Donna Whitfield knows her son wasn’t a saint, but he wasn’t a devil either, and he did not deserve to be gunned down on the streets of Homewood by a teen he didn’t even know.

He was in a good place things were going good,” she said. “He was up the street just shooting pool. I miss him. I love him. It’s a great pain to lose a child. But it’s a greater pain to think that this kid believes he can just take a life—and his sorry mother won’t even say she’s sorry for her sorry son.”

HOLDING ON— Donna Whitfield hangs on to the flyer announcing her slain son’s funeral.

Stefan Whitfield, 34, of Wilkinsburg, was smoking marijuana with an acquaintance outside the now closed Mac Can Do bar on Brushton Avenue when 19-year-old Julian Larkins began firing at them. Whitfield’s friend was grazed by a bullet before he made it around the corner. Whitfield didn’t get that far, he fell to the sidewalk with a fatal wound to the head.

Operation Better Block is on a mission to conduct 1,000 surveys through the month of November to find out what Homewood residents want to see in their community. To date, with a staff of less than 20, the group has talked to more than 700 people, with just one week left to go.

So far, abandoned homes have climbed to the top of the list of issues. Second in priority has been the problem of crime and violence in the neighborhood.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH —Khalif Ali interviews Sarah Curry who grew up in Homewood and recently returned to the area.

“Quite frankly we expected that crime and violence would be on the survey. We didn’t expect crime and violence to come in second to doing something with the abandoned houses,” said OBB assistant director Evans Moore. “That was a little bit of a shock.”

In one of his last acts as a Pittsburgh Public School director, Randall Taylor warned an audience of East End parents, teachers and interested residents to be wary of another round of school closings.

“In 1997, I came in during a storm of reconfiguration, and I’m leaving the same way,” he said. “And we still can’t seem to get it right.”

STAY VIGILANT— Outgoing school director Randall Taylor tells parents not to think the latest recommendation to close schools is just “a tool” or a talking point.

Taylor’s remarks came during a Nov. 23 town hall meeting he convened with fellow School Director Mark Brentley Sr. and a panel that included veteran education activist Wanda Henderson,  Annette Werner, Parents United for Responsible Education Reform and NAACP education chair Marilyn Barnett to address a consultant’s recommendation earlier this month to close 15 schools including two high schools.