OCTOBER 2006

Peter Kassab
looks over the
neighborhood
“I think Seven
Mile is a safe
area — at least
it always has
been for me.
Nothing has
forced me to
move out.”
– PETER KASSAB
been at that location for 27 years. “A lot of the
immigrants resided in Seven Mile when they first
came here and they gradually moved out,” he
said. “Some of the business did also.”
Kassab said he stays because of his Chaldean
supporters. “Chaldeans have supported us all
along. I feel comfortable and have never had
major problems,” he said. Kassab does his part to
keep his area of Seven Mile clean, safe and
friendly. “I think Seven Mile is a safe area — at
least it always has been for me,” he said.
“Nothing has forced me to move out.”
Jane Shallal, president of Associated Food and
Petroleum Dealers and an active member of the
Chaldean American Ladies of Charity (CALC),
noted that Seven Mile has always been a little
behind. “There were always little alternatives for
youth. Not that much was offered,” she said.
In 2005 the ACC opened its doors to an afterschool
youth program providing more than 300
kids with homework assistance, academic tutoring,
life skills, service learning, computer skills,
leadership, health education and conflict resolution,
along with activities such as basketball,
dance and hands-on activities. There is always a
police officer on hand. “We never turn down anybody
interested,” Hasan said. “And there is no
charge.”
There is also a change in the youths’ attitudes.
“Back in the days there were Chaldean and
African American gangs. Now, I walk in here and
see them playing on the same basketball teams,”
Hasan said.
POSITIVE CHANGE
Planned streetscape improvements on Seven
Mile Road get rolling this year. ACC joined
forces with the Michigan Department of
Transportation (MDOT) and are in the advanced
stages of the streetscape, which will include sidewalks,
decorative lighting, trees, park benches
and trash receptacles. “Everything is changing,”
Hasan said.
None of the initiatives will go anywhere
unless the people of Detroit step up to the plate
and get involved, Hasan pointed out. “We have
to assure the city that somebody will take care of
cleaning, painting... we are going to do this the
right way.”
Hasan said the area has received promises over
the years but nothing ever happened. “This
time,” she said, “change will be made.”
A Community Pocket Park will also be constructed
with children’s playground equipment,
park benches, lighting, decorative pavement and
more. The ACC said the park will provide “the
community a place to enjoy the outdoors in a
clean and safe environment with no worries.”
Another new feature being built is the Artesian
and Adult Learning Center, a 15,000- to 20,000-
square-foot building of workspace for Middle
Eastern and African American artists to create
and display their artwork for sale in an adjoining
Middle Eastern-themed cafe.
NEW HOMES
Penrose Village, a community under construction
in a north central neighborhood of Detroit, will
have 36 spacious three- and four-bedroom homes
available for rent early this fall for medium-income
families. Rents will start at about $430 per month.
Cynthia Solaka of Solaka & Associates said the
Seven Mile area is slowly but surely improving. “I
have seen men cleaning up [litter] and when I ask
if they are cleaning outside their business they say,
‘No, this is my neighborhood.’ The people here
care. They deserve it,” Solaka said. “Chaldeans
are the one who anchored the neighborhood —
they deserve good housing.”
Shallal agrees. “If they can work on building
new homes and cleaning up the abandoned houses,
the city could be more desirable.”
With all these new projects, there are still
children who feel grief and sadness and are overwhelmed
with their fears and feelings of being
different, alone and isolated. Project Venture, a
program started last November by CALC, runs
two days a week at two different locations — St.
Joseph Church in Troy and Sacred Heart Church
in Detroit. Children 10-15 years old attend the
program, where every activity relates to the “real
world.” One of the facilitators, Vanessa Konja,
said it’s a great program especially for the kids in
Detroit. “It gives them something to do during
the week because their schools have cut out all
after-school and gym activities,” she said.
Konja said working with children who call
Seven Mile home “really made me realize how
thankful I am for what I have. I didn’t think any
Chaldeans lived the way these children live.”
LIVING THE LIFE
Fourteen year-old “Mona” came to the United
States three years ago and is one of five siblings.
She said living in Detroit is difficult. “It is dangerous
in Seven Mile. There are a lot of fires and people
could burn down my house,” she said, adding
that she has seen homeless people living in the
burned houses. “The challenge in the summer —
it’s so hot and there is no air condition. The dogs
are outside and nobody is with them.”
Mona also worries about being robbed.
Regardless, she holds onto her dream of being a
hair stylist. For now, she spends her days cleaning
around the house and watching television because
she has “nowhere to go” and her friends “all moved
out of Seven Mile.”
Arriving in the United States eight years ago,
13-year-old “Reem” has ambitions of finishing her
education and becoming a doctor. She is the
youngest with two brothers and one sister, for
whom she worries. “I worry about my family
because someone could just get into your house
and kill you. People in Seven Mile just don’t care
— all the houses are dirty and so are the streets,”
she said. “I would like to change the way people
act in Seven Mile because they curse too much
and I don’t like that.”
One of three brothers and three sisters, 11-yearold
“Laith” came to the United States seven years
ago and spends his time playing video games. He
wants to help those in danger by one day becoming
an FBI agent. “Someone might get hurt, shot or
might be blamed for stuff they did not do,” he said.
Left unchallenged, neighborhood crime and
carelessness contributes to community neglect,
breakdown and fear. There are few incentives to
invest — economically or socially — in any unsafe
neighborhood. In five years, Solaka said there will
be an instant raise in dignity thanks in part to her
firm’s new housing — “The feeling of having your
own home in a safe and clean environment.”
Seven Mile will be a place where you could
walk without fear, a clean and safe neighborhood
of homes and businesses, say Hasan and Solaka.
“Plain and simple,” Solaka said, “Seven Mile will
be transformed.”
OCTOBER 2006 CHALDEAN NEWS 35