Step for yours. Do not accept. Expect more from yourself and those around you, be the example of that expectation. Love life and everything in it. Be different. This is our time to be different Clay Street. Times have in fact changed. It is not the beginning of the civil rights movement. We are a culmination of that movement. We are an example of the new America. An America that will NEVER return to its racist roots, it will not forget them, but it will MOVE ON from them.

We keep it looking forward that’s what Grandpop he told me
Movin on and learning from we never say if only
Homie I remember blunted something cyphers with the best of them
Where kids were swapping stories yo, and stretching them
We catching them, they B.O.B.’ing it, yeah laughs we had a lot it
And even though our paths yo they really not synonymous
I’m confident that you be doing all you want and need
Just like we were discussing over 40 ounce and weed
Cuz now it counts and we, should be stepping for the seeds
For the legacy we leave, its a necessity we lead
A life as full as possible, because our time is limited
And we are what becomes you when we begin to give it
To inhibit is a negative, that should only get attention if
Those closest to us are the slippers of that sedative
Then it is imperative, that we have to sever it
It will easy be the hardest thing that you’ve ever did
But never quit, your loving them or learning even more
Or yearning to be better than you were the day before
But today we keep it raw, yes TODAY we keep it raw
The seasons have a way ya’ll of settling the score

CLAY IS GOOD.

Popularity: 47% [?]

Zina Pierre, who spent an enormous amount of time on Clay Street during her formative years, took the Democratic Primary race yesterday and made history in doing so.

read more in the Capital:
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2009/09/16-01/Pierre-tops-crowded-field-looks-to-general-election.html

Popularity: 56% [?]

Taken from the Capital Online:
writer Joshua Stewart

For two weeks residents of College Creek Terrace in Annapolis have lived in their own version of the aftermath of a powerful thunderstorm.

Residents of the public-housing community have passed most of their days in that time without electricity, gas and hot water.

They can’t take a hot shower or watch television. They can’t cook meals. And even if they could, they can’t keep their leftovers – their refrigerators don’t work. They do have running water, but no hot water.

“This is crazy. This is really, really crazy,” said Wanda Blake, a resident of the neighborhood for six years.

At an outdoor meeting yesterday afternoon, residents detailed the extent of their problems. One man said he had to throw out 2 pounds of crabmeat after it spoiled in his warm refrigerator. Another said he had to boil water – when the power was on – to take a bath. Others said they could smell gas.

“All of that? Geez,” said Alderman Fred Paone, R-Ward 2, at the meeting.

Residents from the community, which has about 50 public-housing units, said the problems began around Aug. 20. They complained to the city housing authority, and utilities were restored for a few hours, then turned off again.

Eric Brown, executive director of the housing authority, said that whatever can be done is being done.

“Some people have been inconvenienced without gas and (hot) water, but these are things we don’t have control over,” he said.

He said a housing authority employee is working with the utility companies on the problems.

But residents said they didn’t think the housing authority was responsive enough.

Brown said electricity and gas would soon be restored and offered to shuttle residents to the Glenwood High-rise Apartments where they can get a hot meal. He told residents who lost food or anything else because of the utility problem to write it down.

“If you’ve got a loss, document your loss and we’ll work with it,” he said.

Many residents said they think their problems are related to busted utility lines and nearby construction work on Obery Court, but Brown said the problem is the aging infrastructure in the neighborhood.

College Creek Terrace, one of 11 federally owned public-housing communities in the city, was built 70 years ago. The brick exteriors are solid, but the guts of the units – the water lines, the electric lines, the sewer lines – have deteriorated. They were never replaced because there was never enough funding, Brown said.

College Creek Terrace will be demolished and rebuilt once funds are available, Brown said.

The residents of the neighborhood eventually will need to be relocated to other vacancies in the 1,104 units in the city. The housing authority is working with the families on a case-by-case basis to help them find a new place to live, Brown said.

“Is this perfect? No it is not,” he said. “What we do have is a commitment to work with each and every family.”

Popularity: 58% [?]

taken from the Capital

Clay Street computer lab gets another boost from Microsoft
By RYAN JUSTIN FOX Staff Writer
Published 07/29/09
The atmosphere at the Clay Street Computer Learning Center in Annapolis is often bleak.

Joshua McKerrow – The Capital Kids online at the Clay Street Computer Learning Center. The lab recently received new top-of-the-line computers thanks to a $75,000 gift from Microsoft, which helped establish the lab a decade ago.

Mark Thomas, the lab’s program director, said he often has to shut the window shades because of the drug dealing and loud disturbances on the street outside the tiny storefront computer lab, which sits between Calvert and West Washington streets.

But for many area kids, the lab has unlocked the door to unlimited potential for success in an otherwise pessimistic community. This spring, the lab’s first alumnus graduated from college.

The lab, which opened thanks to a grant from the Unlimited Potential program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 1999, recently received another long-term investment from Microsoft.

The company has donated $75,000 to buy eight new Hewlett-Packard Pavilion computers with flat-screen monitors.

Microsoft executives, state officials and community leaders stopped by the tiny computer lab Monday morning to get a firsthand look at the center’s success.

“It’s not really just a computer lab,” said the center’s founder, Mary Wolf. “It’s a safe haven. It’s a home away from home. Technology puts (lab participants) on equal footing with any other child.”

For 10 years now, the Clay Street Learning Center has been an oasis of opportunity even as the surrounding neighborhood seemingly crumbles around it.

“The opportunities afforded to me (because of the lab) were just tremendous,” said College Creek Terrace native Tim Boston, 22, a former assistant program director who graduated from Bowie State University in May.

Boston said he was walking by the lab several years ago and noticed all the computers when the door swung open. Curious, he stepped inside. His life has not been the same since, he said.

“It was such a big thing to have a computer back then,” Boston said. “The (lab) teaches you life skills. It’s nurturing.”

The lab is open to anybody from the neighborhood, Wolf said. During the fall, young people ranging from preschoolers to teenagers stop by the lab to do homework and computer activities in an environment conducive to constructive activity.

Senior citizens in the neighborhood often come in the center early in the morning to surf the Web, the lab’s staff said.

Miguel Powell, 8, said he and his 10-year-old sister, Dejamani, signed up for summer camp at the center because they would have nothing else to do.

Ty Curtis, a program assistant with the lab who grew up near the Columbia Heights neighborhood in Washington, D.C., said Wolf and the computer lab helped save his life. He is set to graduate from Southern University next year with a degree in computer science.

The center has received more than $150,000 in grants and software donations since it opened a decade ago. It has also received recognition and citations from County Executive John R. Leopold and Gov. Martin O’Malley.

U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Baltimore County, presented the center with a congressional citation Monday.

Wolf said she eventually wants to develop a program that would allow some of the center’s students to land technology jobs with the state.

“I always say Clay Street is just one block from Main Street,” Wolf said. “We want people to know it’s worth investing in Clay Street.”

Popularity: 63% [?]

Today America lost a musical genius… Rest In Peace, Michael

Popularity: 67% [?]