The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Kim Carrell-Smith is a 31-year resident of Bethlehem’s historic Southside, where she taught public history at Lehigh University for almost two decades. She is also an aspiring gadfly, buzzing in on issues of historic preservation, public education, city government, and other social justice issues. She tips her wings to the master gadflies who have served our community for so long!

ref: [Anna] Smith’s Song of the South(side)
ref: You tell ’em, Kim!
ref: Southside ruminations (1)

continued . . .

Installment 2

I had a lot of questions last time, which I posed for folks who might be inclined to think of the Southside as a place that needs “saving.” I got caught up in the public, commercial areas last time, as I thought about the assets that might be unfamiliar, or invisible, to folks who don’t work, live or play on the Southside regularly — those who don’t really know the people, spaces, and connections that exist here. But then I thought: what about the people, and how they live as a community, as neighborhoods of connected residents (or not!)? What about the spaces beyond the commercial corridors? Which leads me to more questions…

To start with, have folks who are predisposed to think of the Southside as a place that needs saving actually explored the neighborhoods outside the commercial district? Could they decipher the historical clues that tell us about life here in the past, as they explore residential life in the present (the ethnic churches, the corner stores, the gorgeous views of the city and The Steel from St. Michael’s Cemetery?)? Do they know where the original synagogue on the Southside lies, hidden beneath the white brickcoat façade of what is now an apartment building? Have they walked down the 400 block of Montclair to see the impressive stone façade rowhomes built for merchants and professionals in the early twentieth century? Have they gone up Hayes Street, looking at CADCB-facilitated façade improvements that foreshadowed a 19% jump in homeownership on that block, to see the pride folks show in their homes (Flowers! gardens! Creative paint jobs! Porches with holiday displays all year long! Black Lives Matter flags! Trump flags! Pride flags! US and Puerto Rican flags!)?

Have they walked along the (very real) Southside street where you might notice the two mom’s with the Pride flag on their porch, who regularly call out to passing neighbors, living next door to the black family with three grade schoolers who race bikes up and down the hill, next to the older couple with the adult son with an intellectual disability who calls to neighbors whenever he sees them, living next to the Latinx man who likes to chat with everyone, next to the neighbor with four-year-old twins who was inspired to try her first flower garden because of the flowers she saw planted next door, who lives next to the young couple with a baby who are bilingual and talk with neighbors in both languages, sometimes in the same sentences? Do they know about these neighbors and neighborhoods, and do they think about the residents as people? Or do they think of “Southsiders” as a monolith wrapped in poverty, crime, and ill intentions?

Are they aware of the way small business flourishes in vibrant neighborhoods, as the handyman who installed a door for a landlord soon was working on the nearby house after chatting with the residents? The cement contractor who gets the next job, a few houses down? The radon abatement guy who gets the job up the block, the roofer who repairs the place next door when he’s done the big job at the neighbor’s house?

Do they know about neighbors who have a texting group so they can share family news, flag controversial new development proposals and city council activities, watch out for a neighbor who has mental health issues, and send requests to let one another’s dogs out?

Have they walked up State Street and met the Portuguese man who has two full lots of terraced gardens on the steep mountainside –full of vegetables, a grape arbor, a shrine to the Virgin Mary, and fruit trees –all immaculately kept?  Do they know about the extraordinary views up on First Terrace, and do they know that if you walk that street on the summer evening you will probably pass a young professional couple, he with dreadlocks to his waist, and she in professional attire, pushing a stroller as they walk from their home through Lehigh’s campus? Or perhaps they would see a senior resident with the amazing deer proof gardens who grows a remarkable number of diverse foods and flowers. (Have they seen the four-legged neighborhood watch patrols, the herds of deer that wander through our allegedly “urban” streets?!) Do they know about the pileated woodpeckers and other remarkable birds that swoop through our neighborhoods – even the occasional bald eagle high overhead — and the woods on our hillsides, with trails for mountain bikers and hikers?

I’d invite skeptical or curious folks to visit with some of us Southside boosters: take a walk with us, grab a coffee, eat a meal over here. Or just go shopping and talk with merchants, buy things! Stop in a corner market to get a drink. But also explore the neighborhoods. Greet people and look them in the eye. Admire the yard ornaments as well as the grand historic churches, the cool old Victorian buildings, and the comfortable, connected twins and rowhomes . . . the gardens, the trees. Appreciate the porch life, the stoop-sitting, the parks filled with people playing and talking, the music, and the peaceful coexistence of diverse long-term renters, homeowners, short-term residents, and the occasional college students; feel the neighborhood vibe. If you do this often enough, you might feel like you belong. And maybe you’ll begin to sense the assets — from our diverse residents to our historical and contemporary material surroundings, and from services and businesses to human connections — that make this such a positive place to live, work, and play.

Sure we have deficits, but let’s try to identify assets, and enhance them, and then figure out what local residents may think the deficits are for their quality of life and their stable neighborhoods, and work as a community to develop positive, community-engaged changes. Please don’t come here to save us; come here to join us. Then we can work on these things, together.

By the way, my apologies for repeatedly referring to folks who don’t know the Southside well as “they,” in my questions: it’s pretty “othering” (as sociologists say), isn’t it? We know a thing or two about that over here on the Southside. But we need to mutually rise above that polarization; I pledge to look for more asset-minded language to refer to folks who don’t know what they’re missing on the Southside. And assets-based reasoning suggests that if folks who are predisposed to be deficit-minded thinkers can get to know us and our part of town, Southsiders won’t always be “those people.” And then perhaps the Southside won’t seem to require saviors anymore . . .

Kim

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Kim Carrell-Smith is a 31-year resident of Bethlehem’s historic Southside, where she taught public history at Lehigh University for almost two decades. She is also an aspiring gadfly, buzzing in on issues of historic preservation, public education, city government, and other social justice issues. She tips her wings to the master gadflies who have served our community for so long!

ref: [Anna] Smith’s Song of the South(side)
ref: You tell ’em, Kim!

Gadfly,

I fervently hope your wastebasket thumping will continue, as we ALL work on seeking out and coming to understand our Bethlehem community assets, rather than getting stuck in a deficit-based mindset. As Kiera Wilhelm suggested, Bethlehem folks definitely need to actively work against the conscious and unconscious bias that sees the Southside as a place that needs “saving.”  In my experience, deficits-based thinking about the Southside arises when people don’t actually spend time in this part of town (other than for an occasional restaurant visit), nor have they really talked with the folks who live, play, and work here. I think those who live in or frequent the Southside might share a very different view of this place, based on our terrific assets, appealing quirkiness, eclectic historical architecture, great small businesses (we can always use/support more!), and generally very good quality of life. Pondering this gap has led me to a lot of questions. Lots. Apologies in advance.

Do the deficit-based-savior-thinkers know about the Greenway that runs like a ribbon across this side of town – I mean, really know what it is/does/means for the Southside and the city? Have they observed the folks walking, running, playing, chatting with one another, sitting on a bench and watching the world go by while greeting passersby, or have they stepped off at Bonn Place or Dinky’s for a quick beer or a snack? Do they say hello to the folks they pass, or do they put their heads down or clutch their wallets?

Have they shopped and observed the summer market that CADCB runs on the Greenway, where the director chats with passersby and gets to hear what’s going on in the neighborhoods, while folks hang out in the shade of the CADCB canopy and sip drinks and eat ice cream? Have they visited the fabulous new park area with great play structures that lie behind the former Holy Infancy School? Have they visited the community gardens behind Litzenberger House, where they might chat with the folks who sometimes sit beside them, admiring the plants, while chatting with the gardeners? Do they greet the friendly residents of Victory House who sit out in their garden, or do they turn their heads as they walk by?

Do they get their hair cut in a barbershop, because if they do there are myriad choices on the Southside, where you can get local news, talk with a barber-landlord with a million dollar portfolio, see children doing homework, maybe hear multiple languages at once, all while seeing Lehigh students and staff, as well as diverse residents, getting a shave, a trim, a shapeup.

Have they looked (really looked, and that means looking across streets and up at buildings!) at the eclectic streetscapes that tell the story of our city’s past? Do they see the potential to enhance those great buildings, to adaptively reuse those which are underutilized (especially above the retail spaces)? Or do they see “old” as outmoded, without really thinking about these structures? Do they only see one building or space at a time, disconnected from the human setting, or do they see the impact of buildings and eclectic historical architecture within the whole streetscape? Do they see the people in these places and on these streets, or do they imagine other people, in their place?

Do they hang out in the historically restored Deja Brew Coffee House and Deli, or at Lit with its nationally renowned baked goods, or Cafe the Lodge with its dynamite outdoor Serenity Garden (just off the Greenway!), or have they eaten at Casa de Campos with its bountiful, inexpensive food, or La Tia’s Dominican restaurant across from St. Michael’s, or maybe at Macchu Pichu, beside Peruvian families with children giggling and playing between tables? These are all places where so many Southside community members meet up. They are places where residents may meet with Lehigh folks, or perhaps they simply peacefully coexist in the same space, places where students descend after class for lunch, or where moms with babies meet to destress in the afternoon, where remote workers find quiet havens and free wifi, where friends connect.

Do the defict-based-savior-thinkers know where we buy groceries, or dance salsa? Do they know the fun of picking up a last-minute item, and winding up with far more, from the Dollar Max? Have they heard you can buy the most stylish glasses in the Lehigh Valley over here? Do they know where to get homemade sausages, whole octopus, or fresh wild caught salmon for $7.99 a pound? Have they stopped for fresh pan sobao, or impulsively picked up some tembleque or pineapple cheesecake when they’re in the Four Blocks International (Quatro Bloques) area? Do they perhaps buy that occasional three-course Dominican lunch for about $6?

Have they talked with the resident next to the great little park with the domino tables that was created by CADCB, about the facade grant that allowed her to fix up her house with an historically accurate porch roof that lends beauty and functionality to her home and the streetscape? Did they ever come to the annual tree lighting in that little park, where you hear Broughal singers and Three Kings sing carols in English and Spanish, and afterwards families walk down to the Southside library to make crafts and drink hot chocolate?

But I still have other questions, about what folks might be missing beyond our commercial areas and the Greenway. There’s so much more to understand about our people, our neighborhoods. But I’ll save those for the next post . . .

Kim

to be continued . . .

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

“It was recently brought to my attention, by a wise and insightful individual (who also happens to be a Southside resident, and one deeply involved in its community), that it is not uncommon for people to speak about the Southside, even subconsciously, as if it needs ‘saving’.”
Kiera Wilhelm, Gadfly Forum #5

You may not know this.

Gadfly does.

There is gang activity on the Southside.

I call them the Southside Warriors.

The membership includes Olga Negron, Stephen Antalics, and

Kim Carrell-Smith.

When it comes to slurs on the Southside, Kim showed at the April 8 Planning Committee meeting that she can be deliciously and politely feisty.

Finished with her professional comments on the proposed project at 404 E. 3rd., Kim put on her warrior hat:

• the developer said something that got my hackles up
• long-time resident, love the Southside
• prefer not to hear developers say such things as “neighborhoods of no consequence”
• because we live in those neighborhoods
• and we value them
• and we find them very safe
• and secure
• and our crime rate is lower than the north side
• you are feeding an unfortunate perception
• your perceptions are perceptions not reality
• I hope you will not be feeding students (tenants at 404 E. 3rd) that same perception
• I hope that you will give them a sense that they are in a great location
• with a lot to do
• and that those neighborhoods are not antagonistic toward them

It was a great moment, I tell you — Gadfly was hooting, hollering, and drumming on his wastebasket on his side of the Zoom!

Makin’ an utter fool of himself, he was.

In this vein and in this mood, Gadfly recommends that you re-read Kiera’s fine mini-essay on the Southside in Forum #5.