This really happened. To me. This morning.

Me: [getting on a bus I've never taken before, speaking to driver] Do you go to BART? Fruitvale BART?

Bus driver lady: Uh-uh, no.

Me: You don't go to BART?

Bus driver lady: [exasperated] Yes I go to BART!

Me: Sorry, I didn't hear you the first time.

Bus driver lady: [no trace of humor, joshing, etc] I said no the first time, but I go to BART.

Me: Ok thanks! [running meekly to the back of the bus]

Anyway, aside from sassy humorless bus drivers, there was encouragement for me this morning as I rode down Fruitvale Ave. I passed a Centro de Juventud which I think was a Youth Center, and a Clinica de Jovenes, which I think was a teen clinic (across the street from a larger clinic, but run by the same organization, La Clinica) and a school called Urban Promise Academy with a wicked graffiti/mural of empowered young people on the front. Seeing these things gives me hope, and reporting them here fits with the mission of Ode magazine (see below)--to point out that there IS good news in the world every day, as well as bad news. I don't know much about these groups, programs or organizations, but seeing that there are safe and accessible recreation, health and education resources in the Fruitvale district is encouraging. I'm sure they're not enough to meet the need in the area, and I don't mean that this should give us a sense of complacency, because there's plenty still to be done. But for everyone who's out there doing things, maybe this can make us/them feel a little less lonely and hopeless to see that other people are also out there doing things and having what looks like success.