Stories

"I've been up here since October '89. You probably wasn't even born in '89. The biggest changes that I done seen, since '89, would be with the residents. Now, when I came up here in '89, the residents were more neighborly. You didn't have the issues…

"I've been up here since October '89. You probably wasn't even born in '89. The biggest changes that I done seen, since '89, would be with the residents. Now, when I came up here in '89, the residents were more neighborly. You didn't have the issues and the problems with drugs and killings. I done seen a lot of changes. Since 1995, that's when I started to see the changes. When I moved up here, there wasn't no in between, it was just black and white. Now, you got Hispanics, you got Africans, you know, whatever. And then you've got all the different generations. It's different from when I first moved up here in '89. I can see it. These young people up here nowadays, man, they off the chain. Now, I lived back here, off this court, in 55 for about 25 years. I'm 70 years old. All the people that were down here, back in '89, either they moved or died, one of the two. Once that happened, that's when the new generation started moving in. I seen the change coming, just by the handwriting on the wall. Man, these ma'fuckin people are off the chain. They can't distinguish the right from wrong, or nothin else. They had me miserable back there, cause I didn't know what to do about it. It was an African lady, living right here, about 3 years ago. I was walking through this court, and I got right here. I looked over and she was sitting on the steps. She waved at me, every day. She would always say hi and I would smile. This day, I walked over to her and she told me that she was moving out. I went over to the rent office, that same day and told the lady that someone was moving out of 57 and could I get that. The lady said that she'll look into and guess what? I been here, ever since. They keep on claiming that they're gonna tear this damn place down. I'm like this, I ain't nowhere until I see the first brick fall down. I'm in, like Flynn. That's the documentary of the day. This right here is my empire. The other side is where my garden's at." - Michael D., Park Hill