"You can't do that here."

I just spoke with Minister Terry Fluker, who lives in the 7600 block of Race Street, and he shared a story that I would like to share with you.

He had a relative living with him who attracted bad company.

"When I would leave home they would just set up camp on my front porch," he said - "they" being ne'er-do-wells who openly engaged in both using and selling drugs while he was away from the house.

He confronted them about it, and they said that his relative said it was okay.

"I don't want to call the police. I'm a black man like you," he said. "But you can't do that here."

They kept congregating. He called the police. More than once. And he evicted the relative.

They don't congregate there anymore.

A lot of the mess in our neighborhood would go away if more property owners simply said, "You can't do that here. Do it somewhere else if you have to, but you can't do that here."

Even if they have to say it to relatives.

FROM REACTION TO ACTION.

Minister Fluker has gone beyond clearing the riff-raff from his porch. With the help of Operation Better Block, he has scheduled a meeting for residents of Race Street to begin organizing block watches.

"Race Street has always been one of the prime streets in Homewood," he said. Now that the city has done some heavy lifting in terms of cleaning up the physical environment, he said, "We want to look at how we can help the city keep it clean."

The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Baptist Temple Church, at the corner of Race and Sterrett Streets. Besides Operation Better Block, representatives from Mad Dads and the Coalition Against Violence will also be present.

If you live on Race Street, please show up. If you know someone who lives on Race Street, tell them to show up. This may be the best chance we ever have to re-establish the understanding that some things will not be allowed on our street.

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