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comment by blackbootz
blackbootz  ·  2493 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: May 31, 2017

Some of the less-than-awesome aspects of living in my new home are coming to light. It's pretty expensive. I landed a sweet restaurant job at a nearby luxury hotel, but I've got pretty much all my summer income earmarked already. Thankfully, a lot of these things are one-time expenses. Even more thankfully, I'm able to swing all this on a poor man's income, so when I start to make grown man money, I should be more than set.

The other less than sexy thing: my neighborhood is the definition of love-hate. I love the genuine improvements and care given towards it from within the community, like the beautification, fundraising for kids recreation, and the amount of renovation I see on my block alone. I hate that I haven't slept in two days because I keep getting woken up by people & kids yelling outside my window through all hours. I hate how my fight-or-flight reflex is primed when I park my car after dusk, or when I see ten kids on bicycles wheely-ing down the street.

Hopefully this will all attenuate as I get used to living here and calling it home.





kleinbl00  ·  2493 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Accept the fact that you embody "gentrification" and that the whole point of you getting a big financial leg up on this is that you are not a hoodlum, you are not the sort who yells outside other peoples' windows and that, demographically speaking, they have a lot more to fear from you, white man, than you have to fear from them.

Also, you have expressed an intention (combined with, I believe, a contractual obligation) to live there for a good long while so considering your passion for volunteering, the sooner you start integrating yourself into the community, getting involved in the beautification, raising the funds, and adding to the renovation the happier you will be. Strangers yelling outside your window at the middle of the night? Potential confrontation. Bob's kids yelling outside your window at the middle of the night? You can tell them to keep it down in clear conscience. FWIW: even confronting strangers isn't hard. Our corner in LA was heavily frequented by college kids in need of Ubers and standing on the balcony and saying "Ladies, I hate to be 'that guy' but I got a 6am call and a toddler that sleeps light so if you could keep it down a little it'd be a blessing" was remarkably effective. Meanwhile up here our neighbor has a basketball hoop pointed to the street and stepping out onto the porch in a bathrobe to say "guys, seriously? It's 1am" gets them to scatter shamefaced. Really, so long as you can keep your conversation out of the realm of "keep it down you damn kids" you'll probably be fine.

blackbootz  ·  2490 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I was very cranky when I wrote that. But I don't think the issue is nearly so intractable that I won't sleep in the next ten years. I'm already meeting neighbors and saying hello. Beautification, here I come: I'm putting up terra cotta planters and planting a tree in the grass square out front.

kleinbl00  ·  2490 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Choose wisely on the tree. LA put up camphors and the sidewalks look like something out of Angkor Wat in less than 20 years.

cgod  ·  2493 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Haha! I remember the grade school kids carrying on till the wee hours when I lived across the street from section 8 housing.

If it's section 8 than you'll be living with it for decades, if it isn't your arrival in the neighborhood means it will be over in a few years.

blackbootz  ·  2490 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm not sure if it's section 8 or not. But I did notice that there are about six other gut-and-rehab projects ongoing on my block. My next door neighbor, a black lady who's been renting there for almost 15 years, says she's getting pressure from her landlord to move out and that he's trying to remodel the place himself and start charging more.

It seems that some the property owners around here sense a change. Which is interesting, and so quintessentially Baltimore: two or three blocks north of me and the abandoned houses start in earnest. Yet the real estate markets are so hyperlocal that it's just a matter of a block or two to go from somewhat booming or desirable to vacancies and condemned housing.