Rosaland McCoy reflects on her life growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina and the Optimist Park neighborhood where she has lived since 1989. She contrasts her own deprived childhood with the stable lives of her children and grandchildren. Ms. McCoy describes changes in the Optimist Park neighborhood due to gentrification, recent at the time of interview, which has brought newly developed apartment complexes and increased racial diversity. Although she believes the new housing stock is too expensive for many residents, she notes that the neighborhood is now safer with less crime as a result of increased police surveillance. Ms. McCoy also discusses the historical background of Optimist Park as a site for the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project in 1987, when fourteen Habitat for Humanity houses were built. She notes that her own house was named for Habitat founder Millard Fuller.
