Examples of community/Halal Store

[Halal Store: A key gathering spot, located at Chestnut and Lisbon Streets]
[Kennedy Park; where many downtown residents congregate]

In Robert Putnam’s book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Arrival of American Community, the Harvard sociologist details how we have become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and our democratic structures. Putnam warns us that our stock of social capital—the essence and fabric of how we are connected within our communities—has fallen off and this poses grave danger to our nation’s long-term wellbeing.

Fortunately, Putnam doesn’t leave us teetering at the edge of the cliff, as his later book (co-written with Lewis Feldstein and Donald J. Cohen) provides examples of communities where residents are finding ways to reconnect and rebuild the store of social capital.

Interestingly, as cities like Lewiston have gone through difficult times, economically, many residents have fled downtown, for suburban enclaves. These communities, with large lots and spacious homes, make it difficult to connect with neighbors.

My own example, living on three acres, in Durham, with neighbors I rarely talk to and don’t really know, is much different than some of the vibrant examples of community that I’ve witnessed in downtown Lewiston.

Last Friday, I was invited by friend and follow Empower Lewiston board member, Ismail Ahmed, for lunch at Halal Store, at the corner of Chestnut and Lisbon Streets. Entering the market and restaurant, we ordered our lunches of Festival (a combination of pasta, rice, mixed vegetables, sautéed with goat meat and shaved steak), accompanied with salad, fruit drink and fresh banana. This provided a wonderfully different and hearty lunch, as well as the opportunity to have a needed conversation with one of my favorite local residents and a leader in the community.

While the food was very tasty, rich with pungent spices and seasonings, the goat meat was a special treat. Even better was the sense that this local store was the hub of the Somali community, as men were arriving for lunch, from the local mosque. Immediately, they’d enter the store and greet one another. I must have been introduced to close to 10 new people, as well as greeting a few other men that I knew from my work in the larger community. Everyone was glad to see Ismail and catch up on his news.

Afterwards, Ismail explained that Halal is a place where news is exchanged. When he hasn’t been there for several weeks, people grow concerned, as there is a sense of connectedness that exists here, in downtown Lewiston that doesn’t always exist in our more homogenous suburban areas of Maine.

Being of French-Canadian heritage, on my mother’s side of the family, with a Memiere that used to live within the boundaries of the two census tracts that make up the EC/EZ, I was familiar with the city and the vibrancy that it had 35 years ago. I was reminded of that time, by the sense of energy and the obvious community that I witnessed in and around Halal Store.

I have always believed that diversity adds to the social capital of a community and I got to witness it firsthand, last Friday.

There are many other positive examples of community that resides with the boundaries of the EC. I hope that Voices from the EC becomes a way to tell some of the stories that illustrate community in downtown Lewiston.