East End Concerned Citizens vow to press for results
Members of the East End Concerned Citizens say they won’t let up in their push for Uniontown officials and Pershing Court Manor management to take steps to improve safety in their neighborhood.
The volunteer community group held its regular monthly meeting one day after a special meeting with City Council and representatives of Crossgates, the company that owns Pershing Court.
“The bottom line is, that’s a private entity. You reach a point where the residents have to be responsible and the management has to be responsible for the residents, and I don’t think they understand that,” said Pat Henderson, president of the Concerned Citizens group.
Gina Jones said that while there are many social issues to be addressed, they aren’t going to be solved by a group of volunteers. Jones said Crossgates needs to be aware that its business is affecting the surrounding community and that the company needs to do something about that. Jones noted that the city committed to put in more lighting on city streets near Pershing Court and Crossgates is going to put in cameras.
“What we need to do as a community is hold them to the fire, both groups on that, city council and Crossgates, making sure they do that, and not lose our momentum,” Jones said. “For some people, that seems like a and-aid, but this is the first time the ownership has ever met with the citizens.”
Jones said there are ways the Concerned Citizens can help the situation.
“Rev. (Gary) Yarbrough had mentioned that he would like his church to take the lead in helping residents who are victims of violent crimes to come forward and to testify, because that is the biggest issue, is that nobody follows through and testifies as to what they’ve seen because of fear of retaliation,” Jones said.
Jones said there is a need for residents who are not fearful to work with victims who are fearful, to walk them through the process of testifying.
“The violence is going to die down because it’s going to get cold. We have to stay angry, we have to stay fired up and we have to stay focused,” Jones said.
“We can’t let another winter go by and then come spring everybody’s acting crazy again.”
Henderson said she was also disappointed that there was only one resident of Pershing Court at Wednesday’s special council meeting, and that person did not raise a concern about safety.
Henderson said the Pershing Court management needs to have a better rapport with the residents.
Thursday was Marilyn Zsiros’s first meeting with the Concerned Citizens.
She questioned whether the violence could be stopped long before it begins by working with the schools.
“Where do we start? How do we stop this violence from happening?” Zsiros asked.
Henderson said several members of the Concerned Citizens spent a year going into LaFayette School trying to connect with the children and their parents, but few parents came.
“We’d like to know how to reach the children,” Henderson said.
Zsiros said she would like to attempt a program working with the the children the schools deem to be the worst, the ones most endanger of failing, giving them positive community role models as mentors.
“It’s a big thing and it’s really idealistic, but is it worth trying to start?” Zsiros asked.
Jones said she would work with Zsiros if she wanted to try to organize such a program.