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Chittock Avenue: Stories from a street with a reputation

Posted by Aaron - 23/08/10 at 02:08:39 am

For about a month, photographer Jake May and I walked up and down two blocks on Chittock Avenue, a street in Jackson with a growing bad reputation and site of the July 6 fatal shooting of Benjamin Willard. We wanted to find out what else happens on that street.

Life on Chittock: Plenty of eyes watch Chittock Avenue, and there is plenty to watch.

Plenty of eyes watch Chittock Avenue, and there is plenty to watch.

Morning to night, children play on its sidewalks, occasionally spilling into the street. Adults gather on porches; neighbors join. Cars speed up and down the hill between Rockwell Avenue and Morrell Street.

The 900 and 1000 blocks of the street are alive, teeming with activity, some neighborly, some not.

It is the latter — the consistent calls to police, loud disputes between families and neighbors, suspicious activity on the street and alley, and a murder last month — that has gained Chittock a reputation it might not deserve.

“I think there is a stigma,” said Juan Almaguer Jr.

When Jake and I started, people thought we were 1) from the cable company, 2) police, 3) case workers from the Department of Human Services. Once we assured people we were none of those things but journalists, all but a few welcomed us onto their porches and shared their stories. Now I cannot drive down the street without someone flagging me down just to chat.

Jake had his camera. I brought with me the paper’s Marantz digital recorder. In addition to the story, we produced three audio slideshows capturing life on Chittock.

Life on Chittock Street: Troy Bednar

Life on Chittock Street: Bruce Edwards

Life on Chittock Street: Wanda Jordan

One final note: Wanda Jordan grew up 3 miles from me in Ada, Michigan. Small world.

Lyon Street 500-foot Water slide

Posted by Aaron - 22/08/10 at 01:08:13 am

Went to downtown Grand Rapids Saturday afternoon to check out the 500-foot water slide on Lyon Street near Grand Rapids Community College.

Decided not to brave the five-hour plus line for a ride but got a good view of sliders from the catwalk above the street — until the police told people to leave.

Great atmosphere downtown. Awesome to see so many people. Thanks Rob.

What I learned today while blogging

Posted by Aaron - 06/08/10 at 08:08:49 pm

Because everyday is an adventure when you’re making it up as you go along.

Today I learned two things while blogging, both helpful.

One.

I learned how to make ♥ and ☺ and ☃ and ☂ and all kinds of other very useful characters. It is simple, which may explain why so many tweens use them. Simply press command + option + T and the special characters dialogue box will pop up. Then select the heart or umbrella you want and click insert.

So easy.

Two.

I learned I know nothing about CSS and style sheets and coding and all that.

Since I’ve started blogging again, I can’t make images align to the right or center and can’t make text wrap around them. I don’t know why. In previous blogging careers, this was not a problem. I googled the problem, found some solutions, started pasting gobbly-gook into my theme’s style sheet and presto-chango, not only do my photos not align and the text not wrap but now the photos don’t even show up.

I’ll just stick to writing, I guess.

Elections concerns … which might not be real

Posted by Aaron - 06/08/10 at 08:08:41 pm

I voted on Tuesday and did a pretty good job of it.

While I won’t disclose who I voted for, I will say that no one I picked won. I’m like the political kiss of death. Sorry.

But I did get confused. After successfully navigating the ballot (it’s a primary so you can’t cross the center line and vote for both parties LAME), I couldn’t navigate my way out of the polling place. I walked right out the entrance and didn’t know until I saw the big signs — “Enter Only,” and “Exit Only” — in the parking lot.

Concerned, I did what anyone would do and wrote an email to the local reporter covering the elections.

Dear Holly, (she covered the elections)

After voting today, I accidentally exited the polling place through the entrance door. It wasn’t until after I was outside that I saw the big signs that said “Enter Only” and “Exit Only.” There were no signs inside, and I was very confused.

Will my vote still count? I hope so.

I think the confusing signs are a ploy by Obama or those Tea Party people to take away my right to vote for my favorite American Idol singer.

Signed,
Concerned/confused voter

She wrote me back.

Dear Concerned Voter,

According to city Clerk Lynn Fessel, your vote will still count despite the mishap. Signs were posted to prevent congestion at poll entrance and exits and were intended to smooth the flow of pedestrian traffic at precincts, given the tremendous voter turnout that is expected in this important election.

You are welcome to vote for your favorite American Idol contestant in the write-in portion on the ballot. However it is likely that person does not live in the applicable state House, Senate or Congressional district, so they could not take office (or become the next American Idol, which has a completely different voting structure).

Thinking all that was pretty funny, I came up with a few more, but didn’t send these to Holly. She was pretty busy with the real election stuff.

Dear Holly,

I was surprised to walk into my polling place and not have Simon, Randy and Paula (OK, Ellen, but I don’t listen to a word she says, love ya Paula) tell me what they thought of the candidates. How am I supposed to vote for the best one?

Signed,

♥♥

P.S. I couldn’t find numbers to text my vote to anywhere on the ballot. WTF?

Dear Holly,

I went to the polls wearing my Barack Obama T-shirt, the one with the really cool red, white and blue themed photo of him, the famous one. However, I did not see Obama’s name on the ballot. Voting for him is so much fun. Why can’t I vote for him every year?

Signed,

First time voter in 2008

Dear Holly,

I don’t see politics (or anything really) as a matter of black and white, so I brought a box of crayons to the polls today. I filled the bubbles next to the candidates’ names using a color code, like black for “I don’t like you,” and pink for “I really like you” and all the colors in between for “I kind of like you.” Around some bubbles I drew a heart or star to show that I really like them. For some candidates I took out my scissors and cut their names right off the ballot. We won’t go into why.

This way, I feel my true vote was cast. Will it count?

Signed,

Local elementary school art teacher

Dear Holly,
I voted today, and like I do every year, I voted for myself. Yup, I wrote myself in for every race on the ballot. And like every year, I except to finish with just one vote in each race (except for the county commission. Dave, I owe you, thanks for the vote.) And like every year, I expect to be shunned by the local paper. I spent $3 on my campaign (don’t worry about it Dave, the beer was on me), and it didn’t even buy me an article, photo or phone call. I expect, once again, that my name will not be included in tomorrow’s election results.
You call this democracy?
Signed,
The guy who also writes lots of letters to the editor

Enjoy.

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