Grove Park Community Garden

We launched a community garden for the neighborhood with a work day on April 18. We built 9 raised beds and built up the soil with lots of wonderful compost. The land is in our city park and given to us by the city. The hope is that it will become a garden that draws the community together, increases our mutual pride in the neighborhood, and ultimately provides healthy, fresh organic produce. The local schools and park summer programs for kids are going to participate in the garden too!

New Shoes!!!!!

Getting new running shoes makes me giddy. And the last pair I bought, Nike Air Triaxx something or the other, I HATED! On mile 8 of the Philadelphia Distance Run last Sept., when the shoes were just a couple of weeks old, I could feel my feet pound the pavement and my hip start to ache. I kept using them, mainly cause I couldn't afford more.

So last night, with a little State of Georgia tax refund in my pocket, I headed off to West Stride, a running store closest to being on the west side of town. It was the first time that someone analyzed my gait on a treadmill with a camera filming my feet from behind. (thank goodness not much of my ample Behind appeared on film.) Turns out I have a pretty neutral stride. My left foot pronates just a tad. (and now I actually know what pronating looks like). I have run in shoes that were for stability, but the guy helping me said I didn't really need that. I tried on 4 shoes including the newest version of my beloved Asics Gel Kayanos. (15's). The Brooks "slapped" on the ground when I ran. The Saucony's felt good. The Gel Kayano 15's were clunky. Toooo much stability, so I had to leave them behind. Then I tried the Asics GT-2140. Loved them!!!

Just had time for a quick 2 miles on the treadmill by the time I finished last night. And I can't completely break up with my Nike's. Gonna keep them in the rotation to stretch the miles.

Been Thinking

Today I spent the entire day working on my front yard landscape. I've spent a lot of time thinking what I want to do, carefully saving up for what I could afford now, deciding what could wait until later, and reaping the benefits of surplus from friends' yards. It was good to more solidly plant another "root" in Grove Park.

This fall and winter, I felt quite isolated and not plugged in here at all. In fact, I had begun to wonder if I would ever be able to make any inroads. Plus some of the next steps of "cross cultural" adjustment were happening: the days when everything was wonderful and interesting passed, and a season set in when I couldn't stand anything about where I lived. Not the way people seem to always yell when they communicate, my inability to understand what some people on the street were saying, the apparently irresistable need for the guys hanging out at the corner store to keep making comments louder and louder to get my attention, and the seeming endless lottery ticket lines at every overpriced convenience store.

So I've been "saving up" to post some observations about my neighborhood based on the end of the honeymoon and hopefully the passing of the days when I couldn't see anything good about it either.

Gas always costs at least 10 cents more per gallon anywhere near my house. I have the luxury of often being able to get it cheaper when I'm running an errand in another part of town.

My car insurance doubled in the fall. Doubled. I haven't had an accident or a ticket. I drive 3 miles round trip to work, compared to the 12-15 I drove when I lived in Decatur and paid half for my insurance and 10 cents per gallon less for my gas. It doubled simply because of my zip code. I won't ever be so quick to say that people who don't make much money should be more responsible about keeping their car insured. I'm not sure how anyone affords it in a neighborhood where the median income is about half what my salary is. (and my salary isn't big).

There isn't a Publix or Kroger in my neighborhood. If you don't have a car, you have to shop at the Super Giant or convenience store or take 3 buses (45-55 min each way?) to get to the nearest Publix and then you can only buy what you can carry back by the same way. That Publix does sell chicken feet though

Papa John's won't deliver a pizza to my street.

At the local NPU (neighborhood planning unit) meeting last week, it was announced that Fulton County has passed an ordinance that a dog can't be left on a chain or rope all the time. This was followed by a long and sincere discussion about why Fulton County would want all those dogs running loose and not tied up. It was not an option to fence the yard or keep them inside. (I'm casting an eye toward my pup curled up asleep under my dining room table and my old dog curled on her bed by the door as I type this). My favorite quote of the evening: "To give an animal freedom, we must enclose it."

The list of ad hoc NPU committee priority needs includes: abandoned and derelict houses that play home to drug dealers and prosititutes, prosititution, concern about businesses opening in the neighborhood that have lately included a pawn shop, an application for a pool hall, and one of those tax credit loan shops.

The best collard greens I've ever tasted were around the corner at a restaurant called Soule. But when I walked the 2 blocks home just after dark at 6:15, I had 2 people pull up next to me assuming I was a prostitute. (see the ad hoc committee list above)

The South Evelyn Community Club is trying to resurrect. I'm amazed and encouraged at the people on my street who have known each other and lived together for more than 40 years now. There's incredible history that I'm blessed to be now included in. They are even letting me host the April meeting.

The Grove Park Community Garden has been approved by the city and will open after Easter. It may only be me and Chris T., who started it to begin with, but it seems quite hopeful.

I don't know that I have any point to this post, except to point out the realities of my chosen community with its warts, its beauties, and the injustices and obstacles it faces.

And as I go to publish this post, I hear 3 gunshots. It's not even 9 p.m., but it's a warm night and people have been out and about ( and some of them drinking) all day.

I forgot to run a 5K!

Yep. This morning. It was a run done by the Physician's Assistant school at Emory and benefits Good Sam. The place where I am the development director. I was supposed to sign up this week, take some materials about Good Sam out to Lullwater park early this a.m., and run on the anniversary of my first race post knee surgery last year.

And I didn't remember until I was driving by Lullwater Park after digging up plants from a friend's yard, picking up a few more at Pike's on my way to HD for soil conditioner. I looked down the park driveway and saw the last of the people carrying gear up the hill from the race.

Sigh. Apparently I've been a little busy and distracted.

On the upside, I've gotten in my 2 3-mile runs this week, including yesterday a hilly run at Brookhaven at a 9:13 pace. Tomorrow, severe weather permitting, I plan to do 5.

If I remember.

finally (?)

Thank heaven for daylight savings time. Started last Wed to run with a co-worker during lunch. I've been so slack at running, that I was worried about going out for 3 mile run. But even with a pretty warm day, we did a 9:54 pace and I didn't die! We have a similar pace, even though she's about 6 inches taller than me. Thank goodness for someone else who loves running and will go out with me. If we make it one day/week, I'll go out one other time too.

Then Sunday, after it finally quit raining so hard, I headed out to the Silver Comet trail for another 3. But it became 4 and generally felt good at a 10 min/mi pace.

Boooorrring entry, but I just need to get this out there.

Then there was my dream. I swear I dreamed an entire 10 mile run through my favorite neighborhoods last Fri. night. The sun was out, about 65 degrees. It seemed like I felt every footfall, heard the neighborhood sounds, felt the changes in my heart rate and breathing. It felt great! Can't wait for it to happen when I'm awake and out of the bed!!

Days of Remembrance and Hope

Where you are makes such a difference in how you see things that happen, I'm learning. The back to back days celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday followed by the inauguration of Barak Obama as the first black president are days I think I see differently because of where I live.



About half of the houses on my street are owned by older black people who raised their families and lived out their careers in this neighborhood. They have lived through the decline of the neighborhood in the 80's and 90's when more and more of the neighborhood was taken over by drug dealers and gang members, suffering as poverty and crime affected everyone.



Each older neighbor I have met told me that they moved here in 1963. What does that mean? It means that as soon as one black family bought a house here, all of the white people sold their homes and fled to the white suburbs. The pastor of Paradise Missionary Baptist around the corner told me the building was sold to his congregation by a white church in 1965.



My neighbors have changed how I see this election and the new president. My neighbors lived in the Jim Crow south, being turned away from restaurants and the front of buses, drinking from separate water fountains and using a different entrance to the theater. My neighbors lived through the civil rights movement and encountered all of the resistance and recriminations of those who hated change. My neighbors have been teachers, pharmacists, firefighters, and housekeepers. They sent their children to college. My neighbors experienced continued oppression in neighborhoods that became neglected and blighted partially because they were primarily black.



Even if I can never fully know what it is like for my neighbors to watch the inauguration of President Obama, living here has given me a small taste of how momentous these days have been. It doesn't take the media hype for me to see the connection drawn from the dream of Martin Luther King as he spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to what the oath taken on the Capitol steps symbolized.

Copied from my home blog:

Fiscal considerations have caused me to put my gym membership on hold for now, so any running I do must be done outside. (Brrrr!) It's been another opportunity to venture out in the neigborhood in search of the miles I need. I can go in circles around the park on my own block, but since this is the only place I walk the dogs, I'm rather bored with that.

So far, I've ventured down the main road that runs through the neighborhood on a quiet Sunday morning and during daylight rush hour. (Don't worry, I have a neat little elastic wristband with pepper spray for stray dogs and other unsavory characters.) Soon, my work will relocate to a new building only a mile and a half from home. Since we'll have a shower there, I'll be able to switch 2 runs a week to my lunch hour and run home, let the dogs out and run back.

One Sunday I passed Chris and Star, a couple who live on my block, on my way back from a run. They were on their way to church, but we took a moment to talk about running and a half marathon that's in late March here. To my great surprise and delight, Chris showed up at my door several days later and asked about the race. We talked about running routes. It's so exciting that they may do this run. I may even gain a running partner.

Running 'round here

Fiscal considerations have caused me to put my gym membership on hold for now, so any running I do must be done outside. (Brrrr!) It's been another opportunity to venture out in the neigborhood in search of the miles I need.

I can go in circles around the park on my own block, but since this is the only place I walk the dogs, I'm rather bored with that. So far, I've ventured down the main road that runs through the neighborhood on a quiet Sunday morning and during daylight rush hour. (Don't worry, I have a neat little elastic wristband with pepper spray for stray dogs and other unsavory characters.)

Soon, my work will relocate to a new building only a mile and a half from home. Since we'll have a shower there, I'll be able to switch 2 runs a week to my lunch hour and run home, let the dogs out and run back.

One Sunday I passed Chris and Star, a couple who live on my block, on my way back from a run. They were on their way to church, but we took a moment to talk about running and a half marathon that's in late March here. To my great surprise and delight, Chris showed up at my door several days later and asked about the race. We talked about running routes. It's so exciting that they may do this run. I may even gain a running partner.

I have discovered that things move slowly here (or maybe it's me). It's the first time he's set foot in my house. Most people on the street, no matter how kind and friendly, have not invited me into their homes. Only Miss Mamie and Johnnie (a young woman from the next block) have come into my house before this.

New Year, New Thoughts

I've been so slack writing about my home and life in the neighborhood. A conversation after
church today and some recent opportunities and experiences reminded me why I decided to track this new life.
Last year at Christmas, most of my house was under plastic and dropcloths, there were sawhorses in the dining room, and I was wearing a brace on an injured knee. I managed to stick a wreath on the front door, but Christmas was a non-event. This year, I was giddy about pulling out decorations that had been packed away for 2 years and deciding what to use. A friend helped me pick out a big tree and get it in the stand. Somehow, it was the decorating that made this house really feel like home. (Well ,that and finishing the closet project in the front bedroom that allowed me to finally finish unpacking).

Here's the closets and window seats added in the front room.


Here's the living room decorated for Christmas.