So from the former exercise

My brother and I were very amazed at the state that Paterson is now - which is a bit shocking because it always was a poor, abandoned ghetto full of abandoned homes and crime. From our new vantage point it looked even more desolate. It was then that I started looking at some of my father's pictures of Paterson. I wanted to see what was different in the 60's through 90's and how it has changed now.

Here are just a few of them taken from his slides.

I found it interesting to remember that there was a big fire downtown and also a huge flooding in the 80's. And there was plenty of desolation and abandonment. In the bottom image stand the Christopher Columbus towers which were demolished right before my folks left in the 90's. 

Next I went again and grabbed some pictures that struck me from Google maps of "current" Paterson.

Now I was back to looking at the people again. Teenage mothers dragging their little child across the street by the arm. Men hanging around on their porches and on folding chairs in front of their homes with no job and no focus. Kids hanging out in front of abandoned houses up to no good.

And in the middle of this cluster… what did I see but candles and a memorial just 4 blocks from the church. The place where 14 year old Nazareh Buggs was shot by gang fire while walking with a friend. Another place on Rosa Parks Blvd I found another memorial caught on Google camera. And yet another place that I found interesting, was the place that a 12 year old was shot.

I remembered my friend Sheila, who is the current pastor of Northside and is currently living in the house that I grew up, telling me about a round of shots fired just three houses down from my childhood residence. That was 1 week prior to my visit to my neighborhood.

I began to have a fascination with the news. I looked up shootings and crime. Crime was always an issue in Paterson back in my day, but it seemed to have escalated to the point that I did not feel completely safe visiting my home town and I felt a terrible burden for so many of my "family" that were still there, living with the realities of the danger and fighting to save the city that seems so hell bent on destruction.