About an hour ago I heard a loud snapBANG, rather firecracker-like, and voices. Looking out the window I saw about a half-dozen schoolkids run down the sidewalk, pausing to throw small, white rocks at windows, then disappear around the corner before I could get the camera ready.
I was about to head downstairs to check the condition of my ground-floor windows, when I heard my next-door neighbour's voice. (The same neighbour whose Miata got smooshed back in February in the same imcident that totaled my Accord.) My windows are intact; one of his is not. Two holes (one all the way through both panes), and bright-white rocks (as my neighbour pointed out, probably from somebody's garden, as they look like the sort that would be used decoratively) here and there on the sidewalk where they'd bounced, and one inside his house, on the windowsill among the broken glass. He said they'd pounded on his door before throwing the rocks at the window.
Grrr. I do not understand the mindset that does such things intentionally. The police have been called, not that we expect much good to come of that. I wish I'd gotten a photo. And I wonder where they took the rocks from and how much damage they'd already done between wherever that was and here. There are interesting signs that this block is getting nicer ... and then there's pointless destruction by a bunch of kids.
(no subject)
Regretfully, understanding it doesn't help. They feel they'll never have a stake in society, and so have no interest in protecting it. Very sad.
Now, if we can figure out how to *give* them that interest...
best,
Joel
(no subject)
(no subject)
In Bridgeport, CT, where I once lived, a new set of subsidized rowhouses were built, all at low cost and such that they were very low-maintenance and hard to damage. Before anyone could be moved in, the city coucil and mayor decided that they looked too good, almost as nice as the condos by the water that several coucil members had paid for recently, and therefore were "inappropriate" for low-income persons. Ie., poor people should be given the worst-looking housing to 'know their place', and they had the entire thing Torn Down and replaced with ugly stuff at a cost of $60 million or more. This sort of attitude certainly doesn't help.