Shootings on 3rd alongside business as usual

May 23, 5:49 PMSF Bayview ExaminerJeffrey Betcher

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Police gather evidence shortly after a shooting on 3rd Street on Saturday afternoon.

It is things like this that can make a person forget he lives in the best neighborhood in the city.

This afternoon at about 1:45, I was in my car, on 3rd Street, headed to Walgreens, when I saw the telltale yellow police tape that cordoned off the west side of a block just south of Kirkwood.  I had missed multiple shots being fired, and the police and fire departments swooping in, by about five minutes.

Bystanders said that several young men had been wounded, taking bullets in the feet , legs or shoulder.  One victim was shot in the face. The victims were in a barber shop, and the perpetrator or perpetrators had pulled up their vehicle just long enough to change lives forever and then flee.

While most of those standing around the scene seemed to take it all in stride, I heard a woman, standing in a doorway next to the barber shop, say to someone she knew, "I'm going to move in with you...I'm serious!"  Her comment was welcome to me, since it acknowledged that something awful had happened.

Across the street, in a new clothing store called Black Diamonds "Plus Sizes," owner Jessica Pete said that she had heard the shots, but had not been in a position to see anything.  "The police," she said, "were there, it seemed, in seconds," responding to "shot detectors" that had signaled the disturbance.

Store patrons poked through economy-priced jeans, tops and dresses, not paying much attention to the scene outside the window.  A man, with a colorful tattoo climbing up the side of his neck, who looked more like a model than the police officer he turned out to be, walked in and smiled.  He asked questions, politely, though there wasn't much information to be had.

Jessica gave the officer her birth date, when she was asked, without the year.  "Do I have to?" she asked.

The officer was nice about it, and folks in the shop laughed.  The banter was comforting, to me, and odd, given the blood on the sidewalk across the street.

Mother and daughter, Ruby and Diana Gatlin, were shopping in the store at the time.  Ms. Ruby commented on how she did not walk some blocks of 3rd Street, but that she believed that one day she would be able to.  "It's gotten better over the years," she said.

Just like that, the conversation at Black Diamonds turned back to the business of clothing, to Jessica Pete, and to her lively store that had emerged, just a few months before, in the corner retail space of a new apartment building on 3rd and Kirkwood.  The store is a swirl of pink and lavender, and a mix of fashionable frocks and simpler garments geared toward larger women.

"Do you know what black diamonds are?" Jessica asked me.  "They're very rare and beautiful.  Just like plus size women."

It did not take long for Jessica to convince me she would succeed with her new business.  She had had another business, further down 3rd Street, before this one.  She knows the neighborhood and its people well, having lived here since she was thirteen (however long ago that was).  And she has a warmth about her, and a smile that surely makes each customer feel special.

Jessica has already had her first success, winning a Wells Fargo sponsored competition for businesses wanting interior design assistance.  As a result, her shop got a $2,000 budget and the focused attention of a group of City College students who worked hard to give her shop a vibrant look that would appeal to her market.

After snapping a few pictures of Black Diamonds, and saying my "good byes," I headed to Walgreen's, my original destination.  Outside the drugstore, a man who I have talked with a number of times was there again, selling the Black Muslim bean pies that are a "guilty pleasure" that I'm guilty of pretty often.  We waved to one another.

Inside the store, as I did my transaction, a woman on a cell phone began to cry, "I just heard he was shot in the head." she screamed.  "I think he's dead."

Buying my bean pie (I knew I would), my friend asked me how I was, probably noticing that I was preoccupied.  "It really puts everything in perspective when something like that happens," he said, after I answered that I was fine considering the shooting and the poor woman inside the store.

That's when I remembered what living in the best neighborhood in the city means: being able to go about my business, and have a dozen conversations with people I might not know well, and who might come from different backgrounds than me, but with whom I feel connected.

If you are the kind of person who likes to be "invisible" in the city, then Bayview may not be for you.  Folks here are too friendly to let you get away with it, and seem to have an understanding of life that is worth discovering.  There may be blood on the sidewalk, but the warmth and strength of spirit that  Bayview ought to be famous for remains for those like me lucky enough to be part of it.

And that bean pie...well, it's delicious, as always.