty makes things difficult, it does not make them impossible. And poverty is never an excuse for crime. I hold that it is the culture of dependance that keeps the inner-city neighborhoods in the state they are in. There seems to be little motive towards self-reliance. I’m not a sociologist and I don’t think this is the place for the greater discussion that needs to take place. But, at some point, if real change is in fact desired, this discussion must take place and all of the PC rhetoric and liberal paternalistic hand-holding will have be disposed of.

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on June 24, 2010  9:00pm

Townie,
After the abolition of slavery, many black families stayed in the southern United States because they were uneducated, had no manufacturing skills and had little opportunity/capability to leave. They were also psychologically butchered by intense racism. It often took several generations to propel a family out of these conditions and towards a new life elsewhere in the country. When this did happen, families usually settled in northeastern or midwestern industrial cities cities; this really began to happen in great number around the mid 20th century, but migration had been constant since the end of the Civil War.
The rumors of opportunity and equality were often met with very low level entry jobs at factories and bad housing in segregated “negro” neighborhoods.
http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs122.snc3/16955_1204949518981_1085910074_30514125_1356538_n.jpg
Very poor, undereducated, and confined neighborhoods coupled with disappearing manufacturing jobs over a couple decades was a perfect recipe for the type of pressure-build up that results in riots (1967), and general social and physical degradation. Luckily the civil rights movement granted blacks with an equalized playing field, unfortunately it was 100 years too late and the damage had already been done. Blacks were finally granted equal opportunity but for what? To freely be poor, confined in small geographic urban areas and unemployed because their manufacturing job was sent overseas.
Things got worse as the drug war and strict drug laws increased violence abroad and in cities, which produced crack-a cheap form of cocaine. Then in the 90s, the housing crisis set in and New Haven saw a massive increase in abandoned buildings and demolition.
Apparently when a group of people are enslaved for a few hundred years, then left to fend for themselves for 100 years, then given equal opportunity that is met with no jobs, decades-worth of decayed city neighborhoods and outsider judgments, it appears that this creates a sometimes, violent, entitlement-dependent and selfish underclass.
I think we would see the same results in the group were French people, English people, Australians, Nigerians, or anybody.
Having said that, this result is still the MINORITY. It may be what the media portrays most, and it may be what people talk about the most, but it is still not what the majority of any neighborhood is made up of.

posted by: Take action on June 24, 2010  9:57pm

We can continue to dismiss initiatives such as the painting of this mural as useless, but my question then is what does work? I have read the critical comments on this discussion board, but have not seen any real suggestions (except for maybe one comment that implied a need for government- and business-driven solutions).

The root of the problems that have been described in these posts is systemic, not individual. We need to restructure the economy, our political system, our “justice” system… but in the meanwhile we can’t just sit around and hope that things will get better.

I have been out on that corner almost every day since that project has started, and the impact goes well beyond putting some paint on that wall. People that would never interact otherwise have engaged in positive inter-generational dialogue as the neighbors come together. By working with Katro, kids can learn art skills, along with teamwork, cooperation, dedication, commitment. Youth can see that they can get recognized for doing something positive rather than negative. People can take pride and ownership in their neighborhood, not because the city fixes a curb or a store opens down the street, but because THEY are the source of the action. 

Hopefully this mural will have a positive domino effect; neighbors have formed stronger relationships and may plan other similar or bigger projects, and people reading this article may feel inspired to take action in their own neighborhood. Remember that a journey begins with a single step.

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on June 25, 2010  1:03am

Take action makes some great points.
A lot of what places like Neighborhood Housing Services does now is community development-coordinating activities that allow neighbors to meet and allow for more unplanned and natural activities coordinated by neighbors in the future.
Many people are scared of the small groups of young, violent men in their neighborhoods and they’ll stay in their houses because of it, but a great thing about activities like this is that neighbors can meet each other and begin to feel safer in their neighborhood because they know others in their community will be watching out for them, have their backs and they won’t feel so isolated and alone in their neighborhoods.

Also, I would just like to clear up something I said in my last post.
“Having said that, this result is still the MINORITY. It may be what the media portrays most, and it may be what people talk about the most, but it is still not what the majority of any neighborhood is made up of.”
I meant that within the black population, it is a minority that engages in self and community-destructive behavior.

posted by: Townie on June 25, 2010  8:11am

Jon Hopkins: Thanks for the lecture, but I am well aware of the academic analysis of inner-city African-American culture. Although I agree with some points, I can’t agree with the conclusion. A person living in the 1960’s cannot validly use slavery, which had been abolished 100 years earlier, as an excuse to riot. MLK knew this as did many others. While the anger at an unfair system is legitimate and understandable, mindless destruction is illogical and counterproductive. But this is a bit off the main point. Ever since abolition there have been a number of movements that have tried to provoke a sense of pride and self-reliance. Starting with W.E.B Dubois all the way to MLK, Malcolm X and even the Black Panther Movement. Although some believed violence was necessary to defend themselves, all of these people and movements sought to create an atmosphere of self-determination and non-dependence on the systems of power that were in place. All of these movements failed. I believe it is because of the unique blend of American consumerism combined with a cultural apathy which has created a cyclical pattern of destruction. The people in power (government), both Liberals and Conservatives ,benefit from this patter and do little, if anything, to really reform the paradigm and make it more equitable. It is up to the people living in the inner-cities to make the effort to create self-sufficient communities and this effort must begin with a reformation of the individual and continue with the family, which will ultimately lead to a transformation of the community.
I honestly don’t see that this is happening in New Haven, in Boston, Baltimore, Detroit or any other American city. It is tragic that the situation is as it is in New Haven. It is not as bad as Baltimore, Detroit or Boston, but it could be a lot better. And that is what’s most frustrating, seeing the collective ignorance of the opportunity one has just by living in this part of the world. And then hearing the same people complain about how bad their neighborhood is. Simply put, a nice city is slowly being destroyed because a certain few people will not take responsibility for themselves, their families and their communities. So, we go back to the mural. The artist used a lot of paint which could have been used to paint the horrible looking building on top of the wall (see picture), and the citizens that worked to clean up the surrounding area could have used their labour to fix the building. What is needed is collective action towards practical ends, not gestures of shallow rhetoric. The time has come to reform, as one great man once said, “By any means necessary.” That is the spirit that is needed in the inner-cities, until it becomes the predominant ethos the neighborhoods will continue to languish in violence, crime and blight. 
Anyway, that’s my rant. I think we have strayed way off point but I would be happy to continue the dialogue in another forum..

posted by: RAM on June 25, 2010  8:42am

Nice work Katro!

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on June 25, 2010  8:09pm

“All of these movements failed. I believe it is because of the unique blend of American consumerism combined with a cultural apathy which has created a cyclical pattern of destruction.”
I think the movements failed because they were trying to create self-reliance out of thin air and within individuals in a capitalist society that demands self-reliance to come from other places.
If we look back to the period of massive immigration post 1850s during the industrial revolution in the US, we can learn a lot about what sets up the foundations for stable families and communities. It can be observed that it takes about 3 generations of steady employment, housing options, health and access to recreation for a family to become stable enough to be self-supportive. This happened in most of the European immigrant groups as they were welcomed to this country with nearly endless numbers of jobs, and jobs that gave workers immense pride in their work because they produced goods that people wanted and needed all over the world. On top of this, the hard labor and bad conditions within factories were somewhat balanced with beautiful public spaces like parks, plazas, civic and public buildings.
Industrialism essentially peaked in 1910 in New Haven with 2 jump peaks during each world war. SO when it came time for the federal government to renew the country after WW2, the people most rewarded were the stable families who were granted cheap mortgages and loans for brand new suburban housing and cars. Many Italian families and other later immigrant groups were not so lucky and they often stayed in cities until the late 60s or ever into the 1980s before finally being stable enough to move out. Jews were slightly better off generally than Italians at the time and more quickly moved on to the suburbs. Migrant blacks and Puerto Ricans fared much worse, collectively, than either the Russian Jews or late-immigrant Italians because they had virtually no substantial generational upward mobility or education to work off of. The missing ingredient was endless numbers of low-skill jobs supplemented with a great environment of walkable daily needs, pleasant public gathering space and reliable transit options. After WW2 people in cities were met with the exact opposite-ever decreasing numbers of jobs, retail options (moved to the suburbs to be with the middle class), food store options (replaced by chains and big box stores thanks to subdivisions replacing farmland and federal subsidies for large farms and transportation subsidies to import food from other nations that exploited labor), and destruction of great urban environments by modernist planning practices, urban renewal and highway construction. The lack of jobs and the unlivable city conditions couple with poor, undereducated populations is precisely what produced helplessness, hopelessness, anger, laziness, reliance, etc. Enter the high-risk, high-reward world of the underground drug market and we have violence explode in inner cities.
We understand what having a drug addict father does to a child, or a parent in jail, a friend who’s killed, and then we magnify that across a small community who is confined into a small geographic urban area and we have the explanation for 14 homicides this year, everything that has happened, is the explanation for current conditions-the ground is wet because it rained. Neighborhoods are like this because of de-industrialization, which lead to massive de-stabilization in families who didn’t have 3 generations of economic and social stability and when given time weird sub-cultures of degradation, violence and anger emerged.
The answer is not liberal policies-those haven’t worked-and it isn’t to simply expect people to undue decades and centuries of systematic depression-there’s no way anyone can believe that will happen. What seems most logical to me is to provide the existing unemployed populations with the kinds of jobs and environments that allowed waves of European immigrants to set up stable foundations. That means low-skill manufacturing jobs and great urban environments that foster a low cost of living with a high quality of life.

posted by: KIM Washington on June 29, 2010  9:00pm

I FEEL THAT KATRO IS DOING SOMETHING PHENOMENAL IN THE COMMUNITY. YES HE HAS LOVE FOR COMMUNITY AS WELL AS HIS ARTWORK. LOVE YOU ALWAYS. IT TAKES RESPECT TO GET RESPECT.