It's a "Neighborhood" Thang...
Having grown up in Philly's forest of row homes, whenever I see a single family dwelling, that always cried out to me that someone had finally "made it".
To have a STAND-ALONE house...with a REAL lawn, and a REAL garage, and even a REAL garden meant that the "American Dream" was still alive and doing well.
And when I moved here to Fort Wayne, and my wife and I had the opportunity to snag the in-laws house, it seemed like the "right" thing to do. After all, the house was originally titled in 1945, sat on a corner lot, was well maintained, and wasn't more than what we were looking for.
Sounds like a PLAN, right?
At first, it honestly DID.
Today, after nearly TWELVE (long) years...not so much.
Sure, I still like the house...I've come to even call it home to some degree, and I do like the layout, and the basement, and the garage, and I really get into tending the garden during the summer. In fact, I come to look forward to our garden, and planting things around the property. Couldn't really do that back in Philly with all the concrete around. Our "lawn" there (if you can call it that) was a patch above our wall that consisted of a 12x12 area of grass...that was IT.
Great place to take your guinea pig for a stroll.
Here, I've got lawn up the wazoo...on THREE sides (being that corner lot).
Now, I wanted to preface today's post by mentioning these things.
Let's take the fact that my neighborhood has changed drastically over the last decade. WE are but a mere handful of (for lack of a better term) "holdouts" that have NOT left the area.
Others have left due to family circumstances, others have passed away, and still others got fed up with the way the area was headed and bugged the hell out.
Well...looks like I "made it" (like all those people I envied over the years), but making it doesn't mean the "End of Trail" I expected.
Living here today IS a challenge...physically, mentally, and psychologically.
When you have people all around you that are societal "sharks", (and by that I mean they consume anything and everything, and give NOTHING back to society) it's all you can do to keep the beast from out of the boat. And (as anyone that has seen JAWS would note) GETTING A BIGGER BOAT isn't really in the cards under such circumstances.
What is needed is shark repellent...in SOME form.
Now, I'll be the first one to tell you that having a corner property isn't all it's cracked up to be, in spite of the fact that I, personally, always thought otherwise. Perhaps in NICER neighborhoods, developments, and the like, corner lots ARE still coveted.
But not here.
Having a corner lot is like hanging a huge sign that says: FREE DUMP, or LOITERING PERMITTED, or even OKAY TO HONK. Now I know it's not MY doing, so it must be those Aborigines around me that feel that way.
I thought about asking the city to place a sign along the property that would state there would be a fine for dumping, but knowing THESE people, they'd take it to mean that the area would be FINE FOR DUMPING, and would proceed as they do now.
You cannot get over on such people, because society has been overly tolerant of their behavior to the point that aberrations are considered NORMAL (for them).
Tolerance (of anything or anyone) can only go SO FAR, before it stops being a productive aspect of any society, and begins to be a millstone about it's neck.
Welcome to my neighborhood.
I stated so often here that the "neighbors" have this entitlement mentality. Hell, everything's been GIVEN to them for so long (at YOUR expense) that they EXPECT it to keep on coming, like some ever-flowing river of milk and honey.
They always have this "WHAT'S YOURS IS MINE, AND WHAT'S MINE IS MY OWN" persona.
And if you read the police blotter for our city, you can certainly see that such IS the case.
Officers have little time to do the type of police work that results in turning around neighborhoods. The best they can do (with the city administration running the show) is spend most any shift "chasing the radio".
Officers back when I was a kid spent a lot of time WALKING the neighborhoods, getting to know EVERYONE in their patrol sector. And that not only built some great community trust, but helped to ensure that the police were not people to be FEARED or HATED, but people that one could count on when there was trouble.
Today, there is more detachment, and I don't mean that in a bad way against the FWPD. They have no choice but to follow the dictates of whoever is "runnin' the show".
As a result, parts of our city have become "blighted", with little hope of rebounding.
The GOOD news is that most of the criminal element has been corralled into one specific part OF the city.
The BAD news is that it happens to be MY part of the city.
Over a THIRD of ALL the FWPD resources are spent in MY quadrant of the city.
And that's a LOT of resources, but we're still not seeing the results we should be.
Again, it's NOT the officers beating the street's fault.
They do one helluva job, given the task they choose to undertake.
Listen to a police radio or scanner for your city, or any city, and see what I mean.
Too much tolerance over too long a time.
Now, police have to play "catch-up", and in a more violent societal venue.
Still, I have some things at my disposal to be a burr under some local assholes' saddles.
I just got a NEW 5mW, 532nM (wavelength) green laser pointer to "tag" all those boomcars. And according to city ordinance, it's PERFECTLY OK to use one in this manner. As long as I don't point it at a city employee, official, law-enforcement officer (of ANY agency), I've pretty much got carte blanche to "annoy" those that have annoyed ME for lo, these many years..and in a lot more quiet manner..
I also have assorted airsoft and BB pistols, as well as my "pride and joy"...a .43 caliber P99 RAP4 CO2 Paintball Marker, that sends paintballs downrange at about 400FPS (courtesy of the fine people at Pyramid Air Gun Mall in Ohio)!
So, I'm loaded for boomcars and obnoxious people of ANY persuasion.
And I don't even have to break out the "big guns" (that I also have, just in case).
It's MY way of dealing with (certain) "people" that have been tolerated past the point of annoyance.
It's a (read MY) neighborhood thing...
This neighborhood IS a nice area...provided everyone else is ASLEEP.
I like to say the BEST time in my area for enjoying it is between 0600-1100. Any time after that, and you risk hearing boomcars, people yelling, cars driving recklessly, a gunshot now and then, or fireworks (and that season IS upon us,...AGAIN).
And so it continues...until after midnight, with little respite.
Curiously enough, it's not so much a "gun" thing, or a "boomcar" thing, or even a "fireworks" thing.
What it IS...is a PEOPLE thing.
It's the PEOPLE around us that have what I mentioned above.
What they LACK is even greater than what they ever could hope (or want) to have.
They lack responsibility. They lack accountability. They lack self worth. They lack a sense of pride. They lack morality. They lack ethics. They lack integrity.
And those are their GOOD traits.
Yeah, it's a neighborhood thing.
So it's not what we "traditionally" think of AS a ghetto, it's just a bit more HORIZONTAL than VERTICAL. But it is still replete with all the ingredients OF a ghetto. Just mix together and pour, folks.
I still hold out hope for this area, Sooner or later, it WILL turn around.
But I fear LATER is more in tune than SOONER.
We can be tolerant, but we must temper that tolerance with adherence to what is considered ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR in everyone...no exceptions.
It can work, if a city has the WILL to do so.
And as always...

Stay safe out there, America.