Comments on: Thoughts on Style Weekly’s Barton Heights article

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 29 May 2010 01:43:55 +0000

Let’s face it: the underlying issue here is that Mo thinks she’s hard for living in a black neighborhood and doesn’t want yuppies coming in and ruining all of the edge.

By: Jim Budziszewski

Jim Budziszewski — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:56:02 +0000

I’d like to address something that was omitted from this article that I personally feel is important. The majority of my conversation with Scott centered on my outlook on the neighborhood which he suggested (and I admitted) was quite different take from what other newer neighbors reported. I should point out that my experiences only reflect from mid-June of ’09 to now compared to others residing here from 1.5 to 6 years or more.

Admittedly along with being a bit naïve and tending to look for the good rather than the bad around me, I’m also a single guy without a wife or kids to look out for. That in itself may alter my perception of what’s going on around me and my neighborhood. Unless I have an obvious reason to fret I’m not going to since I feel I can take care of myself and only need to take care of myself. This has worked well for me over the years and I see no reason to change now. It should also be understood that I in no way discount or make light of anyone else’s personal experiences or perceptions in the same neighborhood and am only expressing my own based on my own experiences.

I felt I explained in depth to Scott that I haven’t personally experienced the same things regarding the drug houses or blatant open exchanges as others have. I did admit my annoyance with the CDC parties but that’s moot considering the previous owner went bankrupt so it’s no longer a neighborhood issue although I will admit a need for a local community center. Initially after being made aware of drug houses, loitering, etc., both by new and older neighbors, I did look for and even considered what I saw as possible issues, but for the most part I haven’t let my imagination run away with me and I haven’t actively looked for the things others might have routinely look for. Again, if it’s not potentially harming me or my neighbors it’s not a problem for me.

With the exception of one particular experience late one Friday night last summer where two different cars pulled up and briefly visited a house a few doors away from mine I haven’t seen what I could definitively call any kind of drug activity on my street. Yes I’ve seen a lot of activity consisting of folks hanging out, loitering and making noise but I honestly couldn’t assume anything illegal was happening.

I explained to Scott that my feelings of people hanging out in front yards, on porches, partying, dancing on the sidewalk, laughing and joking is just that….people hanging and having fun doing it. Yes sometimes it’s annoying but you’ll have that living within the boundaries of any city. I’m sure some of my neighbors are annoyed by my friends and family hanging out on my porch talking and listening to music while we sip (or in my case gulp) on alcoholic beverages. Unless I see some kind of obvious drug activity going on I just assume it’s folks hanging out. I see no need to call the police unless people are being very disruptive late at night or I see something that could actually be illegal or drug related.

My philosophy with dealing with my neighbors is to not make myself a target by causing trouble unless I have a very strong feeling what I’m seeing is potentially dangerous to me or those around me. If I see or hear something worrisome I won’t hesitate to call the police and report it, like I and others did Christmas night when gun shots rang out very close to our houses.

It took me longer than I’d like to admit to be in a position to buy an awesome house in what I consider an awesome neighborhood. I plan on staying here for a long time and would very much like to get along with and earn the respect of my neighbors rather than be looked at as a trouble-maker or have fingers pointed at me every time the police show up on the block for something.

I plan on continuing getting to know, look out for and learning to respect the differences of the people who surround me which hopefully will help them to eventually learn to respect and look out for me as one of their own. In my opinion that’s what makes a good neighborhood regardless of where it is or what goes on in the areas surrounding it.

Although I enjoyed the article and felt it was a really good piece I would have liked it better if Scott Bass would have included more of what I’ve just written (which is mostly what I remember talking about). I think including more of the above may give people a more balancing view of newer neighbors as a whole and lessened the overall tone of the article to one of “the older vs the newer” or even “black vs white” residents. Just my opinon. ;-)

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:51:58 +0000

Mo, you’re right. I don’t know you. You simply reminded me of myself from ten years ago when I had more time, words, passion, and energy. Though I’d say I’m still fairly young, I recognize how I use that time and those words differently now.

My take on what is happening here: this is more about systemic change within the civic association, generational differences from WWII/Boomers down to X/Y neighbors, and socio-economic differences (lower vs. middle) than white supremacy. I also don’t see upper middle class folks moving in. I’d say the newcomers are still strongly rooted in (what’s left of) the middle class in this country.

By: Mo Karn

Mo Karn — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:02:34 +0000

It is good that the issue about the basketball tournament has been clarified.
Although it still seems silly to call the cops about cars parked on the grass.
Hopefully we can all work on our communication and openness in the future.
If we can learn how to express ourselves in ways less likely to make others feel defensive we can have conversations instead of confrontations.

And Elizabeth, snide comments about my youth are unbecoming and unproductive. Argue against my positions if you disagree, but acting like they don’t count is immature and makes it difficult for us to talk. Pretty much no one appreciates patronizing attitudes or being talked down to. I don’t believe I know you, so it is clearly impossible for you to know all about my education, experiences, or reasoning. I am completely open to chatting with you or anyone else about these issues in person. I just expect to be treated with the same amount of respect with which I will treat you.
Call me, 804 300 0023
or stop by on the weekend, 2005 Barton Avenue

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:41:13 +0000

Just read through ALL of the comments on Style and am all caught up. Oh, my. I was quite confident I knew all about how the world worked when I was 23, too. A decade makes a difference.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:29:51 +0000

It has been said many times that the only reason the police were called was because of parking on the grass to the just restored park. Mr. Day will not accept that as the reason for the police being called. He is and will probably continue to play the race card, no matter what the reason, even though the majority of the folks that called the police were in fact black and very long time residents of Battery Park.

By: ccbham

ccbham — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:23:56 +0000

To me it sounds like an appropriate way to handle the situation, to put a non-emergency call tothe police. I could almost see approaching one or two people who had parked where they shouldn’t but I understand most people wouldn’t be comfortable doing that. Unless of course they were familiar with the people. It’s a shame the article isn’t clear on what happened that day and an even bigger shame people, both white and black, seem so ready to pull out the race card.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:41:49 +0000

Sorry I didn’t finish my thought, the reason for the call to the police was the cars were park on the newly planted grass.

By: Scudder

Scudder — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:38:43 +0000

Elizabeth, I don’t know the exact reason others called the police, but I do remember when I saw the event that it didn’t seem appropriate to have all those cars parked on the newly seeded grass. I didn’t call the police but I can understand why some folks might have been concerned about that issue. Probably could have been handled better at that particular time. It’s unfortunate that the miscommunication surrounding that event has become such a touchstone of controversy.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:32:14 +0000

Elizabeth, you are correct. In fact a week before after a group of 60 people went into the park a cleaned up, pull weeds and put down mulch. That same day someone was down in the southend, basketball courts, with their car and was doing donuts in the grass. Then that weekend was the basketball tournament in which no one told anyone about even though Mr. Day came to a previous meeting and told the BPCA memebers needed to start coming to the basketball games. BPCA board asked Mr. Day to the members know so the members could come to the games.

There appears to be number of mis-quotes in this article and it’s doesn’t show true relationships that exist in the neighborhood.