43
GOOD, CLEAN FUN
Photo
Patricia Owens, president of the Stopping the Violence Committee
Photo
A MEETING OF THE MINDS: Ce'Andre Backus, 10, of Youngstown, left, plays chess with Kyron Lee, 12, of Youngstown as Star Wars' R2D2 tech-celebrity observes at the Stop The Violence block party in Youngstown's Wick Park.
Photo
A PLACE FOR FUN: Sylvia Randolph of Youngstown, one of the organizers, hopes the event shows young people there's more in this community than violence and drugs.
Photo
HANDY MESSAGE BOARD: Vernesser Barnes of Youngstown shows off her "Stop The Violence" fingernails, complete with a portrait of presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Photo
BEST RIDE: Brandon Crosby, 22, of Youngstown, took first place in the car contest at Saturday's Stop The Violence event at Wick Park. Crosby was showing his trophy and his prize-winning 1988 Chevy Caprice, to Stop The Violence organizer Harriett Randolph and young auto enthusiast Ca'Andre Backus, 12, of Youngstown.
Some vulgar lyrics were played by a disc jockey Saturday by accident, one of the organizers said.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN — Like the city of Youngstown itself, the neighborhood around Wick Park on the North Side is a mixture of good and bad.
But organizers of the Stopping the Violence Committee picked Park Avenue a block east of Stambaugh Auditorium to hold their 4th annual Back to School Block Party on Saturday and today because they felt it was an area where people could feel safe.
The party continues today, noon to 9 p.m.
On the other side of Wick Park, drug dealing still goes on, but the south side of the park, along Park Avenue, is a “neat” and “safe” area, organizers and residents say.
On Saturday afternoon, despite mailings and other promotions, only a small crowd showed up to hear music and other free performances.
One of the organizers, Sylvia Randolph of Youngstown’s South Side, said she believes in the block watch and hopes it will be one of many opportunities throughout the year for members of the community to find safe, positive places for fun.
“We need to train our young people that there’s more than just negativity, more than just violence and drugs,” she said.
She said rap music is performed at the block party, but the organizers plan to keep it clean, with no “cussing or degrading of women, no gyrations and all that stuff.”
Later in the afternoon, however, a man who had attended the block watch with about five small children heard some vulgar lyrics in a song being played by a disc jockey and complained to him.
“That doesn’t seem appropriate for small kids,” he said to this reporter.
Patricia Owens, president of the Stopping the Violence Committee, later said the song probably got into the disc jockey’s rotation by accident.
“We’ll handle it,” she said.
Randolph, who grew up in Youngstown and returned to her parents’ house seven years ago after living elsewhere in the United States for 22 years, just joined the Stopping the Violence Committee a week or two ago.
But her goal is to have the group organize community activities such as a masquerade Halloween Party and events at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and other times.
She recently started a Web site at www.stoppingtheviolence.org for the organization and says she thinks one of the greatest needs in the city is for children to be treated with respect.
It’s damaging for them to be told they are stupid or can’t do anything constructive, she said.
She advocates praising children “early on and then [offering] positive reinforcement that they will crave, and they will have no need for violence,” she said.
Owens, a songwriter and singer known as Divine Vision Annointed, or DIVA, says she believes the Park Avenue location is a good one because people are generally comfortable going there because it is just north of Youngstown State University and just east of Stambaugh.
Two men living on Park near the block party area, Steven Demidovich and Thomas Iverson, sat Saturday on the front porch of the large home where they rent an apartment. The building was formerly a single-family mansion, Demidovich said.
“It’s neat,” Demidovich said of the neighborhood and the annual block party. “People laughing and getting together,” he said.
Demidovich, who has lived in the neighborhood 30 years, said the street and park are full of college students, joggers and playful activity. It is void of problems, though a street on the other side of the park has drug dealing, Demidovich said.
The area has lots of free parking because people attending YSU football games use the streets for that purpose all the time, Demidovich said.
“I think this is a safe place to be,” Iverson agreed. He’s lived there two to three years, he said.
Activities planned for today include mime dancers all day, a talk about violence by a Youngstown police detective, a hair and nail competition with a prize of $25 in the late evening and open mic performances all day.
runyan@vindy.com