One Scoop or Two?
It’s a sunny morning on the corner of 23rd and Berks; kids are hurrying off to school trying desperately not to arrive late so that they will not be scolded by their teacher or miss walking with their friends, for some this is the highlight of their day. Others, however, arise the same morning perplexed with the decision to skip school in order to help their older siblings sell drugs.This is something that Mr. Nasir witnesses while sitting outside his newly opened ice cream shop, Cookies and Cream. With the opening he believes that he can offer something to his community and its youth. “I’ve seen this community changed,” he says while looking at a group kids gathering around a step to talk, “And being that you recognize change, you soon realize that you can either be part of the problem or part of the [solution] to change.”
Mr. Nasir sees himself as an entrepreneur, in the sense of developing ideas, concepts, and businesses in the African-American community. Before moving here in 1998, he took a serious long look at Philadelphia, especially north Philadelphia, and found it to be a very fertile ground to develop business ideas.
When periodically visiting Philadelphia, it was Mr. Nasir’s friends who had influenced him to come and take that “long look” at the Philadelphia area. His business sense predates himself as far back to his great grandfather at the turn of the nineteenth century, who at first started as a businessman in north Jersey and then the New York area. “So its kind of a natural genetic calling to be independent and to be able to establish self-reliance to develop concepts that would work within a neighborhood,” he adds.
Cookies and Cream, once a shoe repair shop and then a television repair shop, held within it four stores that gave Mr. Nasir the opportunity to implement the idea of the ice cream shop. Just having the knowledge of knowing how to take on such a big project, it took Mr. Nasir only a year to complete his shop. “I’ve done concepts before that have been close to this,” he says, looking the ice cream shop over. “I’ve been in business quite nationally maybe for the last thirty-five years of my life. I’ve done café’s, restaurants, health food stores; but bringing life back into this place inspired so many people in this community.”
Before Cookies and Cream, there were other long forgotten buildings that Mr. Nasir had wanted to nourish back to health. The idea was to establish businesses that would impact the mind of youth that are fore runners in developing the strength of any community, unfortunately Mr. Nasir’s dream was put to rest when these buildings were knocked down and rehabilitated into new housing by the non-profit organization, Project H.O.M.E.
“Housing is good, but if you can’t give a young person a chance to make honest money, then we’re just fooling ourselves.”
Two gentlemen, bakers within the community, wanted to have a shop to educate youth about baking; another would have been a specialty shop own and operated by a young lady, there was also interest in using one of the buildings as a sneaker or sports ware shop. Lastly, a type of community relations building where police would have the opportunity and vice-versa for the community to interact with each other was also an idea.
“I was trying to express to the folks at Project H.O.M.E. that if we were to marry these concepts and ideas along with others residential and community life, that this is how you bring back a community. The overall idea was to take these buildings, which are now gone, to install in the minds of youth that you can become a business owner from the muscle, from the ground up”.
Three years ago, former President Bill Clinton and rock star, Jon Bon Jovi, joined together to announce Project H.O.M.E.’s Phase V Homeownership Project. The project is a unique partnership between Project H.O.M.E., Habitat for Humanity, the Philadelphia Soul Charitable Foundation, and Saturn. The project focused on renovating fifteen row houses in the 1800 and 1900 blocks of North 23rd St. into energy efficient homes containing ‘Energy Star’ appliances. In order for the renovation process to take place for the new homes, the buildings Mr. Nasir wished he could save, had to be taken down.
“Some of us in the community were not invited,” says Mr. Nasir, recalling the day filled crowded streets and secret service at every corner. “Some of us might have been invited because we lived on the block and I think that was the only strength some of us had”.
With the youth, who may do their older siblings bidding, Mr. Nasir personally made an approach to them mentioning to one particular fellow that the act that he was carrying was unhealthy. The youth of Mr. Nasir’s community, despite differences, are all looking for one thing which seems to be attention. With Cookies and Cream they often have a place to go and talk to someone who cares about the things they do. “There are some [youth] that come and tell me they’re looking for a job and I reply by saying that’s good. Will often sit on the bench, talk, and have an ice cream cone.”
(Peak Johnson, Student Vanguard)
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