We live in cities you'll never see on screen
Not very pretty, but we sure know how to run free
Saturday was National Make a Difference Day.
For this I ventured into a part of Union City I've never been to, the Decoto neighborhood. I've been living in Union City for the last 20 years or so and never once ventured into this area, except to park my car when I couldn't find parking for BART.
I decided to bike over for two reasons, firstly, i didn't want my car broken into, but secondly to see the neighborhood, which is easier to do on bike than in a car. I had heard that this area is slightly more sketchier than the rest of Union City, so i was curious to see what it was like.
Our task was city beautification and we spent the morning planting trees, spreading mulch, and picking up trash along the railroad tracks. It was pretty tiring work in the sun lifting doing manuel labor , I gained a lot of respect for the people who so this for a living. Some pictures are attached including the tree I planted, the railway yard where we worked and some of the leaders.
All in all, it was pretty fun. In the last year or so, I've become more aware of where I live. A lot of this started happening once I subscribed to the Union City Patch and started seeing local stories show up on my Facebook. Union City Patch is great source for local news, and it also proves something good can come out of AOL.
And the more I know, the less appealing where i live looks like. First of all , I didn't realize that there was so much crime in Union City. This summer alone, there was a double-homicide, a shotgun attack that resulted in a death, and one man was shot and killed for trying to attack police with a lead pipe (not in the library).. All that in the summer. For a moment there I thought I lived in Oakland. It got so bad that there was a Peace March a month ago to address the violence.
That actually lead me to question, is the place where I call home getting more violent... Or has it always been like this, and I've been unaware? I'm thinking the latter, honestly, i never really cared to look out beyond life that affected me.
I think the coolest thing about Difference Day was to know that there were other teams helping around the city. I overheard a conversation with some of the leaders who dropped by talking about what other teams were doing in other areas of town. That was cool and it's hopeful to know people care.