As I briefly mentioned three men were charged as suspects for Robbery 1 in Northern Truxton (1700 blk of NJ and 200 blk of R). This hopefully will put an end to the robbery spree that was experienced lately. In the BACA meeting (I’ll make an attempt to put the notes up today- notes are up user-thismeeting pwd- neverhappened) the police officer (either Ofc Babcock or McCollough) noted that crime is down. Um, yay.
The problem is although crime statistically may be down, but the feeling of safety hasn’t exactly spiked up. And one of the conclusions I came to during the meeting is some of the things that don’t make me feel at ease aren’t exactly illegal. Teenagers sauntering down the street emulating the thug/ gangsta hoochie momma image yelling profanities and loudly rapping the most profane lyrics, not exactly illegal. Some people just exude and cultivate an air of negativity that you can feel.
The question of is this Shaw/Truxton a safe neighborhood, usually comes from other women. My answer has been, and is, this is an urban neighborhood, not the suburbs. Also I’m not going to say, and you are not going to make me say, ‘oh, this is a bad neighborhood,’ because I live here. If you ask do I feel safe? It could be better, but I’m fine. I do not dread walking home (unless it is in this oppressive heat). If it is late at night, I may take a bus or a cab. Not owning a car, having an employer who does the Metrochecks, and biking, my transportation costs are pretty low, even with the occasional cab ride.
There are shifting degrees of safety I feel. I don’t think I’ve ever felt unsafe, well maybe except for that one time when the woman with the dog kept following me, that freaked me out. I try to be aware of my surroundings, I walk like I know where I’m going, and I try to reduce my risk, because this area is what it is, and slowly it has and will get better.
Tag: quality of life
Characters unWelcome
I handed the keys back to Matt, because I finally got all my crap out of their house. On the way there and on the way back to my own house I had to deal with the ‘characters’ that populate Scott & Matt’s block. Anyway, during my stay over in the center of the TC I noticed the amount of ‘commentary’ from the characters I had to deal with was high, or higher than over on the western end of the TC.
What was said, voiced, whatever ranged from a general friendly hello to, depending on the situation, like on my bike, ‘hey can I get a ride?’ I didn’t find any of this stuff threatening, just annoying, particularly after the 3rd character. My only danger, I felt, was from spraining my eyes from them rolling in the back of my head. Maybe it was annoying since it was all male commentary. I’m wondering if the women I passed by were just as friendly, would it take a different spin or interpretation. Also maybe if the stupid commentary, with no baby/honey/ boo crap, was rare and there was more of the simple friendly acknowledgement of ‘hello’, I might have viewed it a different way too.
Staying in another part of the TC was informative. Each block is different with its own set of pluses and minuses.
East of 16th St, East of 11th, an observation
There are certain populations, manners, patterns… things I notice when I pass 16th Street, the great dividing line. I sometimes see the, I don’t know what to call it, feeling or sense that I pick up on when I pass 16th shifting over to 14th St. Well, one Sunday ride from church, I noticed a gesture that I thought would be more 16th-17th St, maybe 14th, but to see it east of 11th, was something. Two gentlemen were walking arm in arm, obviously a couple, and apparently at ease with their surroundings. It’s not the only, I still don’t have a word for it, thing that I sense/feel (gad I’m hating my vocab right now) that has shifted over from Dupont past the magic 16th St barrier.
Passive aggressive?
Sometimes direct confrontation is not the answer. In certain situations direct confrontation may possibly make the situation worse. That’s just my opinion and the conclusion I came to yesterday regarding teenagers hanging out.
It’s Summer so the kids on the block and their friends are all hanging out, running up and down the sidewalk like chickens with their heads cut off. These aren’t wide houses so bands of kids can randomly wind up in front of your house screaming at each other, loudly gossiping, hitting, flirting, boasting, and carrying on. I want them to move on. Directly, asking a band of kids, particularly when they are bragging about how tough they are, to move, maybe not a good idea. So instead I sat on my stoop and read the paper. If I were really annoyed, and wanted them gone quicker, I’d water the treebox or weed the treebox (which would involve fistfulls of dirt flying all over).
Kids will be kids and I’m not exactly at the ‘children should be seen and not heard’ state of mind, yet, but I’ll be glad when school starts up.
Two steps forward, 1.5 steps side and back
There have been a couple of things I have been alerted to happening in the hood that has disappointed me. Up in the northern tip of the TC there was a rash of home robberies and in mid TC land bad apples have brought back flashbacks of a certain couple of blocks concentrating poverty and misbehavior. Then the annual question of ‘fireworks or gunfire?’ that pops up around this point in the year is actually a mixed bag, because the fireworks seem to have started later this year. The negatives put a damper on all the good that is going on, but in the bigger picture I know the TC is getting better.