George - Our Block's Overseer

George - Our Block's Overseer, originally uploaded by triciawang 王 圣 㨗.

george is the man who sees everything. His family bought the brownstone on this block in the 20's. he's seen the neighborhood go from a strong black community, to weaken to crack and white flight in the 60's/70's and to the current gentrification today by colonizers. He's seen almost every black home owner sell their brownstone. He's seen it go from Bedford-Stuyvesant to be rezoned "Clinton Hill." To George our block is still Bed-Stuy. Our block's energy line depends on George - when no one's out, he see everything. I feel safe walking home because of George. When I first moved to Bed-Stuy 4 years ago on Classon - when I was the ONLY chinese person, I would past George and I always wanted to say hello. But you know us suburban folks we don't look at people in the eye. But eventually I introduced myself.
Now we trade popsicles for his stories - they are well told. George has performed almost every career - from private investigator, photographer, security guard, to marching band formations choreographer. And he's lived in Long Beach, CA.

George is the first person I see when I leave my place and he's the last person I see when I come home. Thank you George for holding it down all these decades.

1. 3. George, 2. 6. George, 3. 7. George, 4. 11. George, 5. 9. George, 6. 12. George, 7. 16. George, 8. 1. George, 9. 17. George
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.