Man Tries to Improve 'Hood, Harassed, Vilified and Insulted

A young Wall Street analyst moves to a struggling city with great potential, buys a home and tries to improve his neighborhood by sweeping the streets, calling the authorities to board up abandoned buildings and asking his neighbors to clean up after their dogs.

You would think his neighbors would be energized to join him in fixing up their neighborhood, right?

Unfortunately, for Kevin Lewis of Newark, N.J., that's not what happened. When he began cleaning up around his home, some of his neighbors began calling him a snitch, uppity and worse.

Star-Ledger columnist Barry Carter writes:

In huge black letters, they spray painted his name and address last month on the side of an abandoned house, surrounding it with racial obscenities. There was the "N-word," then the curse that begins with the letter "F." One sloganeer wrote "snitch rat jerk" on the same house. In June, "black dog go back home to Africa" was spray painted on the sidewalk with an arrow pointing to his house.

Newark police are investigating, but haven't caught anyone yet. Flyers have been posted around the black and Latino neighborhood to make residents afraid of Lewis: He's an informant, a prosecutor, a fraud. Don't open your door if he knocks. In some cases, the fear campaign has worked. Residents said neighbors had their car windows smashed and were told such harassment would continue for anyone associating with Lewis.

"For that, I get flack," Lewis said. "I'm trying to change this area. I didn't move out here to do this. I just want to have peace."

If I lived on the block and saw this happening, I would grab as many of my neighbors and march Al Sharpton– and Jesse Jackson–style in front of his house in a show of support. Newark Mayor Cory Booker has called on residents of his city to step up. It is people like Lewis who are needed to reclaim inner-city neighborhoods across this country. All it takes is a few rotten apples to disrupt that progress.

"The resistance is not coming from a majority in the community. You have a handful of people who are comfortable with business as usual. Most people respect what he is advocating for," Newark Councilman Anibal Ramos told AOL Black Voices in an interview.

Ramos represents the area where Lewis lives and says that block has a long history of struggle. It's a very long street, so there is a problem with speeding. The block also has a history of narcotic sales, illegal conversions and a higher number of abandoned properties. In other words, it could be a street anywhere in urban America.

"I applaud Kevin and I have good communication with him because he is a prime example of the type of advocate we need to turn the area around," said Ramos.

A much more disturbing aspect of this story was revealed by other residents:

A teenager who didn't want to be identified said there's another reason. He said people believe Lewis is a snob, someone who thinks he's better than they are, because he has a new house, drives a nice car. Lewis knows he's a threat to a way of life that breeds turmoil, bringing with it drug sales, derelicts, crime, disorder, pure nonsense.

This is nothing more than the crabs in a barrel syndrome.

Instead of joining together to help improve the neighborhood for all, some would rather be jealous of what Lewis has or what they perceive his attitude toward the neighborhood to be.

If Lewis thought he was too good for the area, he wouldn't have moved there and wouldn't be working so hard to improve it for everyone. Instead of being jealous of Lewis' new house or his nice car, folks should use him as an inspiration. By working together, life can improve for everyone, and everyone has something to contribute. We can apply this approach to everything, from youth violence to HIV/AIDS prevention.

"Anybody that's working for positive change in our neighborhoods should be applauded and respected," said Ramos.

Some people on the block are listening. The neighborhood association is growing, and people who once thought about leaving the block have decided to stay and fight.

So tell me who are you in this situation: a committed community member or a crab in a barrel?