The Deputy Director's "Citizen Column" #1

From today's Sunday Key West Citizen...

Bahama Village — discovering a familiar character and sweetness

Citizen Editor’s note: The Citizen today welcomes Wheeler Winstead to this page. Winstead is deputy director of the Bahama Conch Community Land Trust. He has three decades of experience in community development, and is former director of the Faith-Based Community Economic Development Program of the National Congress of Community Economic Development. He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh. His column will run every other Sunday.

I saw trees very different from my home town of Pittsburgh or my recent home of Washington, D.C. I also saw housing projects just like the ones I came from with people sitting outside. I saw a familiar site: an older woman with a young girl sitting in her lap with a frown on her face as the older woman pulled on the young girl’s hair while she talks to another woman sitting next to her and barely acknowledging her wincing victim. There was a character, a sweetness and familiarity that I felt in these streets similar to what I remember feeling in the “jects” where I grew up or my grandfather’s North Carolina farm community.

I saw older men and women old enough to be my grandparents riding bicycles. Not the slick 12- or 18-gear bicycles that the hip D.C. young people rode, but singlespeed, plain ordinary bicycles. And people nodded their head to acknowledge my presence, or spoke to me as if they knew me. That was it. I was not going to buy a car first, but a bicycle just like the first one my dad bought me when I was about 4 or 5.

Then I came down Petronia Street. I saw the arch announcing the entrance into Bahama Village, and then down to the corner of Petronia and Thomas. Now that is one interesting corner. There’s a wall painted by an artist, the conch shop across from Blue Heaven , the Lemonade Stand Art Studio, and then you have … Johnson’s Store. Now this is where I’ve been trying to take you.

So Johnson’s Store is painted all blue with No Loitering signs all around. And the door is not a door but heavy strips of plastic, the same kind you find in front of a freezer. So what do you think I saw on the inside? (I know you won’t believe me, so go inside like I did.) I entered the hallowed opening for the first time and am so shocked I have to stop. You know what I was expecting. I was expecting to see what I have seen many times in urban black neighborhoods. If you haven’t been in one, ask a friend who has.

First, the floors were spotless. The shelves were full, clean, meticulously arranged with all the products pulled to the front. Every product was in its place, all sodas, water and household items. Even the candy was carefully and meticulously arranged. There was no bullet-proof glass cage protecting the owner from the potential thief-robberlowlife-heathen-shoppers.

Today when I went in, there was Mr. Johnson ironing some shirts and his daughter waiting on their clients. Yesterday, Mr. Johnson was reading the Bible. So I inquired if Mr. Johnson was ready to iron my shirt. He promptly responded that I would have to get in line. Now I believed him because on a wall behind him were several shirts already ironed, and he didn’t look like he was planning on stopping anytime soon. This was especially true since he had his well trained, well mannered, all business-like daughter handling the customers like a seasoned veteran. I had been trying to convince Mr. Johnson to get involved with my community development work, but he says that he is too busy with church and family. But he said he would think about it. Actually he said he would pray about it. I believed he will.

So here we are, in one of the oases of Bahama Village. I feel that way not because of what I saw, but because of what I expected to see. Everything around me triggered images that were contrary to the reality inside Mr. Johnson’s store. They triggered prejudices, fears and negativity that set up a scenario that was just the opposite of the reality inside. I was surprised at some of things that I had to confront in myself. I prided myself on being a forward thinking, progressive kind of person; one who could see the potential greatness in most any thing, person or situation. But by confronting these things it freed me to see even greater possibilities. So why don’t you take this trip and tell me what you see — but before you do let me tell you what I now see when I walk down Petronia street. I see...

Wheeler Winstead is a community development specialist and deputy director of the Bahama Conch Community Land Trust.