community meeting
so, we had our community meeting on tuesday night. i apologize to Nic for taking so long to post this, cause i know she wants to know how it went. there were basically two goals for the meeting: one was to inform the community about the various services that are currently available in the neighborhood, whether through us, NENA, or another group. the other was to find out what the community still needs, and based on that what we should be doing once we finish gutting. we were going to discuss our distribution center (which we were considering closing), but it looks like NENA's distribution will only be open 2 days a week, so we all pretty much agreed that ours should stay open.
Patricia, who runs NENA, started it off by talking about what NENA does and why people should come talk to them throughout the rebuilding process. some other people added some things, and then it went to matt. he explained that we're completing the gutting, and that we want to know what the community still needs. so he passed out paper for people to write what they think is needed. then he had everybody call out what they thought was needed, and we made a big list of things that were needed in the community. things were going well, and we were about to start discussing what Common Ground can do to fill some of those needs, when Mama Dee came in. she immediately started screaming and cursing, saying that this wasn't supposed to be a Common Ground meeting, it was supposed to be a citizen's meeting, that we hijacked it and changed it to our agenda. then she started yelling about how we rape the community and steal money meant for the community, and whenever matt tried to say anything, she would just yell at him "where are the finances?! where are the finances?!". finally Rev. Haywood took a mic and got her to shut up. he spoke really well, and said that she had offended the house of god (we were meeting in the New Israel Church) with her cursing, and that things should be approached in a civilized manner. matt said he would get a report of our finances (donations and expenditures) and give it to patricia to post in her building, and that pretty much ended it. then everyone stayed for a while and talked. a number of the residents i know personally came over to me and told me not to worry about Mama Dee and that they know Common Ground is here to help, which was very nice of them. it was still a very bad and bitter meeting. a couple of people were shaken up by the way Mama Dee personally attacks you to try and insults everything you do. Mac (Mekenya), who had just gotten down here for the second time a few days ago, couldn't hold back tears after the onslaught was over. she had been helping matt with writing the list of needs, and got stuck under Mama Dee's crosshair. i know from experience that it's not pleasant.
just to give a bit of background that will maybe explain some of what Mama Dee said, she had had a meeting with Albert and Louis last week, the day before she came in and exploded at me. we were still considering closing the distribution center at the time, and they were therefore considering running it on their own. since Mama Dee runs her own little group, they thought they could get some advice from her, since she has experience. anyway, she took it in totally the wrong way, and thought that this was some sort of immediate thing, that the lower 9th project was suddenly breaking away from Common Ground. hence her minions' painting our sign, hence her saying it was supposed to be a "citizen's" meeting and that we had "hijacked" it. the fact of the matter was that it was always a common ground meeting, and we were never considering breaking away. unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Al or Louis have the balls to talk to her and explain this to her, and I don't think she'd listen anyway.
regardless, i don't think too many were fooled by her fireworks. they know we were down here gutting houses before any other organization even thought about the ninth ward. matt e-mailed someone at Community Futures (the organization that sponsors Common Ground and handles our finances) and had them send over our financial report, and that's already been sent to patricia, so that's not a problem.
Patricia, who runs NENA, started it off by talking about what NENA does and why people should come talk to them throughout the rebuilding process. some other people added some things, and then it went to matt. he explained that we're completing the gutting, and that we want to know what the community still needs. so he passed out paper for people to write what they think is needed. then he had everybody call out what they thought was needed, and we made a big list of things that were needed in the community. things were going well, and we were about to start discussing what Common Ground can do to fill some of those needs, when Mama Dee came in. she immediately started screaming and cursing, saying that this wasn't supposed to be a Common Ground meeting, it was supposed to be a citizen's meeting, that we hijacked it and changed it to our agenda. then she started yelling about how we rape the community and steal money meant for the community, and whenever matt tried to say anything, she would just yell at him "where are the finances?! where are the finances?!". finally Rev. Haywood took a mic and got her to shut up. he spoke really well, and said that she had offended the house of god (we were meeting in the New Israel Church) with her cursing, and that things should be approached in a civilized manner. matt said he would get a report of our finances (donations and expenditures) and give it to patricia to post in her building, and that pretty much ended it. then everyone stayed for a while and talked. a number of the residents i know personally came over to me and told me not to worry about Mama Dee and that they know Common Ground is here to help, which was very nice of them. it was still a very bad and bitter meeting. a couple of people were shaken up by the way Mama Dee personally attacks you to try and insults everything you do. Mac (Mekenya), who had just gotten down here for the second time a few days ago, couldn't hold back tears after the onslaught was over. she had been helping matt with writing the list of needs, and got stuck under Mama Dee's crosshair. i know from experience that it's not pleasant.
just to give a bit of background that will maybe explain some of what Mama Dee said, she had had a meeting with Albert and Louis last week, the day before she came in and exploded at me. we were still considering closing the distribution center at the time, and they were therefore considering running it on their own. since Mama Dee runs her own little group, they thought they could get some advice from her, since she has experience. anyway, she took it in totally the wrong way, and thought that this was some sort of immediate thing, that the lower 9th project was suddenly breaking away from Common Ground. hence her minions' painting our sign, hence her saying it was supposed to be a "citizen's" meeting and that we had "hijacked" it. the fact of the matter was that it was always a common ground meeting, and we were never considering breaking away. unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Al or Louis have the balls to talk to her and explain this to her, and I don't think she'd listen anyway.
regardless, i don't think too many were fooled by her fireworks. they know we were down here gutting houses before any other organization even thought about the ninth ward. matt e-mailed someone at Community Futures (the organization that sponsors Common Ground and handles our finances) and had them send over our financial report, and that's already been sent to patricia, so that's not a problem.