View From The Middle
Pride Can Be A Good Thing When It Comes To Community
By Charles Rogers

I guess I'm a snob, but I was rather surprised when the item came past my desk, subsequent to being inserted into our Community Guide. It stated the Neighborhood Advisory Board (NAB) was going to hold a forum on November 9 to find out if we are receiving the proper government services in Canarsie. Good idea. After all, NABs are important vehicles through which local community residents can participate in the process that guides the city in allocating federal grants for certain programs. And, of course, there isn't a community that couldn't use a little extra money.

The NABs were established to represent low income neighborhoods - called Neighborhood Development Areas (NDA) - that need community development activities and money with which to fund them. They need people to represent these areas - especially to see if the money is going to proper projects. Simple as that. The NABs see what's needed in the NDAs. They ask for the money on our behalf and it's given to us if we need it.

I apologize for asking, but when did we become such a low income neighborhood?

Don't get me wrong. I don't mind being "on the dole," as the expression goes, but I do mind carrying around that designation - officially.

There was a time in Canarsie (don't deny it!) when we couldn't get a red cent out of city, state or federal authorities for any extras here. Our city council members, along with state legislators, would give lip service to their respective authorities and then they'd give lip service to us and the answer always seemed to be paraphrased, "They said the income level in Canarsie is too high. The people are making so much money they can fend for themselves when it comes to community extras. So we don't get the extra money."

It was an easy out, really. The legislator actually didn't have to work too hard, since we proudly looked on our own community as being, well, not rich, but at least a little self-sustaining. It was a pride thing. When people from the "outside" asked where we were from, we knew that by answering "Can-arsie," they would first think about Murder, Inc. and then nod knowingly, therefore assuming we were at least semi-affluent.

Oh, yeah, it was a snob thing all right. And while we weren't necessarily even semi-rich, we held our heads up high, hoping nobody would really look into it and find out we were working very, very hard to come by that feeling of pride, even though it was a false feeling. And if somebody wanted to hand out a few bucks so we could have some potted plants lining the Avenue L shopping strip, who were we to complain? We had to admit it couldn't hoit.

It seemed we had a sociological argument fairly often, however, on the topic of whether we should be taking money the government was offering (at times) or not. There were those in our own community who, while they didn't say it, at least intimated we were "above it," so to speak, and we could fend for ourselves. "Canarsie always has stood proudly alone, and we'll gracefully turn it down," some said. Others were more practical then, noting we have certain federal, state and city monies coming to us, just as it goes to every other community, and, well, let's not be too proud, after all.

Then - somewhere along the way - things changed. "Pride goeth before a fall," the saying goes. One can suppose the pride thing didn't change overnight, although the demise of business on Avenue L seemed to be instantaneous. One day it was bustling with business, even to the point of having the big Avenue L Street Fair attended by 100,000 people. The next day, it seemed, there were empty stores and an empty theater and there was a nail salon and a church on every block.

The 17th century poet Alexander Pope has been quoted as saying, "Of all the causes which conspire to blind man's erring judgment, and mislead the mind... is pride, that never-failing vice of fools."

Yes, pride, for a time, might very well have stood in the way of progress in the Canarsie community.

No matter. We have what we have. Snob or no snob - and Alexander Pope be damned, let's be proud of it.