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if: in avoidance
tuesday, april 30, 2002



if you felt the need to avoid someone who lived or worked near your home, how much inconvenience would you put up with? what could you do to make the situation less of a hassle for yourself?

this is not an 'if' question for me, this is reality. i live in the nightmare neighborhood, the one with the drugees and gang bangers and prostitutes and punk kids. the one you don't go through at night unless you have 2 or 3 people with you and even then you only go through if you're in a car. i hate this place. it didn't use to be this bad. ih we still had drugees and all that, but the cops drove at random through our back ally 3 or 4 times a day. they kept an eye on the area. now we're abandoned and left to our fate: a disintegrating neighborhood in a disintegrating city.

and i hate it.

this wasn't my first choice, really. but when your on the low-income housing list, there's not much to choose from and you're only allowed to turn down 2 places total. it didn't seem that bad when we first moved in, and the price couldn't be beat: $150 for a 4 bedroom, 2 story townhouse. i got to know a few neighbors then, but, as the neighborhood became less patrolled and more delinquentand people moved out and more people moved in, i became less and less social.

avoidance is easy: call the cops when the punks mess with you or your family. don't talk to your neighbors. don't get involved in the fights. hear a gunshot, call the police. leave to go to school, come home and don't gi back out unless you have to. fortunately, homework keeps me too busy to really go anywhere anyway. when we do go out, we take a bus to the furthest mall or walk to the movie theater (when we can afford it). my husband knows one of our neighbors, but i don't really want to know anyone here. my kids are advised to leave the other kids alone - don't talk to them, don't play with them, and definitely don't hang out with them. their scene isn't our scene and i don't want them caught up in any trouble because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. it's hard on them, but it's also best for them. i protect my kids, anyone messes with them, i call the cops.

i hate my neighborhood and my only involvement is self-protection.


site of the moment:
bonni.net
site of the moment:
special*k
word of the moment: ceilinged

adjective form of ceiling: the overhead inside lining of a room; an overhanging shelter or a lofty canopy; the height above the ground from which objects on the ground can be seen and identified; an upper prescribed limit