views

Jewfro

It’s Always
Summer in Detroit

T

his is the time
of year we
usually put
Summer in the City
on the shelf. Jubilant
June-July and the
adrenaline of August
Ben Falik
give way to a subtly
Contributing Writer
subdued September
and, by October,
others have oscillated into off-sea-
son occupations and, woe, winter is
coming.
This year is different. Pumpkin
Spice Lattes be damned. And that
difference is a testament to the power
of people and place.
In 2010, Summer in the City
received the Jewish Fund’s Robert
Sosnick Award for Excellence and,
the following year, used the award to
make a house at risk of foreclosure
into the home of the organization.
In the years since, our historic
Hubbard Farms home has housed
and hosted Summer Crew, college
students and recent graduates, alter-
native break groups and PeerCorps
mentors.
This fall, for the first time, all four
residents can wave to their alma
mater — Western International High
School, peeking through Clark Park’s
copious canopy — from the front
porch of 1655 Clark.
They know the virtues and vices
of Southwest Detroit year-round
from growing up in the neighbor-
hood. They have committed their
sweat equity and social capital — two
resources abundant in the area — to
making Summer in the City viable
and vibrant year-round.
So, here’s Carla, Keairra, Alondra
and Alondra’s and my big bold beau-
tiful bad idea:

1645 CLARK
Back in 2012, Summer in the City
bought the little house next door to
the big house, knowing that it was
plumbing and electrical (and then
some) away from being a habitable
home. We’ve kept it secure and it’s

kept us dreaming, as property values
have crept up and new businesses
have cropped up along Vernor.
Herein lies the capacity concern.
Summer in the City has built the
capacity to paint and plant and
play over the past 17 years, creating
murals, cultivating gardens and curat-
ing youth enrichment experiences
that have touched thousands of lives.
While the fun, flexible, fulfilling
programming happens over a festive,
fleeting eight-week Season of Service,
the tools and materials for these
projects have unrealized capacity for
community use throughout the rest of
the year.
The stuff is not the scarcity. We
have the stuff. And, over the 10 moth-
balled months that elapse between
summers, those assets can be more
more of a liability — lost, stolen,
stashed, stacked sideways, strewn
about, rusty, musty, dusty, deflated.
One thing I’ve learned doing this
work: The process is the product. So
we’re partnering with the Western
High chapter of buildOn, a service
movement, whose teens will knock
on doors, survey families and visit
schools in their barrio to identify
unmet needs and lay the groundwork
for a “lending library” of whatever we
have (or can get) that folks around
here are looking for: a ladder and
roller to safely kick up the color on
the side of your house, shovels and
wheelbarrow to kickstart a commu-
nity garden, a soccer ball and cones
to kick off a pick-up game in the park
after school.
But how will it work? Good ques-
tion(s)! There will be reliable regular
hours and people can text 313-444-
7FUN (fun, right?) for alternative
pick-up/drop-off times. Todo estará
en inglés y español.
We will have a system in place to
make sure (virtually) everything gets
back to us and we will have some
things — seeds from Keep Growing
Detroit, books from Rx for Reading,
mis-tint paint — that we don’t want
back.

Here’s what we need:
Money. Per David Mamet,
“Everyone needs money. That’s why
they call it money.” Still, I’d like to
think of this more as an investment
than an act of charity. Or at least a
more inclusive iteration of the Sharing
Economy. The $50,000 it will take to
rehab the house is 10 times what we
paid for it. In 2012, that would have
been insanity; in 2018, it’s equity.
Carlos, the contractor is local (1643
Clark). With tentative tenants in the
apartment upstairs, 1645 Clark will be
a revenue neutral for the organization.
Stuff. We’ll have to be careful what
we wish for here: In-kind donations
always have some blessing-curse ratio.
The first floor of the bungalow is stra-
tegically small, so we’ll find space for
whatever is in the highest demand and
homes for whatever doesn’t fit. Paint
— diligently donated, lovingly labeled,
safely sealed and artfully allocated —
will be a litmus test for whether the
endeavor is pH (post-hoarder) bal-
anced.
Time. Do you love sorting, stocking,
shelving, shifting, sifting and showing
stuff? That makes one of us! In fact, I
think this will be a really cool volun-
teer opportunity, in particular for fam-
ilies with kids who may be too young
to do most community service projects
and parents who want a living lesson
in Maimonides’ Ladder of Tzedakah —
how they can help contribute to creat-
ing a self-sufficient community.
Mr. Rogers, who knew a thing or
two about being a neighbor, said: “It’s
not so much what we have in this life
that matters. It’s what we do with what
we have.” Extra exciting to explore …
what can our neighbors do with what
we have?
If you are interested in 1645
Clark — Casa del Cosas? Clark Street
Cooperative? — come see it for your-
self at our Fall Fiesta Open House
Nov. 3 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Or text/
email “Nu?” to (313) 444-7FUN/ben@
summerinthecity.com. And speaking
of real estate, check out the new look
summerinthecity.com. ■

Our Story

Father and son Arthur Liss and
Dr. Zachary Liss serve together
as leaders at Hebrew Free Loan.
Zachary felt it was a natural progression,
joining the organization that was
often a topic of family discussions,
and he even has a youthful memory
of coming along with his father on a
Sunday when client interviews were
scheduled.
“I was in middle school, I think,”
said Zachary. “We’d discussed HFL
at home quite often, but in the abstract,
because of the client confidentiality.
Being in the office that day was a
powerful experience for me, because
I didn’t fully realize how many people
would actually need HFL, or for what
purposes. The idea of Jews taking
care of Jews was clear to me, but I
was still a kid, so it took a while for
me to feel like the helpful person in
the room should be me.”
The Liss family has been very
involved in the community through
the years. Arthur is an HFL Past
President, and wife/mom Beverly is
President of Federation. Surprisingly,
though, Zachary credits someone
outside his family for getting him
involved.
“Dr. Jeffrey Forman, who is a mentor,
pulled me into the Forman Maimonides
Leadership Team, and through that I
saw the importance of Federation
and its associated agencies,” Zachary
said. “We heard an HFL presentation,
and everything clicked.
“In my medical practice, I take
care of people – listening, helping –
and it’s exactly the same feeling at
HFL. People come in and open up
to you, and ask you to help change
the course of their lives. This is one
of the coolest things I’ve ever done.”

Click. Call. Give Now.

www.hfldetroit.org • 248.723.8184

Community donations help HFL
give interest-free loans to local Jews
for a variety of personal, health,
educational and small business
needs.

6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 300 • Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301

Hebrew Free Loan Detroit

jn

@HFLDetroit

October 18 • 2018

5