Experiences

Ok, so I'm pretty comfortable with Liberty City at this point. I can get around, I know all the streets, I know the "city" limits, so to speak.

A couple of weeks ago, our class took a "field trip" to Jumbo's to meet Bobby Flam, the only white business owner who stayed in Liberty City after the infamous riots that brought the neighborhood national infamy. He inherited the place from his father, who bought it in 1955. In the beginning the joint was segregated, like most places in Miami at the time. But when Bobby took over in the late '60s, he decided to integrate. He was the first business owner to do so.

I hitched a ride with my classmate and when we turned the corner on 75th Street, we both looked at the group of big black men on the corner across from the restaurant, hanging around their cars and glancing at the two white girls who pulled up next to them. I think we both thought, "what have we signed up for?" All that fear faded the moment Bobby approached us. He was so welcoming, and when we entered the restaurant, I think just about every employee greeted us with a warm smile and a peppy, "Welcome to Jumbo's!"

This experience was made that much more awesome when we found out that the South Florida Times will be publishing our newspaper as a special section in theirs. This is real! Our work won't just be classwork; now, it can truly and officially make a difference. I can't tell you how excited I am to be a part of all of this! Great things are in store....

First Thoughts...

When Professor Reisner threw out the idea last semester of starting an online newspaper focusing on Liberty City, I gotta be honest, I was incredibly nervous and unsettled. How would a sheltered, white (hispanic), suburban girl survive the mean streets of "the hood"? The fear gave way to excitement when I considered all the good things this paper could possibly bring about in a community that, for years, has been largely lost in the fast-paced media city of Miami.

I was more nervous than anything on the first day in class. I just didn't know what to expect, but Reisner's excitement for the endeavor was contagious. I couldn't help but be excited about what we were about to do!

My first venture into Liberty City was for the Martin Luther King Day Parade on January 18. It was the complete opposite of everything and anything I had expected. Contrary to popular belief, Liberty City is not just a town of gang shootouts and drive-bys. It's a place where small business owners, community organizers, civil rights activists and a passionate community volunteer nicknamed Sistah Souljar are trying their hardest to get the youth off the streets of the Model City and into more nurturing and positive environments. It's a place where Liberty City Elementary School went from an "F" to an "A" in just one school year, and where members of the local NAACP are trying to inform residents on the importance of filling out the 2010 Census.

Liberty City was nothing I had expected.

The neighborhood is full of so many multi-faceted, enthusiastic people who are really trying to make a difference in a community which is often neglected by the media and sometimes its own representatives. They're regular people with the same problems many Americans face, but they just have a few more obstacles to overcome than the next guy.

I can't wait to tell their stories.