The new neighbor from Rhode Island or New Hampshire – a two-name state anyway – gushes about the charms of our city. 

 “I love it here. It’s so quaint. And as long as I’ve got Target and Starbucks I’m okay,” she confesses.  “And It’s so safe here.  You have no idea what that means to us.”

Don’t I? “It is a nice neighborhood. And I love Target and Starbucks too.”  

I don’t address the safety issues.  Poor soul! It’s not Nirvana. But one thing we can all agree on is that we want to be safe.

There are degrees of safety in our neighborhood.  You don’t have to pack heat when you take a walk. (“Lay down your weapon NOW.” – Jack Bauer in 24, Brenda in The Closer)  Most of the neighborhood streets are safe, but pedestrians need to take a few detours.  

Stop and turn around in the middle of the block on X Street because those lively people in the church parking lot are drug dealers.  You say, I have a wild imagination. But in fact, I’m NOT wrong.  You intuit degrees of safety in a city, with all a city’s problems. 

Pedestrians beware! There is an extremely dangerous intersection at the corners of Audubon and Turkey Vulture Streets. A small parking lot on this corner has NO barriers, no curbs, NOTHING between the parking lot and the sidewalk. Some geniuses park right on the sidewalk!

I don’t mean it’s NOT safe here, but it has a city’s advantages and disadvantages. Grew up in a small town, then moved to another idyllic small town – in retrospect I wish I had stayed.  But it has been my fate to move to the city for the sake of work and family. That’s life in the 21st century.