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  1. “@ Cobble, really? Someone types something that isn’t all fucking roses and they don’t “sound happy here”? Are people supposed to walk through life and ignore shit ALL the time and makes absolutely no sense (e.g. the disparity between rent and quality of life in a neighborhood).

    Well. Yeah, ishtar. I’ve been reading your comments for awhile now, and I hear you talk about “the element” and your comments today, etc. And I think you sound, to me, like you are fairly unhappy in your environment. I’m not telling you to ignore it, I’m just asking you if you might not be happier or more comfortable someplace else. You seem to find my question to be offensive, but it was an honest observation and question.

  2. I was thinking about your story the other day, donatella, given that I lived around the corner from there much later.
    I’m not sure whether I would have lived in the city at all if I moved to NYC in 1984 instead of 1999. At least not to the ‘city’ parts of the city. Hear so many stories like yours and I would not have felt good about my mom or sister coming to stay with me if the city was still like that.
    It always seems that people I know who grew up in the inner parts of NYC stick to their own neighborhoods still and don’t venture elsewhere that much. Especially in Manhattan.

  3. Rob, you talk like everyone here thinks drug traffic is hunky dory, or an inevitable part of life here. We don’t. For the record, I’ve seen some stuff in my time, but I have never seen a crack whore offering herself to all comers on this neighborhood. I’ve seen some folk who look pretty messed up, but they’re certainly not soliciting in broad daylight here in Crown Heights North. Now, I’m not naieve enough to think that that has never happened here, or that I see all and know all, but I’m just saying for the record, I haven’t seen it in my neighborhood. Ever. Painting a picture of this neighborhood with that brush is just not accurate. Crown Heights is not a neighborhood whose streets are full of drugged out junkies stumbling down the street like some bad zombie movie.

    Secondly, you have to remember that for the longest time, policing in this neighborhood was a joke. This resulted in carte blanche dirty doings, probably a lot of under the table graft and corruption, and a law abiding populace that complained loudly and often, without much result. I’ve been to precinct council meetings. Believe me, people around here care just as much as they do in any higher income neighborhood about drugs and drug violence. Because it’s not the yuppie kids dying out here in the streets, it’s the kids in the projects, in the apartment buildings, the innocent kids coming back from church and school who get caught in crossfires, mistaken identity, and general wrong time, wrong place scenarios. It’s only been recently that the police have started to crack down on the dealers dealing right in front of them, and closed down the storefronts that they used. It’s getting better here, and people are supporting police action. We should have had it years ago. We are not blase about the crime in our neighborhood.

  4. quote:
    DH, lemme tell you, taking the M away from PS has resulted in some seriously overburdened R trains. And wait until school starts…

    UGH! i forgot about that!!! i was in favor of free student metrocards for kids, but now i am totally against it. tho i never really see too many students on the train in the morning on the R. are there that many? i guess maybe i never noticed when the train used to be unpacked.

    *rob*

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