Block 5: “Peace Trees”
Block 5: “Peace Trees”
I pulled up out West on Monticello around 9 a.m. I live down South so traffic this morning took me about an hour to get here. Some parts of the West Side feel like Montego Bay when you drive off resort and see the unfinished brick houses. The Jamaicans just slowly stack bricks until the home is completed. It’s fascinating, man. Out West though, the homes aren’t stacking bricks so much as the bricks are coming down. The area is in dire need of help and is riddled with crime. Where resources are low, crime is high. Imagine that.
That’s what block clubs are all about, though, we had some research done by Uchicago and as the charts below show; the areas around our block clubs see better community violence changes then the rest of the city.
They have seen a reduction in gun violence since joining the program, and show a greater reduction in gun violence than the rest of Chicago
I met Patti, the Block Club Captain, in a community garden situated in what once was an empty lot. Patti has been living here for 21 years. She’s married and has two boys, 21 and 16. Her family is from Mexico but there’s also folks on the block from Belize and Guatemala. Tomorrow starts the city’s big Mexican Independence celebration and the whole street is decorated with ornaments and flags and garland. Patti’s husband brought all of the decorations back from Mexico and hung them himself.
An elderly man opened his door and waved towards us. “Hello, Mr. Edward,” says Patti. At 90, he’s the oldest neighbor on the block. Patti knows that because she knows everyone here. She tells me it's been work planting seeds in the garden and in the minds of the neighbors, asking them to participate in the change she envisioned. This was a drug block only seven years ago. There were a lot of junkies hanging on the street, but she convinced the criminal element to move a few blocks down. They respect her because she’s consistently showing up and doing good and she takes great pride in that.
Patti had a vision for her street: an oasis for her kids and others on the block to gather for community celebrations–Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Juneteenth, their summer block party, and Halloween. But the coolest thing about this place is their “Peace Tree.” There was a lot of healing to do here when Patti first started her work and so she reached out to an organization that delivered and planted the tree and then hosted a ceremony to consecrate the site. They have a sign in front explaining the significance in both English and Spanish. I think that’s such a fantastic concept–interrupting the trauma of the space by literally introducing life.
The Peace Tree was Patti’s idea and she’s got a lot of good ones. She convinced all the neighbors on the block to contribute $100 a year for block beautification or whatever other needs may arise. She’s done so well that neighbors on the surrounding blocks have connected with her and now their block club stretches down the road.
Patti always does more than what’s expected. Instead of hosting one block club meeting a month, she has two. Instead of just discussing the issues of the block, they get out there and pick up trash on the street and in the alley. They encourage folks from other blocks to come help with the clean up too and then send folks over to reciprocate. It’s like a block club exchange program. People helping people, man.
