Monday Musings...
Anatomy of a Neighborhood.
Well, I've some time to kill while our roofing shingles are being delivered for our garage, so pour another cup of coffee while l get this Monday off and running for you, fair enough?
Everyone has a preconceived notion as to what a specific neighborhood will look like, even when they aren't planning to go there. We can blame the media for much of the perception of that, but we can also take time to listen to residents OF those neighborhoods. After all, they spend most (if not all) their time there, right?
And so it is with me.
I know that there is very little to write home about when my "home" happens to be in one of those "blighted areas" of Fort Wayne. But there IS a lot to blog about, especially when many of you cannot possibly conceive of the idea that so many people can act in such a reprehensible manner, as I have described here so often.
And yet they do.
There is no deficit when it comes to people to blame for the way things pan out in certain parts of this city, or any other city across this vast nation.
There just happens to be too many people with their "fingers in the pie", as it were.
We can blame the citizens themselves, whatever the color of their skin. After all, THEY are the ones with no sense of self, no pride in anything they have or do, cannot see past the moment, and hand out disrespect to anyone who is (in their eyes) not part of THEIR cadre like the government that hands out (fraudulent) welfare checks. And of course I speak about a small portion of the citizenry, and (fortunately) NOT the general populace.
They must have been brought up to believe that littering is fine, public urination is OK, and vandalizing other's property in quite the norm. They must have grown up with a hearing problem, because everything in their meaningless lives revolves around the word LOUD, be it the $hit-for-music they play at ear-bleeding levels, speech patterns that can be heard a half block away, or the lack of a muffler on their vehicles.
But that is only one facet of this issue.
We also have the housing problems.
Yesterday, fellow blogger Dan Turkette (AWB-Fort Wayne News) posted about the section 8 article in Sunday's paper. It's a good read, so take the time to view it. Section 8 is a CRIME MAGNET...period. I have first-hand experience dealing with the problems that rapidly follow a section 8 changeover to an otherwise NICE apartment complex (in Columbus, Ohio). And I can say from that experience that it is NOT for the faint of heart. Actually, it was a damn good precursor to "clue me in" as to what I would later come to expect in my current neighborhood in Fort Wayne.
There is no regulation when it comes to "low-income" housing, and the section 8 aspect only helps to move the problem to OTHER areas of a city, by allowing people to have a house in nicer areas (which if not checked will be come the latest ghetto).
When low-income housing represents 10% (or less) of the entire area, crime tends to stay static, but when that number rises, crime seems to grow exponentially. I know (again from experience) that many people will just tuck tail and LEAVE the area (bugging out), not wishing to deal with the problems many low-income renters or residents bring with them. This is not to say that ALL are bad. Such is not the case. Many have fallen on hard times and are trying to regroup for another shot at life.
We have societal problems out the a$$ as well, such as the drug problems in the inner city (now coming to a suburb near you) which spurs on the crime problems. Since most low-income families "tend" to be ethnic, I would be remiss to NOT mention that (for example) the highest incidence of crimes AGAINST blacks is committed BY blacks. The DOJ reports that blacks have the highest "crime against" stats of every race in this nation. Apparently there is this small portion of the black population that preys on anyone for any reason.
Far be it for me to call ALL blacks "bad".
That just isn't so. Some of my BEST friends (and coworkers) were black
We DO have our share of wonderfully WHITE TRASH as well. You can never lump everyone of ANY race into ONE basket and make it work. But the statistics will reveal that there is a problem in certain ethnic communities, none the less.
One curious thing, is that whatever leadership those communities (claim to) have is woefully inadequate to address the problems. And that will cause any neighborhood to decline faster than the Dow-Jones whenever OPEC farts!
Many would argue that I don't KNOW "the experience" and that I don't understand. Well, I still have eyes and ears, and I can create a hypothesis based on what my senses tell me about people. And my education tells me that what (and who) I see is counterproductive to any thriving area of any city. It's the ANTITHESIS of what a normal society should be striving for, plain and simple.
Trouble is, I'm NOT OK with that (like everyone else seems to be around here). I can't accept bad behavior as GOOD behavior, no matter HOW HARD I try. And neither should any of you. We are advised to be "tolerant", but that should never mean we have to TOLERATE aberrations in societal behavior, calling them acceptable in the process.
We can also blame the police, but not for the reason you would think. They may be understaffed, under educated (regarding the subtle nuances of a given area) or they may be too busy avoiding frivolous lawsuits to effectively police the streets. They may have a few yahoos in the department that overreact when no reaction is warranted at all.
They do the best they can with what they have to work with. There are officers that believe in what they do just as there are officers that will just "punch the clock". After all, so many of them DO NOT LIVE in our area, just "work" here.
I, on the other hand DO live here.
We can blame the city leaders for their short-sightedness in seeing issues (in their infancy) and ignoring them, allowing them to fester like the societal infections they have become. The developers who are lured to other parts of town, forsaking a certain area because of it's "problems" and wind up building everywhere else doesn't help that "blighted" area one damn bit. It all adds up even if it's a missed trash pickup, a street light that goes unrepaired, or the code violations that are never reported or acted upon.
Lastly, we can blame those citizens that have given up on the area. The people who have shed the satin robe of caring for the sackcloth tunic of apathy and in doing so, have given that neighborhood over to those that only wish to bring it down further.
And the people that wind up controlling these areas are predatory users only. They will strip an area of ALL it's resources through whatever means...and after their consumption is finished, they will look to their NEXT neighborhood that they can gobble up. And some decent people are alarmingly fine with that. And that is scary to see that happen. They simply stop giving a damn. So what reasons do any decent people have to remain, other than ones founded in principle?
Yes, it's the old "We like banging our heads against the wall, because it feels SO damn good when we stop" syndrome. And many days, it taxes one's resolve.
What we can glean from this is that ANY neighborhood has the potential for longevity and can grow, OR can turn from a once nice, quaint area where Grandma used to live into a next boil on a city's ass that needs to be lanced.
I can only show you what happens here. I can only relay the foibles, the vicissitudes, and the players in this daily drama within the city's confines. But without actually living here and experiencing it "up close and personal", you will develop a preconceived notion as to what this area IS all about.
I just tell you things "as it is".
And the apple won't fall far from the tree in that regard.
When I convey the daily routines in my area, I'm not doing it to entertain, but to inform.
It should be a motivating factor to change things around for the better once again, so that every single person that wants a good neighborhood is able to have one.
And I don't think it's all that impossible to realize.