Abstract

Michelle Broome discusses growing up in the Cleveland area, specifically the St. Clair and Superior neighborhood. She details her experiences growing up as well as her work in the community through the St. Clair Superior Development Corporation. Broome details the organizations impact on issues such as urban development, education, faith based organizations, and community safety. Not only a detailed overview of the past work of the organization, Broome forcasts the groups vision and plans for Cleveland's future.

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Interviewee

Broome, Michelle (interviewee)

Interviewer

Lewis, Jennifer (interviewer)

Project

St. Clair - Superior Neighborhood

Date

6-26-2006

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

46 minutes

Transcript

Michelle Broome [00:00:00] Sure.

Jennifer Lewis [00:00:11] And then we're going to have you do a quick sound check to make sure that we have good sound quality. If we just. Maybe you could talk about the weather a little bit, just so we can hear how your voice is going to sound on the recording.

Michelle Broome [00:00:49] Well, it's very, very cloudy. Just got done raining. Nice day, though. It's not raining right now.

Jennifer Lewis [00:00:59] Okay.

Michelle Broome [00:00:59] Which is good.

Jennifer Lewis [00:01:02] Can you hear it?

Michelle Broome [00:01:04] Okay.

Jennifer Lewis [00:01:07] All right, then. Well, let's go ahead and begin. What is your full name?

Michelle Broome [00:01:13] Michelle Shanice Broom.

Jennifer Lewis [00:01:17] Why did your parents select this name for you?

Michelle Broome [00:01:20] I'm named after my father. My father's name is Michael, and actually he named me, so. Yeah, named after my dad.

Jennifer Lewis [00:01:30] Do you have a nickname?

Michelle Broome [00:01:32] Just Shell. People call me Shell. My grandmother used to call me lump of sugar. My. I had a couple nicknames, Mimi, but mostly people call me Shell.

Jennifer Lewis [00:01:48] Could you share a favorite memory from your childhood?

Michelle Broome [00:01:53] One of my favorite. My brother and I, well, there are seven children now, but up until I was 14, there were just two of us, my mom, my dad, and myself. We went to the lake. We'd always go to the lake because we lived on East 79th street off St. Clair, so we could walk to the lake. And my mom, who normally wouldn't climb on rocks or swing, she didn't do anything. She just brought the food. So she decided to climb the rocks with us one day, and she almost fell. So we were asking, are you okay? And then we all bust out laughing. And I probably was, like, ten, nine or ten years old then. Yeah, it was kind of funny.

Jennifer Lewis [00:02:42] So you stayed in this same community pretty much that you were born in?

Michelle Broome [00:02:47] Well, I was born in the Central neighborhood on 84th, near Central, and we moved to the West 7th housing projects, which was down in the Flats. And I believe I may have been about three or four years old, I don't remember, but we stayed there until I was about seven, and then at seven, we moved to the St. Clair Superior neighborhood.

Jennifer Lewis [00:03:17] Were there any popular hangouts that you can remember in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood?

Michelle Broome [00:03:22] We hung out pretty much. Well, we stayed in our yard, mainly because my grandparents owned the house they lived in. We lived in an apartment building that sat in front of their house. It was a storefront downstairs. We lived upstairs. My grandmother lived in the house behind, and her sister, my aunt, lived upstairs from her. So we had all this family in one. That's where we hung out because we really couldn't go to many other places.

Jennifer Lewis [00:04:06] So what were your biggest challenges growing up that you can think of?

Michelle Broome [00:04:14] I really can't say that there were very many. I mean, we were working poor family. My mom and dad worked up until I was a teenager, and then my mom had another baby and became a stay at home mom. But because we had all this family around us, it was. I had a good life as a kid. The neighbors were really nice when we moved there. There were. It was probably a really, really well mixed neighborhood. Black, white, hispanic, next door neighbor was our best friends growing up. And over the years, homeowners started to move out. We had more renters and lots more, lots more children. And so it changed a little. A lot of houses came down, apartment buildings came down, a lot of vacant land, property. But all in all, it was a good neighborhood to grow up in.

Jennifer Lewis [00:05:30] What is so attractive about this same community to you now as an adult? You're living here. What is attracting you to this, to wanting to stay and be an activist?

Michelle Broome [00:05:41] Well, actually, I moved from the St. Clair Superior neighborhood about seven years ago. I live in Fairfax now, but I work in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood. And it's just. It's like home. There's families that still live in the neighborhood, families that kind of watch me grow up. And I don't know, it's just a very unique neighborhood. Lots of memories, and I'd like to see more housing in the neighborhood, but primarily, it was just a neighborhood that you would be glad to raise your kid up in. There's a high school down the street, all kinds of little neighborhood stores. When I was growing up, there was a drugstore right on the corner. It's not there anymore. It's another store, but really nice neighborhood.

Jennifer Lewis [00:06:43] So you are a community activist. Did you choose activism as a result of personal experiences?

Michelle Broome [00:06:51] Not really. I went to. I lived at home while going to college, so I lived at home all throughout high school, throughout college. And I went to Cleveland State and graduated in 97. And after I graduated, I started. I worked at Habitat for Humanity, and I worked after that at St. Martin de Porres Family Center. I worked with senior citizens. I started. I took a couple masters level courses in public administration. It kind of piqued my interest just getting involved with community. And I had a study partner who introduced me to the director at St. Clair Superior at that time. And I had no idea what a CDC was, what a community development corporation was. I didn't know what community organizing was, and he sort of got my foot in the door to doing this type of community work, and I've been doing it for three years now. And it's. I love it.

Jennifer Lewis [00:08:10] Could you share a highlight from your activism with the St. Clair Superior organization?

Michelle Broome [00:08:17] Yeah, one of my groups, one of the groups that I work with, I work with block clubs, and they are primarily groups of residents or stakeholders in the neighborhood that meet to work on different issues that relate to their particular street or set of streets. So I work with these groups and help them put on projects, help them, you know, solve any types of problems that they may be facing. One of the groups just put on their second annual praise the children day, and it was born out of the fact that we hear a lot of negativity about youth and, you know, a lot of things that they're not doing. You hear about all that, but you don't hear about the 90% of the kids that are doing great. So they said, well, why don't we do a day, just celebrate children, and we'll have activities, we'll have food. And so last year, they put on the first praise your children day, and this year they were funded from the Cleveland Foundation's Neighborhood Connections grant to do it again this year. So it's becoming an annual event, and it's a great event. The kids love it. They have a great time. And was birthed out of just a community, you know, some community residents who wanted to do something nice.

Jennifer Lewis [00:09:46] What is the primary goal of your organization?

Michelle Broome [00:09:50] Of the St. Clair Superior Development Corporation. We have three main focuses. We do commercial and real estate development. We do community leadership and involvement, and we do industrial services. I work primarily with the community involvement and leadership. It's my job to build the leadership abilities with the residents and stakeholders and help them to solve their own problems, as opposed to waiting for a city official or, you know, a service provider to do things for them.

Jennifer Lewis [00:10:29] Are there any initiatives that you're, I guess, working on right now that you want to really see implemented to kind of help build this diverse coalition for the community? Something you have in the works?

Michelle Broome [00:10:45] Well, we started, and we have a safety committee who, they've been active for a number of years, and they were active before I started working there. And what used to happen at their meetings, they would get updates from police or they'd get updates from other city officials on what's going on or what types of things that the city is working on to improve the safety. Well, we just started the safety committee. I just started working with them on community walks. And it's a little different because you're not. By walking the community, you make the neighborhood safer, although you're not directly tackling it, you know, so it's an initiative that's just starting that I think would greatly, greatly benefit the neighborhood that hopefully in a year or so, we have 50 walkers just walking, getting exercise, being a presence on the street, and appreciating the neighborhood.

Jennifer Lewis [00:11:53] Some of the segments in your community newsletter, the various segments such as the hotspots and eyesores, have you received many responses to those, and have they done anything to improve situations?

Michelle Broome [00:12:09] They do. We, in our newsletter, like you said, we print the hotspot and eyesore forms so that everyone has an opportunity to report any criminal activity or vacant properties that are a problem. They can report those anonymously. So that's why we put them in the newspaper, because everybody gets one. And we don't always provide them at meetings. We have them available. But sometimes people may feel, you know, a little fear about taking them. If someone sees that they're, you know, getting a form to report something, they definitely work. It's a little time consuming, because what happens is the resident sends the form to us, we send it to the police, and then they start a file, so they start investigating. An investigation could take, you know, depending on what it is, it could take a little bit of time, but it's a mechanism that because we file them, the safety committee and other groups can take a look at that and say, okay, we have ten hotspot sheets on this one particular address. What can we do to make this situation better? And as for the eyesore forms are for vacant properties, and the vacant properties can draw the wrong crowd into them if they're not secure. So we do ask residents, if you see any vacant properties, to please report them so that they can get them secure, so that they're not drawing kids into them where they could get hurt or any other criminal activity that may take place.

Jennifer Lewis [00:13:58] I've heard about the importance of some of these small community grants. How have those worked for you? Have you been awarded any grants? Have they been used?

Michelle Broome [00:14:09] Yes, the grants are a huge success. We have helped our group secure approximately $15,000 over the past two years for small community projects. The one I mentioned earlier, praise your children event, was funded this year by neighborhood connections. We have that same group was funded through city Works grant for a yard light beautification project. And that is where the homeowners or residents, not just for homeowners, but residents, will get a yard light in front of their yard that will light up their area so that it's safe when they're coming in at night or leaving early in the morning. So the yard light is a big project. We had a neighborhood watch training that was funded. We also had a group called Partners for Progress that was funded $5,000 from Neighborhood Connections to do a welcome wagon packet. And those packets go to new homeowners, people in the neighborhood, people who have been here for 20 years, just to let them know that they're part of the community. And in those packets are city council information, police information, St. Clair Superior Development Corporation phone numbers that they may need to report, you know, broken lights or, you know, streets that need repair, anything that has to do with community information. We put those in the packets, and they're being distributed, actually being distributed now.

Jennifer Lewis [00:15:52] Are there any politicians who really support the organization?

Michelle Broome [00:15:58] Yes, definitely. Our three council people, we have a service area that goes from East 30th street to Martin Luther King Boulevard, from Superior and Paine north to the lake. So we have about 15,000 residents and about 25,000 people that come into the neighborhood to work or eat or whatever. So we work with three council people. Councilwoman Fannie Lewis of ward 7, Jill Cimperman of ward 13, and Sabra Pierce Scott of ward 8. All three of them are fabulous, great to work with. We're all partners, and it's nice. They show up to block club meetings, they show up to all kinds of festivals, events. Just show the residents that they support them. They're great.

Jennifer Lewis [00:16:51] How has the changing ethnic demographics added to, or even provided obstacles for the revitalization of this community? Has that been a problem? And maybe even for you personally, how have racial or ethnic boundaries maybe created problems or even aided in the revitalization?

Michelle Broome [00:17:16] From my perspective, I think we have one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city. We also don't know each other as much as I think we should. So we have. We have blocks where maybe there's, say there's 70% African American and 30% other. The block club may be made up of only the 30% other and vice versa. We do have some streets that may be 30% African American, where the block club may be mainly African American. So there's not a. A good mix of ethnic groups. So, personally, I like to share my story with a lot of the residents that live in St. Clair Superior, because there is a perception that because more African Americans have moved into the neighborhood, there's more poverty, that that's the reason for the problems, which is not the case. But I think there is a culture of poverty that we have to combat. It doesn't have anything to do with skin color, and I like to use my own personal story. I mean, we were poor, grew up in the neighborhood. I graduated from college. My brother did, you know, and it wasn't really easy. I mean, we didn't have a car. We caught the bus everywhere we went. But we were a great family. And most of the residents over there are great people, but because nobody knows each other, they just have these perceptions. And so I think that's where it's my job as a community organizer, to kind of share those stories and let them know that, you know, hey, this is not reality, you know, or this is how it is. And so we also have the opportunity to pair up residents from different sizes of the neighborhood. We had a leadership training, and so we. We orchestrate some things to. So that we. We introduce people from different backgrounds to each other, and then they get the appreciation, like, okay, well, it's not what I thought it was. So, yeah, it's not easy, but because I grew up here and because I had the experience that I had, I think it makes it a little bit easier.

Jennifer Lewis [00:19:56] It sounds like your organization really takes a lot of proactive, do things that are proactive to try and aid in things like safety issues and like, you know, celebrating the children, the community walks. Is there anything else that you would like to see about, any creative approaches that are being taken to improve the quality of life for the residents in your community? Is there something that you would like to say about where you want to see this community in the future 10, 15, 20 years from now?

Michelle Broome [00:20:32] Well, I would like to see. What we don't have is a lot of community gardens, things that are community building types, type projects, which I think the organization is definitely moving toward doing more community building and things like the community gardens, things like murals, public art that I think the neighborhood needs and that people need to, you know, learn more about different cultures. And we have all these people in the neighborhood. I would like to see the organization move. It is slowly sort of turning that way. But ten years from now, you know, maybe a diversity festival or just to celebrate the people in our neighborhood, we also. This is our first year doing an Asian Culture Awareness project, which is the year of the dog, and that's been really successful. So we're moving that way. And I think in ten years, I think it'd be fabulous. Fabulous neighborhood. Just a melting pot, which it already is.

Jennifer Lewis [00:21:50] Is there a reason in particular why you feel. You mentioned the Asian population. Have they been hard to reach as far as drawing them into these community groups?

Michelle Broome [00:22:02] Yes. Well, there's a language barrier in the Asian community. I've been at St. Clair Superior for three years, and we've tried to. We've tried a few years ago to try to get an Asian community group active. And just this past fall, there was an unfortunate event that actually kind of got them together. One neighborhood business was robbed, and so the owner of that business decided that, you know, we need to get together. We need to have a meeting to try to, you know, work on the safety in the neighborhood. That meeting has now turned into more like an Asian community planning group. So they've met about six Times since September of 2005, and now they're talking about doing an Asian website. They're talking about identifying the neighborhood as an Asian Chinatown or Asiatown, whatever they decide they want to call it. But the language barrier, because there's so many different groups within the Asian community. Some people speak, and I'm terrible with the dialects, but I know there's Cantonese, there's Mandarin. A few members are from Taiwan, so they speak Taiwanese or Philippine. There's Korean. So, you know, there's a lot of different groups within the Asian community. And we're fortunate to have volunteers to translate flyers into Chinese to help, you know, with the language you barrier, to get people to come out to the meetings and contribute to the community. And that's working. It's mostly we're working with the businesses. They usually will relay the information to the residents in the neighborhood.

Jennifer Lewis [00:24:04] What about the local churches? How do they help or maybe even hinder this process?

Michelle Broome [00:24:10] We have. We have a lot of churches in the neighborhood, and a few of them, we have a great relationship with North Presbyterian Church, which is on 40th and Superior, St. Philip Neri, which is at 82nd and St. Clair. They're fabulous. There's a church called Church of the Lion of Judah, which is on 74 near Superior and St. Andrew's Towers, Immaculate Conception. They all offer meeting spaces. They all participate in the meetings. Just great, great churches. Emmanuel Christian Church on 82nd and Superior. We'd love to reach out to more churches because they, you know, on Sundays or on weekends, they have, you know, all these people here and that, you know, we'd love for them to be involved in the community, and for some reason, you know, some of the churches haven't seen it as important, but we just. We keep trying to reach out to them, sending them letters, letting them know when different events are, things like that.

Jennifer Lewis [00:25:26] Do you have any theories as to why you can't reach out to some of those churches?

Michelle Broome [00:25:33] My theory. My theory is that some of our churches are so they're so focused on spirituality, which is important, which is, you know, most important. But they tend to forget that we're, you know, you have to practice your spirituality in the community, and, you know, they tend to focus on, you know, being perfect and, you know, trying to live a good life, which is great. But, you know, you're still here in the community, and you have to, you know, get out into the community. And, you know, I believe that if you, whatever religion or whatever belief you have, you want somebody to either know about it or want to go along with you. So you have to, you know, be friendly to people. You know, you have to be a good neighbor. And I don't understand why, you know, they don't come out into the community. And that's not all of them. Again, it's, you know, some of our churches are that way, but that's just my theory.

Jennifer Lewis [00:26:49] You had mentioned earlier for the future, or you wanted to see more sort of beautification, if you will, with art and gardens. There's a small artist colony, maybe in this area that I think is growing, or from what I've read. Do you know much about that? Or.

Michelle Broome [00:27:07] There's a number of artists live workspaces that are in our neighborhood. One of the first in the city was Hodge School for artists, which is located at 74th and Korman. And a lot of the community don't know about it. It's right in the middle. It's sort of right in the heart of the neighborhood, and people don't know about it. So that actually, if we could reach out to the artists in the community to do maybe some art projects with kids or some projects with seniors would be a great way to get more people to know about the artists in the community, possibly even patronize, you know, their business, and. But I know that there's a number of live work spaces on the 30th end near St. Clarence Superior. So if we could get them organized, that would be great. But there's so many different things that people do. Music, paintings, drawings.

Jennifer Lewis [00:28:27] How many local schools are there, public and private?

Michelle Broome [00:28:34] I don't know exactly, but I know East High School, case school, which is on 43rd and Superior. St. Martin de Porres High School, which is new to the neighborhood. Immaculate Conception, I believe, goes up to 8th grade. St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis, and that may be all I can remember. Mostly Catholic schools, the high school, and one K through 8.

Jennifer Lewis [00:29:13] So most of the children in the community attend which school mainly, do you know?

Michelle Broome [00:29:22] Actually, I believe most of the kids in the community go to other schools outside the neighborhood. We are slated for a new K through 8 school, in ward 7, and it was supposed to start construction in 2007, but I believe it's been postponed. They're still working on drawings and stuff, so that would be a great asset to the neighborhood.

Jennifer Lewis [00:29:55] Well, it sounds like you have a lot of pride in this community, and you've invested a lot of yourself, and you have a great passion for it. Is there anything else that you want to say about this area?

Michelle Broome [00:30:09] Not. Not anything new. It's a fabulous neighborhood. I grew up here. I'm very, very thankful for the parents that I had, my grandparents for just being great people and being concerned about the neighborhood, which they passed that along to me. So that's about it.

Jennifer Lewis [00:30:33] You know, I have one more question for you concerning businesses, because I got an opportunity to drive. I'm not from the area, and I got an opportunity to drive around. It seems like there's a lot of empty space. Are there any new businesses wanting to come into this area?

Michelle Broome [00:30:50] Yes, as a matter of fact, I know we've had, over the course of three years, we've had a number of new businesses coming in. But you're right, there's plenty, plenty space. We have, I want to say, about 300 businesses in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood. And with the Tops supermarket closing last year, 2005, we have a new Family Dollar that just opens. We also have some retail space that is a part of development project Tyler Village, some new businesses that are moving in there. So I think the development, new developments kind of sparked people's interest to want to move into the community. And we have a lot of very successful businesses, small businesses, you know, mom and pop stores that have been around for years. And people still, you know, patronize. I live in Fairfax now, and we still drive over here to Sheliga drugstore. Now there's a Rite Aid, you know, two blocks from us. But we, you know, why would I go to Rite Aid? Because the businesses are, you know, just family oriented and, you know, they make you feel good when you go in.

Jennifer Lewis [00:32:18] How do the residents work or not work with local law enforcement? Is there, are you doing something to help us be a better match? Because we always hear so much about police being cut back.

Michelle Broome [00:32:33] There's. Fortunately, there's a great relationship with our residents and the police because St. Clair Superior has a history of grassroots organizing. The organization started in 1976, I believe 1976, as the St. Clair Superior Coalition. And so they've done block club organizing, they've done safety work for a number of years. And so they've built that relationship sort of, I guess, over the past 30 years. Well, when I came on board, the police were already attending the block club meetings, giving updates on things that they were doing. And the residents, through the hotspot sheets or privately, they may go up to a police officer after a meeting and say, well, hey, this, and this is going on because the residents are really the eyes on the street. We have maybe one police officer to a thousand residents. Don't quote me, but, you know, it's a lot of, a lot of people that, you know, one police officer is assigned to. They can't be everywhere. So they, I think they really do rely on residents and business people to, you know, if they see anything going on or anything suspicious to, you know, let the police know what's going on. And I think they, I think they have a great relationship. Now, there are times when the police don't respond. You know, maybe they come hours after or they may come the next day, but because of that relationship, the resident is able to call and say, well, hey, you know what happened? And they've always responded favorably. We work with two of, I think, the greatest commanders in the district, district three and district five. So we have Commander Gonzalez and a new commander for the fifth, Commander Williams. And they've both been to meetings. Commander Gonzalez was at a meeting last night. Commander Williams was at a meeting last weekend. And they're always supportive of the residents, and that's a great thing.

Jennifer Lewis [00:34:50] I can't help but think, as I'm sitting here listening to you, it's summertime, and I'm wondering, what do the kids do for fun? What kind of recreation do you have? Is there a public pool or.

Michelle Broome [00:35:05] We have, in our neighborhood, we have two rec centers. Kovacic Rec Center is at 63rd and St. Clair, and Sterling Recreation center is on, I believe, 32nd between St. Clair and Superior. So they have those two recs. There's Gordon park, there's Kirtland park, which is between 49th and 47th at South Marginal Road. There's a lot of things to do. I think that for some neighborhood kids, it may be a little bit too far to walk to some of these places, direct centers or what have you. So a number of them will utilize east high school or some of the vacant lots to play in or play basketball in. Some of our kids play basketball in the street, which we don't, you know, we hate to see that because it's so dangerous. But if, you know, if it's too far, if it's a young child, eight or nine years old. They may live, you know, six or seven blocks from the rec center, so they will try to find something for them to do. That's where the block clubs are trying to be a little more creative with doing a lot of festivals. We have an East Forties festival that's coming up July, that it was also funded by neighborhood connections and the praise your children event, which just took place. The St. Clair Superior neighborhood has another festival at 61st in St. Clair. So we're. We try to, you know, have them throughout the neighborhood so that kids will have the opportunity to, you know, enjoy some free food, some free activities when they can't always get to the neighborhood rec center.

Jennifer Lewis [00:37:02] Are there still many extended families living in this community? Because I know you said your aunt and you're, you know, you lived by a lot of relatives.

Michelle Broome [00:37:10] Yeah, I believe so. I think with a lot of. We have a lot of seniors taking care of grandkids, and so that is. That's. I think that's actually a lot. There's a number of residents who, you know, will bring their grandkids to meetings, or we have meetings at residents homes, and the grandkids are running around playing or, you know, they don't always have to have a babysitter, you know, so they'll bring the kids to the meetings, and that's good, because that exposes the kids to community involvement, which is what we want to encourage more youth involvement. And I did want to go back a little bit. That's something that we are trying to get. St. Clair Superior would like to see more youth involvement in the community, and we're trying to come up with creative ways to build their leadership because, you know, they make up a great, you know, a number of residents are in our neighborhood, but they don't always speak up. So I'm trying to come up with ways to get them to speak up and say that, you know, things that they want to see happen in the neighborhood.

Jennifer Lewis [00:38:29] I really think you've covered everything very well, unless you can again, think of something else you'd like to add. Sounds pretty impressive, the work that you're doing, and I'm glad that I had this opportunity to talk with you.

Michelle Broome [00:38:42] Thank you.

Jennifer Lewis [00:38:43] Thank you.

UNKNOWN [00:38:44] I'd like to ask a question. City services, the winter snow plowing garbage collection, is that an issue at all? And if it is, does your community?

Michelle Broome [00:38:55] Garbage collection is usually not an issue. I never really hear any complaints. Complaints about garbage collection leave when the fall hits, and the city sometimes will pick up leaves. The city I believe last year, I don't believe they picked up very many with limited resources and limited funds. We did have someone from the streets department come and talk to the residents to say why it is that they're slow picking them up. So again, I think it's just that relationship and where I come in, it's building the residents leadership skills so that they're able to call the city official and say, well, you know, my name is, you know, Miss Jackson, and this is our problem. Whereas, you know, a number of residents feel like they have no voice, you know, oh, they're not going to listen to me. I'm just, you know, whoever. So, you know, it's important to keep those relationships open and to build bridges, you know, and I tell my residents all the time, we're not here to make any enemies, you know, and we understand that the city, you know, has limitations and also let them know that there are some things that you can do, you know, on your own and not always wait around for someone to do something for you. Snow plowing. Usually the seniors will get the snow plowing because the city has chore services. I don't usually hear a lot of complaints about this, but mainly the leaves in the fall is a big. It's a big, big thing. And making sure the houses are secure, that's probably number one.

UNKNOWN [00:41:00] I have a question.

Michelle Broome [00:41:01] Okay.

UNKNOWN [00:41:02] Okay. My question is this. What is. I'm going back to the school issue. I'm going to the safety of the children going to school. I understand they don't. There's no bus service.

Michelle Broome [00:41:16] That's right. There's bus service. I believe if the student lives more than 2 miles away from the school, they attend. So if they live under 2 miles, I believe those are right numbers. They have to walk or find other transportation or ride the public transportation. That is. It's a real concern for a lot of parents who may work in the morning, they may work the same hours. The child has to be at school. So they may be calling, you know, cousins or friends or neighbors, relying on them to take their children to school, because, again, they may be too young to ride the public transportation or to walk. That is something that our safety committee is looking into. Daniel E. Morgan has a parent patrol a group of parents that they meet the kids outside of school on their way in. So they are patrolling the kids while they're coming in, and then they also watch them as they're going home. The safety committee is hoping to get parents or people in the neighborhood who may not have children, but they may be able to stand on their porch as the kids are leaving. They may be able to adopt a corner and maybe, you know, three or four people get together, stand on the corner, and as the kids are leaving, making sure they're on their way, you know, kids will be kids. They will pick up rocks and they'll throw them. But if there's, you know, parents, if there's a group of people out there, they will definitely think twice because then you can identify them. So that's something that they're working on. And we have a really, really active resident, Mister Connor, who loves being on the parent patrol. He loves the kids, and he brought it to the safety committee earlier this year. And so hopefully this fall they'll be adopting some of those practices. So they're definitely trying to address that issue.

UNKNOWN [00:43:28] I think that's a real issue because those, especially the little ones, now it's dark out when they go.

Michelle Broome [00:43:35] We need to be taken care of. Exactly.

Jennifer Lewis [00:43:40] Thank you very much.

Michelle Broome [00:43:41] Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity.

UNKNOWN [00:43:46] It's interesting when you're naming the churches. I used to teach at St. Vitus.

Michelle Broome [00:43:53] It was, I had a cousin who's, she just graduated high school. She went to St. Vitus and I believe the year after she left there, 8th grade, they closed it, and then St. Martin de Porres moved in. I went to the Cleveland School of Science from 7th to 12th grade.

UNKNOWN [00:44:13] Now did you have to get, were you able to get transportation?

Michelle Broome [00:44:16] Public transportation? We got bus tickets and I lived a block from St. Clair, so it was actually not a bad, you know, I had to walk one block to the bus stop and got off at 13th in St. Clair. And the school was on 13th and Lakeside, we had to apply. And it's so funny because we had, we have a really talented family. We sing playing instruments. And when I was in 6th grade, I was going to Margaret Ireland. They had the School of Arts and the School of Science on the same card. Well, my mom filled both of them out and my teacher picked one. And so she said, well, I'm going to pick the school of science. And I got in. It was a public school, but it was, we didn't have to pay, but it was a college preparatory school, too. And I graduated from there in 91. Yeah, I love that school. There was, I believe, 70 people graduated in my class. Really small. Yeah. The curriculum, I believe, is divided over two schools. I believe it's Garrett A. Morgan, which is, I believe, west 43rd in that area. And then there's another school where either the middle school or the high school picks up the curriculum.

UNKNOWN [00:45:47] You're a smart girl.

Jennifer Lewis [00:45:49] Yes.

Michelle Broome [00:45:51] Yeah. Oh, well, it definitely prepare me for college because it was, we had all these big books, and my mom, she, you know, she graduated from high school. She was just like, I don't understand why your books are so big. It was like. But they prepared you. Because when I got to college, exactly what I had thick books that I was reading every day. So they, the teachers there at Cleveland School of Science, they really, really did prepare you for college. I'm really, really appreciative of that card.

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