Community

I was born and raised in East Winston & lived on Gray Avenue. My parents still stay in the same house. Yep, East Winston was and still is home to me and its home to you! Living in East Winston help to shape and mold me into the person I am today.


Growing up, there were a lot of kids in our neighborhood. We played football in the street, rolling bat, playing in the creek and we would ride our bikes all over Winston. We only played video games if we couldn’t go outside. All the adults in our neighborhood knew our names and didn’t have any problem letting us know if we were doing something, we didn’t have any business doing. I think that part is missing in our neighborhoods nowadays. As kids we knew the difference between right and wrong, but having an adult making sure you didn’t get out of line always helped. All I had to hear was “hey little Redd, don’t make me tell your Mama and Daddy on you” always got me back in line. I was always with my friends: Mon, Stan, Jamel, Troy, George, Juwan and Tony. We would spend the night at each other’s homes. If one person had to rake leaves, pull weeds, or shovel snow, we all helped! If we saw trash in the street in our neighborhood, we were told to pick up the trash. Once we got older, we did it on our own. We learned early on what it means it is to take pride in our community. If we saw something that didn’t look right, we told the police when they would ride through the neighborhood. Once we got back home, we also told our parents.

The adults in my neighborhood talked to each other about problems in the neighborhood. They used to call the police and have them be part of the neighborhood meeting. They looked out for each other and tried to help the elderly residents keep their yards neat and asked them if they needed anything.

There isn’t a sense of “community” anymore, why is that? What has changed to make it hard to speak to your neighbor, offer to cut the grass for the elderly, pick up trash, hold community cookouts, throw the football in the yard, or go to the movies with the neighbors kids? How do we get back to being neighborly?

No neighborhood is perfect, but together things can get better. How can you help your neighborhood be better? Let’s work together to improve our neighborhoods. Remember, you are setting an example for our children to follow.


George Redd IV
City Council East Ward 2020