Yesterday afternoon, my father and I attended a Memorial Service for our neighbor, Robert A. Little, an architect known for his modern 1950s style that focused on people and who passed away at age 89. On our private cul-de-sac road with “common ground,” I remember Bob Little for his community spirit and enthusiasm of hosting neighorhood Christmas parties and judging vegetable sculpture contests at Labor Day picnics.

I learned more about Bob when his long time partner, Bob A. Madison shared his memories of Bob.  In the 1940s when segregation was still commonplace in many states, Bob Madison, an Afro American, graduated from architecture school and was turned down for many jobs.  Bob Little hired Madison — along with shunned Jewish architects because, as Madison put it, “It was the right thing to do.”

My family, of Chinese descent, was the first non-white family to be welcomed by the small coterie of neighbors on this private street.  Life was simpler in our suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, where neighbors practiced what was right.

I guess NYDOS officials didn’t grow up with the same influences teaching them the right thing to do.

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