Residents were asked, “Please tell us about an important moment in your life that would help someone understand what it’s like living in your neighborhood.” Explore 50 responses below, selected at random. Which stories capture your attention? (Some responses were transcribed by youth volunteers.) To learn more about the storyteller and how they interpreted their response, click “Zoom In.”
Life in Belle Glade, FL
Positive: My kid and the community. Been cutting hair 27 years in community. Had ups and downs. Took 16 years to get off cocaine. Depends on god. Can do better. Robert Mitchell (commissioner): Trying to get own walmart in Belle Glade. Hard for kids to avoid negative environments. Parents also have influence on kids’ growth. Not a lot of hobbies for kids to do in community because small town. Trying to make the best of it. Started working at 5. Knows how to build a house from the ground up, did a lot of criminal stuff, but prays to god….
Great hearts-Rickia
I lived in boynton all my life. Beautiful city but ugly people. There are people that have great hearts and I’ve met plenty of them but one time i went to the corner store and and i saw a mother and a child outside she had one bag of chips. Her daughter cried she was hungry and she pushed her the chips she looked up and asked her mom if she was hungry and mom shook her head no but when i asked she said yes i gave her money i went back to that same spot a couple months…
Living life
Although the impact of living in high-poverty neighborhoods has been well documented, it’s hard to fully explain the toll it takes on a person’s body and soul. Frustration over high prices, high bills, and high unemployment rates is worsened by the bane of many a poor community—the local drug economy. Dealing drugs was the neighborhood summer job program. And for many young neighbors who were expelled from school (because administrators are more likely to punish black students than provide more holistic help), the drug trade was less an alternative than an inevitability.
THE CHANGE OF THE NEW GENERATION
Around the time I was growing up in the early 2000s my community was very involved in activities around the community and with our kids here. Now in 2019 we cant get that much involvement to support our community and kids.
Haiti
I came a long way from being born a poor country and coming to America to live a better life
My community (Story #317)
Living in my neighborhood is repeated racism and violence all over again .When you’re old and worthless you can’t control the people you want to control, kids are dying slowly because skin color and many hate themselves because of people treating them like they deserve to be treated like that .my community is nothing perfect when it comes from living in the ghetto.
Bullys-Devonte white
Coming up i was a big bully and I realized i hurt many people. My peoples always told me to be kind to people but i never listened. Now my son is dealing with bullies at school
Business minding-Nelcael Jospeh
Once i was walking with my grandma. She lived by my school so she would walk to pick me up everyday and while we were walking we heard arguing and my grandma gripped my hand and started walker fast she said come on boy walk fast i said grandma we should help them she said shut you mouth and mind your business i wouldn’t dare say another word because my grandma didn’t play the radio. When we had walked into the house she fixed me a snack as she usually would and we heard gun shots I looked at ,y…
My community is a a blessing
My community is a blessing and is so nice. When you are down, someone will help you up. I’ve lived here my whole life and my children want me to move to WPB or Wellington but I don’t want to. It’s so nice growing up here. My children came last week and took me out to eat for my birthday. My sister lives nearby and we see each other often.
Halloween in delray
Last Halloween we went to our neighbors house and we had a thousand homes in our community and a lot of young families halloween is a good event in our community my neighborhood is friendly oriented and family oriented and have lots of fun
The Care and Feed of Grandfathers.
Came here from Lantana and lived here since 1970. Ran service desks in Lantana, but business became difficult and would have to borrow money to keep it running. Didn’t want to do that. Had two small kids to support and be around. Came out here quite by accident. Called out to a mechanic job in the area he found in the newspaper. Discovered Pahokee when he came down, and decided to move the whole family here. When he came down here, someone helped him out to pay off his dying business. He was lucky. Started working here, and living in…
The Tragic Story of the Young Girl
This month there was a young child about 10 that was shot and killed. She was outside playing and there was a drive by which is a regular event we’re I live.It broke my heart there was no eye witnesses. This honestly has to change what happen to that young girl was tragic.
Make something out of it
Living around here isn’t really as bad as people make it seem. Yes there’s drugs and murders and bad things going on but if you are focused on a goal u should have a good outcome. Many people make it out the hood that’s why I push my kids to be something in life.
My story
All the best conversation is happening in GroupMe, Slack, WhatsApp, private email lists, or over drinks after work. People feel comfortable analyzing, debating, and joking in these places, where they can express themselves without fear of judgment, unwanted notifications, or death threats.
Support (Story #619)
Whole city supported each other
Always forgive those who must be forgiven
Some times I think about the past how It used to be How people treated us cause I was coming up black people told me in lake worth that I wouldn’t be anything cause I was black cause I didn’t have any lack of knowledge , they said hurtful things that hurts till this day
Much Better
Better to live here from where I lived. Better opportunities in the community.
Pray for the best
Me having kids is an important moment. Everybody in Boynton knows what it’s like having to raise your kids. Worrying when they put if they safe or in trouble. All we do is pray for the best lives for our child.
Scared
I never thought me growing up was so ruff for me. My mom and dad died in a car accident. I was raised by my grandparents raised me until they past away I been living from house to house in finish house still didn’t go off to college .
Neighbors helping neighbors out – Trevon.P
The important moment that happened in my neighborhood is when i lost for two members of my family within two months they got together and help me and my grandson out
Community as a whole
Just growing up here the hardships
My community (Story #367)
42% the death of a family member or friend, 23% the illness of a family member or friend, and 17% a nonmedical event. During a comprehensive assessment, participants identified the most stressful event that they had experienced in the past 5 years and, subsequently, rated its stressfulness and perceived consequences.
Love (Story #490)
When I first found love I know many people may not trust a lot of people in this world but if you just take one time out your life to get to know some one you will have an awesome day that day getting to know some one is building you a bond slowly and slowly many my be depressed but you can take the sad ness away
The good life
Just the daily life in my neighborhood shows how it’s like. My life is peaceful. As long as I’ve lived in Boynton Beach I’ve encountered no problems. Life seems to be great.
Ms.T my Second Mother
When my mother kicked me out of the house I spent nights sleeping in a park while trying to finish high school. I had no bed, no shower,and no food.I went back to my old neighborhood and knocked on the door of Ms.T she was a well known lady kind of like the mother of my neighborhood.All I wanted was something to eat. But Ms.T didn’t just give me a meal. She took me into her home, where he had warm food and a roof over his head she treated me like her very own son. She also brought…
My husband- Devonte white
Coming up I had alot of important moments in my life. I was finding my husband and i still remember how theres where. Until he was killed by a drive by shooting.
Situations
Living in my neighborhood was hell. My mom worked so hard for us to sell have less than it was a tough situation man we was always put out my sisters was acting up and it just wasn’t good for us
My community (Story #390)
There were about 643,000 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people nationwide in January 2009. Almost two-thirds stayed in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program and the other third were living on the street, in an abandoned building, or another place not meant for human habitation.
WE love it
Everybody is friendly
True love
Growing up when I was young I remember the first time I met her she was sweet when I first moved to the neighborhood we played games Together,laugh together and grew stronger as our connection made a connect. When I first met Ruby
Stay in school (Story #59)
Well In the city of lake worth I wasn’t always a good kid I used to be in and out of jail when I was young . I played with guns and went back and forth with young gang member The world that we live in today may not be as bad as it was growing up
My life (Story #571)
Gunshots in the middle of the day preventing you from leaving your home
Segregation
An important moment in my life is when segregation is now continuing again in our community.Many people don’t see how badly people treat us . We are equal and have the rights as everyone else . Growing up here in the 1940s and 1950s, couldn’t visit the public library near My house, but instead had to travel to the “colored” library in the historically black room I attended a school for black children, where we received second-hand books, and where the school day was half the length of that of white schools, because the black school had too many children…
Sports (Story #504)
Important moments in my life was sports. Growing up around here I had to be into something so I didn’t get caught in the street life. My parents didn’t want me to In up in jail.
Robbery
I remember one night I heard a lot of movement outside but I shook it off. Ten o heard screaming so I went outside and saw my neighbors got robbed. It frighten me because it could’ve been my house.
Growing up in Boynton Beach (Story #417)
Growing up in Boynton Beach it was tough because segregation was hectic!
Family
I used to work in the local corner store. People were also nice to me. We were like family. I would see the same people everyday and we would bond in the course of 5 minutes of them being there.
Resilience comes at a cost
Working with a single mother who had become homeless in a neighborhood that she was raised in to find resources was very difficult. She didn’t want to be judged, labeled, or marginalized. But living now in the same neighborhood she once thrived in, gave her a new perspective as she realized the severe resource scarcity she was facing with 2 young children. Her story made me realize that life can happen to anyone and anytime and having access to resources in your own neighborhood can truly make an impact in how you bounce back from a traumatic event in your…
A family community.
The neighborhood was a family, every child was each other’s, whenever there were needs, the others would help. My mother died in 1977, my neighbor had 4 girls but made sure we had decent clothes to wear. Born one of thirteen children, dad worked on the farm, woke up at 3 am and came home late. Mom was authority figure, caring for one another. Did not have much but made sure we had enough. We didn’t see ourselves as being poor. If someone was sick, we helped each other.
Get it on your own
Getting my first job was a important moment in my life living around here . Nobody will give you anything , so I had to go get it. It made me a better person and now I live comfortably
Come and See For Yourself
I was born in Everglade Experimentation station, 3 mi east of bell glade. Born in 1944. Mom was babysitter. Being in bell glades is what you make out of it. Went to school here. Need to be cautious and need to remember god is in control, especially at this time of year. With the weather. Went to school for childhood development. We have situations here, but they are like a family. We have situations , but what family doesn’t. I am 74, but this is the greatest places to live. Only left for 15 years, when she went to Pompano…
B-out day
B-out day, where there was a local football player who threw a event for the community there were bounce houses food and live music all across from the set
Education (Story #613)
Going to school here
Lost
Seeing my friend get shot
My community (Story #389)
In December 2017, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, undertook a two-week investigation on the effects of systemic poverty in the United States, and sharply condemned private wealth and public squalor
Support (Story #611)
Support in the glades, sorority
All together as one
An important time in my life was when my whole neighborhood came together as one it felt great to see us all come together. Through all the pain , suffrage killings and all we still was able to come together as a black community as we should. It was important for me because in my time it wasn’t like this it was different i wasn’t able to swing on that purple swing right there i wasn’t able to drink from that water fountain but now my grandkids can my nephews my kids kids everyone all together are able to be…
Respect
Growing up i had moved down from Haiti and the part i lived in there was a lot of white people so not only was i kind of racial profiled i was also picked on and make fun of because of my accent so that pretty much sums up what it was like. I was in trouble a lot because i was the type to always want to defend my self. I had a couple friends that’s guided me through but i still wanted my respect.
Dead Delray (Story #0)
The world is just corrupted. This is crazy the direction we’re going right now, I can’t say nothing good. They want to fight, they want to hurt each other. Not Delray, Boca, Boynton, no good is left around anymore. People don’t help each other anymore, everyone is like crabs.
Social culturalism – Kene
Positive; downtown cultural vibe identity. Lived down here for three years, the demographics are changing, wealthy individuals disturbing the southern flavor. Outlook isn’t as good due to impatient materialistic snow birds. They don’t follow directions. They have no shame or conscious, and it’s undoing the natural flavor of Delray, and changing it.
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