Humpday Happenings...
Today is "Get a new roof" day...finally. After two aborted attempts thanks to Indiana weather, the guys are outside making our house look better than most every OTHER house around my area...not that it isn't easy to do considering all the HOVELS we have to choose from around our humble abode.
Actually I can make our house look better than most all the others in our neighborhood JUST by standing outside and smiling...LOL!
And doing that also makes the neighborhood's average IQ jump markedly.
But I digress...
Last night was the "Night Out Against Crime", and the media was saying we should put on our porch lights as a sign to criminals. Well, I haven't a porch light, but the front steps light works just fine, thank you. And I tend to put it on EVERY damn night, as a "sign" to criminals. Actually MY sign says "PRIVATE PROPERTY - KEEP OUT".(my other sign says "The Ghetto Stops HERE").
And the "second finger salute" makes a nice "sign" as well, when warranted, and that might include a pistol on the hip.
"It's pretty much how I say hello to everyone these days". (gratuitous Punisher movie plug)
Now, I was hoping that I'd see SOMETHING in the paper or on TV about some neighborhood association doing something on the SE side of town on the NOAC (night out against crime). Didn't see word ONE. And if my part of town had something...well, they kept it DAMN WELL HIDDEN from the media!
I DID see that both the NORTHWEST side and the SOUTHWEST side had activities, including police displays and free food.
Imagine that.
Here's the link to the national website:

http://www.nationaltownwatch.org/nno/

Curious, that on the on the ONE side of town where crime prevention is sorely NEEDED...nothing. Zip, zero, nada, nothing.
Now that speaks VOLUMES to me about the level of CONCERN in MY part of Fort Wayne.
It speaks to me that there is little if ANY, really.
Now I suppose that the FWPD or the ACSD "could" have fronted some kind of events for the families and kids down here, but considering that the neighborhood associations are smaller than most, in spite of the fact that this part of the city has the highest population density overall, it makes a good argument as to the state of affairs down here.
I said to the wife I could have had an "event"...I COULD have just sat on my step with my 12 gauge pump across my knees and smile at everyone that walks by, and if they say anything, I could do a "demo" of my own!
Still....it's pathetic to think that NO ONE had anything regarding the NOAC on the SE side.
I suppose that the Community-Oriented Policing ain't "cutting the muster" down here these days.
Oh, wait...I keep forgetting...you need a COMMUNITY that GIVES A DAMN first....THEN the COP program will work (as it does in decent neighborhoods across this fair city). Silly me, what WAS I thinking?
I have to say that EVERY NIGHT is a night out against crime around here. Hell, just ask people like Phil Marx about that. It's more like a YEAR OUT AGAINST CRIME...every damn year. And those all too few of us that won't allow such criminals to storm our bastions are the ONLY ones that care.
We know the city doesn't care all that much OR we would see more being done, and not some "pie-in-the-sky" development in the Hanna-Creighton area for housing that costs between $100K-$200K that very few low income people can afford.
And if that Section 8 voucher program is doing it's "thang", then people would move to a better area (like maybe the rich sides of town, where many of them can entertain others instead of US), and leave MY part of town to rot quietly away like most of Detroit is doing as we speak. If the city would get their asses in gear and RAZE a lot of these condemned and dilapidated properties, there would be a lot less places for these thugs to "play", and a lot more room for me to enjoy. Ne nice to have about THREE houses per block around here...real nice.
But as long as the city ALLOWS overgrown foliage to mask the hovels these dubious renters are infesting, I don't see much change presenting itself. Nor do I see this neighborhood becoming re-RE-gentriified into something the city can be PROUD of, instead of being ASHAMED of. That's what "blighted" means.
Like I have said too many times before...spend the (less) money to purchase and renovate these houses (many are architecturally unique), place some vets, gays, handicapped, military personnel, or even some seniors into them, and start reaping the benefits that better clientele would bring to THIS part of Fort Wayne.
It does have the novelty of never having been tried before.
And...it would most definitely deter crime to no small degree.
It's a win-win all around for everyone.
C'mon, City Hall...when WILL you stop ignoring the alarm and wake the hell up?
The coffee's burning, and the dog needs to go out.
Start caring.
We promise it's not painful.