General Jeff

From OZY -

THE 'MAYOR' OF SKID ROW WANTS TO BRING DOWN THE WHOLE SYSTEM
By Jemayel Khawaja

General Jeff, legally known as Jeff Page, was a three-sport athlete at Compton High School and a pioneering contributor to the West Coast hip-hop scene in the early 1990s, performing as a DJ and in pop-and-lock dance troupes, and mingling with the likes of Snoop Dogg and DJ Quik. After trying and failing to mediate peace between the Crips and Bloods in his hometown of South LA, Page fell upon hard times in 2006. “I was homeless in South Central Los Angeles, sleeping in abandoned houses, warehouses, outdoors,” he tells me. “Burnt out, down and out, I showed up on Skid Row rolling a suitcase with some clothes, an Akai drum machine and a thousand dollars in my sock.” He felt like Skid Row could use his help. “I know it was an extreme thing to do,” he says. “I have no idea where the impetus came from.”

Page moved to a single room occupancy building on Skid Row within months. In the meantime, he familiarized himself with “the lingo, the movements, the thought process” of his new neighbors, looking for a way to improve the lives of the people around him. He noticed streetlights were broken, which created a dark and dangerous atmosphere at night and paved the way for unsavory activities. After manually gathering data on the lights, Page ambushed the head of the Bureau of Street Lighting with his findings. Two days later, government trucks rolled up to repair the broken lights. “I felt really good that day,” Page recollects. “That night — lights! We could see! The drug dealers were pissed!”

http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/the-mayor-of-skid-row-wants-to-bring-down-the-whole-system/70838