“We are the first Somali generation,” Abdullahi said. “Probably our kids, they won’t do this — they’ll be more integrated into society.”
Some of the men are there at 5:30 am when the Starbucks opens; some continue to sit out front even after the store closes at 10 pm. If someone doesn’t show up for a few days, the others will call to check up on him. If someone is out of work or new to America, they offer advice, and more. A few years ago, they dug into their own pockets and reached out to others on the Internet, raising $75,000 for the widow of a friend who had lived across the street and died of cancer.
“We help each other for free,” said Ebi Najdi, 45, one of the scene’s founding fathers, who started coming in 1997. “Because when they give people green cards, they don’t teach people how they are going to get jobs, how they’re going to get licenses, how they are going to get Social Security numbers, which school is cheaper to learn English, how you are going to buy a car.”
Some of the baristas are also immigrants. Musa Kamara, 22, moved from Freetown, Sierra Leone, eight years ago. “You know, most places in Africa, it’s like this,” he said. “There’s not too much work there, so they hang out all the time.”
To Mohammed Abdelilah, president of the Moroccan American Community Organization, the scene represents a stepping stone in the transition to American life. “In New York, years ago, the Italians would sit with their coffee and cheesecake and cannoli and sit with their neighbors, and I think that’s what neighborhood is all about.”
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