Longtime civic leader Joyce Harvin grew up in the Fourth-and-Johnson neighborhood and moved back seven years ago with her husband, Greg Harvin, to preserve the family home.
That might have made her an eyewitness to last Saturday night’s mass melee that claimed the lives of Pamela Whitson, 51, and Ryan Clemons, 19, with a dozen others wounded, except she feared looking out at the gathering of hundreds of revelers.
She now resides in a downtown fringe area with one of the city’s lowest crime rates, if only because it has become so abandoned. So why would there all of a sudden be a crowd of any sort?
She described partygoers approaching the midnight gathering “like a swarm of bees.” She first figured it was some type of June graduation party gone off the rails. She tried to return to sleep but heard “what sounded like at least a hundred gun shots.” Then it was time to double-check the locks and to plead with her husband (successfully, she claims) not to even try to peer out the front door or window. Her main fearful thought was that their family cars were blocked with no way out.
After the sun rose on Sunday morning, she gathered herself to speak to police officers on the by-then-empty scene, littered like a park after a concert. Next she headed for the KISS 107 studio to carry through with her broadcast of the Saginaw NAACP’s “Community Connections” at 5 p.m., avoiding mention of the mayhem because she wanted to gather more facts and to organize her words.
This coming Sunday, 5 p.m. on the holiday weekend, she says she will begin to lay out her twin goals over the airwaves.
- Expand recreation and activities for young people, with the City Council overseeing the federal ARPA windfall, with results that only are beginning to show.
- Be sure to express maximum compassion and consideration when loved ones of victims, both last Saturday or farther in the past, wish to express themselves.
Joyce Harvin’s style is to ask questions, not to opinionate like a radio or TV news pundit, but at this point she says she feels no choice but to speak out. Early in her career she was director of PRIDE, Positive Results In a Downtown Environment. Today, residing a half-mile north of The Dow Event Center, she wonders whether the surrounding neighborhoods are being neglected.
“I look around and I see all the activity near the Civic Center, preparing for the big hockey tournament (next spring’s Memorial Cup involving the Saginaw Spirit), but are we going to get anything out of it right here up the street, which is entering the Houghton-Jones neighborhood?” she asks.
City Council members have approved $400,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for Houghton-Jones to maintain youth programs and nearby teen-run urban vegetable gardens.
Harvin said the northeast section had become more quiet since her 2016 return, except on the Fourth of July, until this summer’s change. Large outdoor parties have occurred on Potter Street, at Third Street Park tucked into the First Ward’s most rundown area, even all the way out at remote Unity Park, along North Washington at Vet’s Parkway.
Clergy unite
While Harvin was prepping Tuesday for her weekly radio show, Bethel AME Church in the city’s northeast corner was hosting a community forum in response to the weekend disorder.
Host Pastor Dennis Laffoon called the session on emergency notice and within 24 hours he recruited an audience of more than 100 clergy and civic leaders in a blend with everyday citizens
Some called for action instead of talk, but Laffoon saw a need for participants to vent their feelings so soon after the tragic weekend, with more specifics to be sought at a followup session to be determined. For those who expressed sentiments similar to Harvin, for more activities to keep young people occupied and moving forward, he said Bethel’s gymnasium and facilities are available to anyone with constructive ideas, regardless of whether they attend church services.
At the same time, while acknowledging “we don’t know what to do to keep (misconduct and gunplay) from happening,” he stressed that within the faith community, prayer always will be the first answer.
Family strength and parenting also were emphasized, with Saginaw NAACP president Terry Pruitt noting that his parents made a practice of knowing where he was after dark. While also backing expansion of social and recreation options. he asked what type of program is supposed to discourage summer street parties from getting out of hand after midnight on a weekend.
Still, concerns should go beyond self-reliance. said Pruitt, who chastised national political resistance to something as simple as background checks for weapons purchases. Authorities reported finding five different types of bullet casings at the scene.
Pastor Craig Tatum of New Life Baptist at Seventh and Janes, leader of Mission in the City and SAAP, Saginaw African American pastors, called for an emphasis on “values” in any sort of community programming.
This was one occasion when police did not face extensive criticism, although one speaker said excessive traffic stops contribute to anti-cop attitudes. Regarding calls for police to “be more proactive instead of always reactive,” Buena Vista chief and City Council member Reggie Williams II noted that this worthy concept no longer is viable when crowds swell to hundreds of individuals. Applause even was generated when Eddie Foxx, former elected official from Bridgeport and now Crime Stoppers chairman, encouraged everyone to stop knocking “snitches” and to report lawbreaking activities to 422-STOP.
Councilwoman Monique Lamar Sylvia said she was pleased to see an audience with so many men, about two-third of attendees. While mothers and women can take leadership, she said, at-risk young men are in need of male role models.
For an example of success, Chuckie Lawrence reported that his “Unity in the Community” kickball event will be expanding to the full weekend of Aug. 18-20, a week following the 55th Saginaw African Cultural Festival at Morley School Park. Pastor Hurley Coleman Jr. of World Outreach Campus noted that the first-year ARPA-funded Project YEARN (Youth Employment And Recreation Network) is employing 65 teens and young adults on abandoned lot cleanups. Crews can be seen in their red uniform tee-shirts under the oversight of the former recreation director for Saginaw city and county, and also Detroit and for Wayne County.
Pastor Augustine Delgado of New Beginnings Ministries Outreach, 701 Hess, said he joins wife Claudia in seeking creative ways to aim for neighborhood involvement, ranging from community fairs and festivals to a food and clothing operation and sports activities. This summer their daughter, Micaela, is preparing for this fall’s SVSU classes by supervising a site for the Children’s Summer Food Program, beginning at noon each weekday. Anyone interested in starting a site for July and August may contact the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, Kathleen Payton, (810)-396-0227.
Above all, said Laffoon, negative events should not cause people to knock their hometown,
“Saginaw is a wonderful place to be, and this is a wonderful place to raise a family,” he told the assembly, “but there are some bad apples out there and we need to deal with this.”
