Solidarity amongst Black and Muslim members of the Schiller Park neighborhood is the central theme of a public meeting Saturday hosted by anti-violence group Most Valuable Parents and community leader and politician Eddie Egriu.
This is a chance to break down long standing racial and cultural barriers and focus on community wide problems says former Erie County Sheriff candidate Myles Carter who’s Jami Masjid Mosque resides in the heart of the neighborhood.
“The large thing a lot of the people-- at least the organizations that are involved, they want to focus a lot of the attention on what's going on with the violence in the community and how we can start making some headway into solving some of those issues,” he said.
Schiller Park is in the 14211 zip code, which has the lowest household median income of zip codes within the City of Buffalo. All problems within the community will not be solved in one meeting but Carter says Saturday’s meeting can lay the groundwork for further conversations.
“How are we going to follow up,” he said. “When's the next meeting going to be and what are the steps that we're going to take to start making action and progress in the right direction the issue is gun violence, right? The issue with housing the issue is you know food stability we all know what the issues are over and over again but how are we going to start working towards progress on these things.”
Other organizations involved with the meeting include the Nation of Islam, Back to Basics Ministries, Buffalo Peacemakers and the Stop the Violence Coalition.
