6 Things a Community That Prioritizes Aging Residents Always Does

6 Things a Community That Prioritizes Aging Residents Always Does

Merlisa Lawrence Corbett is a journalist and author who writes about tennis, sports in society, home and garden, and small business. She is the author of the book “Serena Williams: Tennis Champion, Sports Legend, and Cultural Heroine.” Lawrence Corbett is also a former tennis columnist for Bleacher Report and a reporter for Sports Illustrated. She wrote the foreword for “A Hard Road To Glory: A History Of The African American Athlete: Track and Field,” by legendary tennis star Arthur Ashe Jr.

4 Unspoken Rules to Follow for Sharing an Outdoor Space with Neighbors

4 Unspoken Rules to Follow for Sharing an Outdoor Space with Neighbors

Summer is officially here, which means you’re officially ready to spend all your free time in your backyard, deck, or patio, if you’re lucky enough to have your own. But, if you live in an apartment, chances are, you’ll be sharing it with your building’s other occupants. While having any outdoor space is a real estate win, sharing it with others can be a tad trickier to navigate. Sure, you want to enjoy your space all summer long, but you also want to be cognizant of your neighbors’ needs.

Want to keep your summer cool and conflict-free? I tapped August Abbott, PhD., an etiquette expert on JustAnswer to share her biggest do’s and don’ts for sharing an outdoor space with your neighbors. “It’s not as difficult as you might think to be respectful and kind,” Abbott adds. “To be part of starting a whole new ‘thing’ in society and compromising when necessary in order to get along.” All you need to do is follow a few simple rules to have some serious fun in the sun this season.

From afternoon barbecues to chill cocktails, the summer is all about outdoor entertaining. As easy as it is to keep your guest list to your inner circle, use your next soiree as an opportunity to embrace your social butterfly. “If you’re having one, invite the neighbors,” Abbott says. Not only will including your neighbors in the fun start the summer on a friendly note, but it can also keep tensions to a minimum. (Let’s be real, hearing a loud party from your window can cause some serious annoyance and a tinge of resentment.)

Of course, just because you’ve extended an invitation to your neighbors doesn’t mean they’ll attend. “If they don’t participate or if for any reason you don’t care to invite them, give them a notice of what’s happening and give them a time frame,” Abbott shares.”[There’s] no wiggle room here.”

Don’t Help Yourself to Their Belongings

Just because you share an outdoor space with your neighbors doesn’t mean you’re automatically granted access to everything. (Yes, even that pristine gas grill that’s waiting to be used.) “Helping yourself to anything of your neighbors without expressed permission from them is also a faux pas,” Abbot says. “You may as well just use their car, too.” Want to use your neighbor’s grill? Not only is it important to ask, but also consider if there’s something you can give them access to in return. Simply put, your neighbor might be more eager to let you give their grill a spin if they can take a dip in your hot tub.

That said, it’s important to be mindful of your neighbor’s needs by checking in with them before each use and cleaning up later. “The neighbors don’t want to come home to find you’ve left their grill uncleaned — or that you’re in the middle of using it as they approach with the ribs and chicken they were just out buying for their own little picnic,” Abbott adds.

Dealing with noisy neighbors is the worst. (Even more terrible? Being the noisy neighbor without even realizing it!) It’s easy to think that taking your summer activity outside would mitigate some of the noise, but in reality? If your neighbor’s unit is right by the backyard, they’ll get a front row seat to all the commotion — whether they want to or not. The good news is that navigating this etiquette rule isn’t as difficult as it may seem.

“Be respectful,” Abbott shares. “Let your neighbor know beforehand and give a time frame that is after a certain time in the morning and stops at a certain time in the afternoon.”

Are you planning on hanging out outside early in the morning or late at night? Turn the volume down on loud conversations, shouting, and music. Want to blast the music while your neighbors are having a quiet conversation on the other end of the backyard? Ask them if it’s okay to play some soft music. When it comes to the noise factor, the golden rule is key.

Don’t Leave Your Mess Everywhere

It doesn’t matter if you have a sprawling backyard or have a fire escape that looks down to your neighbor’s setup, it’s important to clean up all of your messes. (Food scraps? Cigarette butts? Fido’s dropping? Check, check, and check.) As Abbott says, “it should not be their chore to clean up after you.”

To nail this etiquette rule, don’t procrastinate on the chores. Though it’s so easy to tell yourself that you’ll clean up your melamine plates the day after a long dinner party, leaving your dinnerware out and about might make your neighbors feel like they’re responsible for cleaning up your mess. Instead, tidying up as needed will ensure all parties can find some common ground in their common area.

Kelsey Mulvey

Contributor

Kelsey Mulvey is a lifestyle editor and writer. She has written for publications like Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Wallpaper.com, New York Magazine, and more.

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Tap Into Your Inner Artist to Support This AAPI Nonprofit

Tap Into Your Inner Artist to Support This AAPI Nonprofit

Food has always been my family’s love language. My mother raised me on the mouthwatering, succulent food she and her family ate for generations in Hawai’i: a unique fusion of Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, and her own Japanese family’s cuisine. We show affection through food, like when my grandpa hands me a plate of lychee that he’s already carefully peeled or my mother gives me a freshly made musubi.  

That tradition of sharing love through food is why I resonate so much with Heart of Dinner, a nonprofit founded by Moonlynn Tsai and Yin Chang. The couple originally created it as a supper club in 2015 — but when the pandemic hit in 2020, Tsai and Chang quickly pivoted to cook hot lunches for vulnerable members of Manhattan’s Chinatown community, focusing especially on housebound elders. 

The nonprofit is a natural combination of the power couple’s skills and passions: Tsai is a restaurateur and entrepreneur who focuses on building community-based food projects. Chang is founder and creative director of the writing platform and podcast “88 Cups of Tea,” as well as an actor (“Gossip Girl” watchers will know her as fan favorite Nelly Yuki) and an advocate for Asian-American representation in Hollywood. Their warmth and energy permeate Heart of Dinner, which, as of January 2022, has delivered over 100,000 care packages to East Asian elders in New York City. 

Its mission feels all the more necessary in light of the nationwide rise in hate crimes against the AAPI community, and particularly the many horrifying attacks on senior citizens. Though the community has been the target of violence long before the pandemic, Chang says “the news is a daily reminder of the urgency of Heart of Dinner’s work to counter the hate and violence with love and empathy.” For many Asian-Americans, working to support Heart of Dinner feels like a tangible, direct way to protect and uplift the elderly members of our community in the face of senseless hatred.

Care packages are filled with Asian produce and hot lunches intended to remind their elderly recipients of home. Produce includes ingredients like bok choy, bittermelon, and eggplant, while hot meals are dishes like tomato egg omelet with shrimp over rice and Asian heritage vegetables. Meals are prepared with minimal salt, oil, and sugar to be senior-friendly. And, each package is topped off with a handwritten note.

While meals are the crux of Heart of Dinner’s work, illustrated bags and handwritten notes provide another kind of nourishment. “Some of our elderly even cut out the decorated side of the brown bags to collect and look at throughout the week when they feel lonely,” says Chang. “They’re often surprised to learn that individuals from around the world would take the time to make them feel seen.” To date, they’ve received close to 110,000 uniquely illustrated bags and notes from all over the United States, and even from volunteers in Canada, Asia, and Europe.

Such beautiful bags and notes take time, and Chang says they could always use more. If you’ve ever enjoyed drawing or painting, this is the perfect opportunity to channel your creativity: Make it a social event by hosting a “drawing party” for friends with snacks and art supplies, get the family together for a relaxing group activity, or draw solo and listen to music as a way to unwind. However you do it, the artwork you create will support Heart of Dinner’s mission and brighten a senior’s day.

Here’s how you can get involved:

For Heart of Dinner, the outside of the delivery bags is just as important as what’s inside them. Volunteers have decorated over 110,000 bags with vivid illustrations, from mouthwatering sketches of food to classically beautiful nature scenes. (For more inspiration, click check out their Instagram.) NYC-based volunteers can head to Partybus Bakeshop to pick up free bags and drop off decorated ones. Volunteers from anywhere else can use sturdy, plain brown paper bags (dimensions 10x5x13 inches) and mail the decorated results to Heart of Dinner. View the complete guidelines for bags before getting started.

Write and illustrate notes

Share your love and support for elders by creating unique handwritten notes for each care package. Note cards should be no larger than 7-by-5 inches and submitted in batches of 50. (Each note must be handwritten and illustrated — not photocopied.) Write a legible, warm, uplifting message for elders in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, or Vietnamese with an English translation. (Here are some examples in each language from Heart of Dinner.) Then decorate the rest of the note with cheerful, bright illustrations.

Deliver meals (NYC residents only)

Chang says Heart of Dinner is urgently seeking volunteers to help deliver care packages on Wednesdays. If you have a valid license to drive your own car in New York and are interested in helping deliver care packages to elderly recipients, you can submit your volunteer application here. (For other in-person volunteering opportunities, like assembling care packages, Chang says Heart of Dinner is at capacity but you can sign up to join the waitlist here.)

Katey Laubscher

Contributor

Katey Laubscher is a freelance writer from California. She’s passionate about travel, pop culture, and historically accurate period dramas.

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These 3 Historically Black Communities Represent Black Excellence

These 3 Historically Black Communities Represent Black Excellence

For millions of Black Americans across the U.S., historically Black neighborhoods have served as a cultural foundation. They were created to serve as safe havens from racism and violence, and blossomed into thriving spaces that helped people build sustainable lives while being Black in America.

Settlers founded many of these towns and neighborhoods between the late 18th century and early 20th century. In these places, residents cultivated customs and traditions that Black Americans still celebrate. They were spaces where they could be their whole, authentic selves and live in peace.

Although history books tend to overlook these communities, the preservation of Black spaces is essential to telling the story of America’s past. Below, find three neighborhoods that embody Black joy, success, and excellence.

Oklahoma was once part of a movement to be an all-Black state, counting more than 50 all-Black towns. Boley, Oklahoma, is one of the 13 that remains today, and is remembered as the largest and most prominent.

The town of Boley was owned by a formerly enslaved woman named Abigail Barnett McCormick. Founded in 1903 and incorporated in 1905, McCormick inherited the land from her father, James Barnett, a Creek Freedman.

Bolely is named after J.B. Boley, a white railroad official with Fort Smith and Western Railway who believed Black people could govern themselves. McCormick invited formerly enslaved people looking for better opportunities to come and settle there.

Black luminaries often visited the town, such as educator and civil rights advocate Booker T. Washington. While there in 1905, he proclaimed Boley to be one “the most enterprising and in many ways the most interesting of the Negro towns in the United States.” 

Residents were self-sufficient by creating their own goods and services without the interference of white people. 

“They used their dollars, economic resources, and whatever skills or talent they had,” explains Marcus Young, the geographic information specialist for Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office. “They aggregated together. They didn’t have to worry about racism, discrimination, and working with no white person to look over their shoulder constantly.”

Recently, residents have started work on a new community garden in the area and continue to host the nation’s oldest African-American community-based rodeo. Boley is still majority Black, and residents are actively working on plans to revitalize the town. 

Tremé — New Orleans, Louisiana

In the heart of Tremé lies a lively history where vibrant music, energy, and culture once filled its streets.

Situated near the French Quarter in New Orleans, Tremé, also known as Faubourg Tremé, is the oldest Black neighborhood in America. Even during slavery, it had the largest community of free Black people in the Deep South. By 1841, Black people owned 80 percent of the land in the neighborhood.

Many historical moments took place in Tremé during the mid to late-1800s, such as the first civil rights movement to fight for desegregation and the launch of the first Black daily newspaper, “The Tribune.” It’s also the home of the country’s oldest predominantly African-American Catholic church, St. Augustine’s Church. Jazz has strong historical roots in the neighborhood, too, since many claim that New Orleans’ Congo Square, located in Tremé, is the birthplace of the musical genre. 

Despite its rich history, the liveliness of Tremé has gradually disappeared. Transportation projects, gentrification, and natural disasters have changed its landscape as a community. The memories and neighborhood’s soul still live on in residents who help keep its cultural identity alive. 

Conant Gardens — Detroit, Michigan

Conant Gardens became highly populated by Black people around the 1920s, due to the success of the automobile industry. Soon after, it became the most affluent Black neighborhood in the city. With a population of over 500 Black people, Conant Gardens had the highest median income of all of Detroit’s Black neighborhoods by 1950, and 60 percent of its residents owned their homes

Orlin Jones, 89, has lived in Conant Gardens all of his life. In his opinion, it was a fantastic place for young Black people. He said it was simply the greatest neighborhood to grow up in during those days.

“It was a community of 14 inner streets and four boundary streets,” Jones explains. “It was just tightly knitted, and we all knew each other.”

A neighborhood storyteller, Jones reminisced about some of the prominent people who once lived in Conant Gardens, like track and field gold medalist Jesse Owens, Malcolm X’s brother, Wesley Little, and Neal Vernon Loving, the first black pilot and the first double-amputee to qualify as a racing pilot. Tuskegee airman Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson is also among other notable people who have ties to the neighborhood.

“The older Black people that helped build this neighborhood, I’ll never forget them,” Jones says. “They were really just kind to me. I was a paper boy in the neighborhood and I delivered two Black newspapers, the ‘Michigan Chronicle’ and the ‘Pittsburgh Courier’ Detroit edition in Conant Gardens and the Sojourner Truth homes.”

The neighborhood’s tight-knit community is likely part of the reason Conant Gardens remains majority Black today.

Boley, Tremé, and Conant Gardens are just a few examples of the prosperous Black communities in the U.S. They were Black utopias that served as symbols of Black pride, happiness, and unity. Despite dealing with societal battles such as economic justice, civil rights, and urban development, these communities gave Black people solace where they could embrace and uplift each other freely. These places should not only be honored during Black History Month, but every day of the year.

Brianna Rhodes

Contributor

Brianna Rhodes is a journalist and entrepreneur who writes on various
topics including Black culture, diversity and inclusion, race, and
social justice. She is also the founder of a creative agency called
Brianna Rhodes Writes.

The 8 Best Regional Terms for the Strip Between the Road and Sidewalk, Ranked

The 8 Best Regional Terms for the Strip Between the Road and Sidewalk, Ranked

Jumble sale; garage sale. Yinz; y’all. Jawn; practically anything. Regional terminology is a part of American culture which, in my humble opinion, deserves to be celebrated. Connecting over your differences is as fun as having something in common. Lovers of camping sitting fireside, watching the lightning bugs… and the fireflies. Your great-grandparents, one hella old, the other wicked old. 

As much as the myriad of regional nicknames for everyday occurrences thrills and delights me, there are some words and phrases that just hit harder than others. After all, there’s a reason “sneakerhead” caught on and not “gym shoe head” (sorry, fellow Midwesterners). In my own house growing up, my mom put in work to get the word “study” to stick instead of “office” or “computer room.” 

You might be asking, “Sarah, what set you off on this examination of regional colloquialisms?” Thanks for asking, readers! There are some things that I simply don’t know the word for. The spot behind your knee? The thing that separates your groceries from the ones in front of yours on the conveyor belt? And specifically: that space between the street and the sidewalk. 

Apparently there’s a laundry list of unexpected terms for this ordinary space that’s technically referred to as a “road verge.” Y’all, this term isn’t going to work for me, given the delicious and often ridiculous alternatives that exist! Below, I’ve ranked my 8 favorite road verge terms. See if you spot any terms you use, or a new one to add to your lexicon.

Apparently, some civil engineers refer to the road verge as a “furniture zone” because it’s the location where different components of utilities are installed (think of street furniture like street lamps and electric boxes). For me, this sounds more like a discount furniture store where for $400 you can snag a brand new loveseat that someone just didn’t want with their set.

This seems made up, point blank. Can you picture the nation’s first urban planners sitting around an ornate office, probably with cigars aflame, saying, “Hey, what if we popped a little space between the street and sidewalk, like a little, ya know, buffer? Can’t have m’lady’s skirt getting splashed by a horse!” 

It’s no secret that I love New Orleans, and the story behind its Neutral Ground street medians is a rich piece of American history. I imagine that folks within the region just started applying that phrase to other stretches of public space that resembled these specific medians. Hey, when I’m in NOLA, I’ll do as the New Orleanians do! 

Technically a silly phrase, but ultimately, kind of a good idea? Can you get samples of yards like you do for tile or carpet or paint? I’d love to test out a yard with a fire pit or one with a pool! Anything’s better than the “yard sample” I’ve got outside my Chicago condo right now — piled high with snow and dotted with abandoned dog poop. New sample, please!

Technically, throughout most of the United States, the road verge is public land — as in “owned by Uncle Sam.” This term conjures within me the stubborn desire to complain. “No, I’m not wasting my time mowing the lawn over on the GOVERNMENT GRASS!” Or, “Hmm, the government has time to audit me but not to tend to THE GOVERNMENT GRASS?” Or “Officer, do you mean to tell me I can’t annex this land as an extension of my own lawn because it’s the GOVERNMENT’S GRASS?” Uncle Sam, come get your lawn, my dude!

This sounds like the name of the next big waxing craze for your downtown. My imagination is running wild. Next!

Hilarious, perfect, stunning, iconic. I live and die for the portmanteau. This is exactly what the area beside the sidewalk is: the besidewalk. And if it weren’t for my number one term, this would be the name I adopt for my use of road verge. But alas, I bring you to the number one best term…

This term echoes back to Government Grass, but is far more sinister, spooky, and satisfying. I can’t wait to be a terrifying old lady yelling at kids to stay off my lawn, but adding, “AND the devil strip!” This will secure my position as the most frightening neighbor in my community, which is all I want in this world.  

Sarah Magnuson

Contributor

Sarah Magnuson is a Chicago-based, Rockford, Illinois-born and bred writer and comedian. She has bachelor’s degrees in English and Sociology and a master’s degree in Public Service Management. When she’s not interviewing real estate experts or sharing her thoughts on laundry chutes (major proponent), Sarah can be found producing sketch comedy shows and liberating retro artifacts from her parents’ basement.

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