Earnest Gates, Executive Director, Near West Side Community Development Corporation
I was sitting with a good friend the other day who asked me whether or not, and if so how, I was reflecting during this journey. In all honesty I told him that, “Unfortunately I haven't been.” In the conversation that followed and the questions he asked, he got out of me how I have reflected in the past and why reflection is useful.
The form it has taken for me has been twofold- writing and sitting quietly. During both of which I would think about events and experiences. More than that however, my friend pushed me to voice and put words to why reflection is valuable. To reflect is to take a moment and recognize what has happened, to create the silence and stillness necessary to become aware of what is happening.
Reflection is the necessary slowing down of thought and action to help us realize where we are in order to learn from where we were to figure out where we want to go and how we want to get there. Perhaps, in essence, reflection is the recognition of our story.
Earnest Gates knows this. For Mr. Gates, the Executive Director of the Near West Side Community Development Corporation, reflection is no trivial matter. Reflection- the recognition of what has happened and what is happening- becomes the history, the memory, of the West Haven neighborhood of Chicago. Memory and history become the shared story that defines West Haven.
A strong sense of history is very clear from the get-go with Mr. Gates. I found out about Mr. Gates and the West Haven community when a friend (not the same as mentioned above, but just as …) sent me an article describing West Haven's success in bringing a grocery store to the community thus eliminating the community's status as a food desert. I asked Mr. Gates when he knew a grocery store was needed in the community.
Dates connect us to memory, to experience. They help us to (sometimes) remember our stories. The story of West Haven's status of 'food desert' has been well documented, for example [1], [2], [3]. So the focus of the rest of this piece will be on Mr. Gates' story. Let's listen to Mr. Gates as he explains when he knew his story had to include building community in West Haven.
“Everyone has some place they can come back to...” Place unites. Place provides a frame for shared story- community. Here's Mr. Gates again on why this is valuable for him. I asked, 'Is community building your passion?”
There are many transformations happening in West Haven. Some great things- Walgreens, a new grocery store- and some new challenges. Those challenges, says Mr. Gates, stem from an influx of new residents attracted to West Haven by the new housing in the neighborhood. However, those challenges can be helped “by a sense of history.” Again, Mr. Gates:
West Haven has seen dry times as a food desert and is now undergoing growth and rebirth as a community. Earnest Gates has lived it and has shared that history. The story of his community became important enough for him to take part in its “growth, deterioration and rebirth.” Mr. Gates mentioned earlier that his vision of transforming the community became larger than just working on his own house.
As more people take part in those phases of growth, deterioration and rebirth, they become more conscious of their role in West Haven's story as well as their own. An awareness that can lead to more good things to come in West Haven.
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