When I purchased my townhouse in the very early 80,s the association property was bordered by a pig farm, some houses, and a small school stood across the street. Two large apartment complexes later we are now gated in. I say we are gated in because the fencing does not keep anyone out it just makes it harder to get out. Our neighboorhood has gone from a quite one of mixed ethnicity one to a sometimes violent one – with a lot of racial tension. We have been there and done that when talking about the bloods and the crips. We have seen a mother riddled with bullets laying in the main drive three doors down, numerous childern jumped into gangs, and the getto bird (helicopter) flying overhead everynight. We have answered our door to find a youngman pointing a gun at our faces.
Many of the long time neighboors moved, I believe they called it white flight. The unfortunate few who could not afford to leave and those of us who refused to leave remained. We organized neighboorhood watches, we fought back, we finally figured out that the police were no help. We formed calling list chains. We held programs on bicycle safety to get the young children and their parents out so we could meet them. We held neighboorhood barbeques with free food and music. Did any of it work? I hope so.
The gangs have moved south. Younger couples have begun purchasing homes in our neighboorhood again. Yards are well kept now and every once in awhile you see a family sitting out in their front yard enjoying a nice night. It is looking up. We only hear gunshots every once in awhile instead of everynight. It took over ten years to get to where we are now. A nice quite mixed neighboorhood.
There is a new crowd of young people entering their teenage years. They are starting to get noisy, not normal teenage noise but the loud cussing slang violent verbage type of loud. I hope that this is not turning back again into the hell we all experienced. I am too old to fight the good fight again. To tired of it all. If it goes where I think we are heading I too will probably rent my townhouse and move. That really sucks.
Saturday around ten after six in the evening a young man was shot at an intersection that I have to drive through a lot. The police think he was shot because of the color of his shirt. He is not involved in any gang activity, has a family, he just was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong color shirt on. Today I took the long way back from the veterinarian to avoid the intersection because there have been sirens and the ghetto bird in the area the last few nights.
And, so it begins. ..