Frankie Pace is a fighter.

For well over 40 years, this gray haired, fiery senior citizen has been fighting to improve the condition of her community, the Hill District.

As the head of the Citizens Committee for Hill District Renewal, she has made it her business to find out what was going on in the community.

Frankie Pace is a type of examiner.

She is constantly testing, questioning those who have the responsibility of providing services to the black community.

And some of her biggest concerns are the functions of the multifaceted Hill House Center.

At the end of the month, they're going to get a big paycheck and everything.

But seeing this so, you know, so while I'm going on up there, but see, I'm concerned about people and I want more people who are fortunate enough to have these places to not just get satisfied when you get you got to be concerned about the masses.

This is my concern.

I'm not saying that you are not, but, you know, you want for structure and you can talk, but so loud.

You know what?

Talking with you on the when you know you like you know this United Way ain't going to let you say but so much.

And but I think you can say to some of these other people in here to get out here and do some things and get out in this community.

Don't make them staff comfortable behind these nice, pretty white desk.

Get out and put some shoe leather in the street.

Get in this hill and tell the people what's going on.

You know that I told them that what I went through here the other day.

Well, you see, Mrs.

Pace, if you can slow down just one moment.

Ill stop a minute, we might we might talk about some of the positive things.

Hello, Mrs.

Dee, this is Miss Pace.

How you doing?

From her little music store on Center Avenue, the heart of the hill district.

Mrs.

Pace keeps her finger on the pulse of the black community.

She maintains that her citizens Counsel was necessary even though there are other funded programs mandated to serve the same purposes.

Why is there even the need for a little desk and a telephone housed in your small music store here on Central Avenue?

Be surprised what is done from this little dais and this one phone that we have to pay from volunteer money.

We do more work here than most of these agencies.

That's getting millions of dollars and that, I'm not accepting any.

When you walk the streets of Central Avenue in the Hill district, what are the most disturbing problems to you?

Well, I think the the most disturbing problems to me now is, we have so many dilapidated houses that's all boarded up, rat infested.

And where people can just throw the debris and things and that, the the city is moving very slowly on these buildings.

They are tearing some of them down, but it's just in spots there.

Ten on a through here and it through there and and just leave it makes it the neighborhood look bad.

See, this is the trouble here.

They have these old buildings and they want lots of money for them.

And people just don't, don't have that to, to give.

And this is what they want for this.

Now, this is one of our most progressive businesses here.

Course you know, this is the Bean filling station.

And Mr.

Bean keeps this nice and clean.

Mr.

Bean's a fine man, a great contributor to everything.

I've never asked him for anything for the community, a church, that he failed to give it.

He's a fine.

He's a fine person.

Very, very, very good.

And he does a tremendous people come from from buy gas.

But that's the way you get your customers when you do these.

This is the West business absentee landlord there.

See where those boards are so you can see how it's going down.

This is what happened to many of the other buildings here with the absentee landlord.

What would you say that you that there's not too many things going on in this community that you wouldn't know about?

Not too many, if anything comes in this community and I don't know what it is.

I walk in and say, what's going on here?

If it's good, you can stay.

If it's bad, you have to get out See, this is what disturbs me.

When you see something like this all boarded up and everything.

This is what depreciates your neighborhood.

Now, this was a building here torn out.

But you see how they dump on these things?

See, these are the things that upsets me and I. And when Frankie surveys the streets of Center Avenue, she is invariably stopped by residents who need her help and support.

And now we got to help the department, the city and the staff member think this ought to be out of here.

Somebody come on and see if they should get this out of here.

This is really terrible.

And I and some of these business people throw some of this in here.

I invited to come by to see them.

And they wont talk.

That's where I'm telling you.

Nobody wants to.

You know who you know that this everybody gets my all around you.

That's right.

That's all.

It's crazy good that might see them telling me.

Yeah.

But they don't want to.

Thats exactly That's exactly what I was telling you.

You have no help up here, no kind of help.

That's what I was telling.

If I get 25 people, we can turn things complete around.

Mrs.

Pace has represented the Hill district in well over 25 major community organizations.

Whether a problem concerns a daycare or senior citizens.

Frankie is there and having her say, as she does here with John Turner and Daniel Chappelle from Community Action Pittsburgh.

What we are trying to say Mrs.

Pace, is that the senior citizens, they will operate they will not have any senior citizens.

This is what the Senior Citizens Committee will say who will be hired.

We have active committee, but you don't, Mr.

Turner.

You know, we have a lot of senior citizens that are able to work and hold a job that could run a program because because the senior citizens they are not.

So they can want to do anything.

So don't you go get some young person with some way out ideas over these senior people.

If you do, I'm coming down again.

You ain't gonna have a senior citizen program.

- The senior citizens committee will decide that.

Cause I am going to break it up.

That senior citizen committee will decide it.

Why don't you come to the committee?

But you have it at 10:00 in the morning, so I can't come up.

I have to be in my store.

But you can leave your store for a few minutes and come down here to the meeting.

But I'm not going to.

I'm out here today from Barstow to bring you down here.

Well, I might have to do that.

You know, even though you're a Christian and, you know, the Lord himself got angry at times when people do so much, you do get angry.

But I have always been able to control my self, to say anything that I have said some hard words but I've always said not.

I don't think they were bad words, but you have to say that even in the church you have meetings where you have to say these, and if you are out in the community, you really got to stand up.

You've got to do this.

If you don't you just been a failure.

You just got a blast away sometime.

And I feel maybe I might not live to see it but I feel that one day this here is going to be a beautiful place and a beautiful place where my people can live.

And I think that although we have problems and I wouldn't deny that like all communities and we have many problems, but I think somebody is going to come long dedicated enough to join and that we are going to bring this back to what it should be.