Clarification

Good question. One I myself asked. I think the best thing it communicates is a jovial frustration.

We have an enormous murder rate per capita, but they send 7 cops to a drunk brawl. And then they don’t even do anything!!! As I recall, public drunkeness is still a misdemeanor, and so is assault. I witnessed it, and the dispatcher had my phone number and my address. Why don’t they ticket the taxi’s?? Or send 7 cops after the shooter?

Likewise, the bar is frustrating. I am constrained to go to my city counsel, because I do PARK on the ground level, and am helpless to defend my property from violence. Technically, legally, its parked on public property. Plus, our Police department doesn’t pursue theft. They pursue the victim – I have to spend 15 minutes being interviewed on my “demographic profile” each time I report a burglary of my car.

So, I go and complain, and shut them down… how many sets of tires do you think that will cost me in just the first year? WHICH ITSELF is a point about the kind of customers which that particular bar attracts. At the same time, I am frustrated that I should be held over this barrel, and have to put up with it.

And, if the people coming out of the bar were mixed couples, not just (mostly) men, and one of the men slapped down his date, and she were on the ground, you can bet the Police would be more proactive in their dealings with an assault dispatch. Which is both absurdly unfair, and also a strike against it being a gay bar on my block instead of a straight or mixed bar.

Finally, I am frustrated by the loss of safety on my particular block, especially when it is convienent for me to target the bar for the blame. But even if it weren’t the bar, I still miss the security I felt when I first moved in. I also miss a greater sense of community in my neighborhood overall. The City still has no central planning, no vision. They continue to “develop” new business in my area and others, without seeming to give any regard to the impact of or even viability of business in that location. The attitude is “push for business, because business builds the tax base and makes us rich”.

They forget that what makes a city rich is a culture, a heritage, and a sense of community which draws residents and keeps residents. Those residents need jobs and consumables which draws business. Businesses which are compelled to stay and grow because the community is growing. And that increases the tax base. But the city was already rich when it cherished its culture.

I think that was the point of the previous entry. *smiles* Thanks for asking, D. *g*