My Neighborhood

I’m a city girl. Have always been. Even though I was raised in the ‘burbs. The clean, safe, nature ridden, low property taxed ‘burbs, however, could not hold this girl. Nope, raced into Detroit and, just to be sure I wouldn’t try to escape at my first experience of conflict, I bought. It cost 40 Gs because of the neighborhood, which was actually pretty good for Detroit. I only heard gunshot’s three times in my full three years of living there. I thought those good numbers. One thing that did bother me though, was the infestation of garbage strewn about each street.

So, after selling my house at a tidy profit, I moved to Portland Oregon, in hopes of a cleaner city. It was. But it was also a city of idealistic liberals and self-important do-gooders, convinced that they can easily change the world if “everyone were just more like us.” But my sense of “us” was white, middle class, entitled and progressive in regards to trees and social issues. But progressive in the later sense only in so far as theory because their theory was never tested. Oddly enough, everyone that lived in Portland was “just like” them.*

I quickly found myself yearning for “real” folks with problems and struggles. Blue collar folks that worked hard and played hard. That drank PBR and didn’t give a shit about the trees. “Fuck those trees, I gotta put food on the table.” I get that approach to life. Don’t get me wrong, I was raised middle class and entitled. I was also raised by a life long UAW worker, professed and loyal democrat alongside a feminist, if in theory only, with an idea that we could only earn our place on earth by skootching over a little for folks that didn’t have enough space of their own.

Hence, South Philly. South Philly is nothing if not blue collar, full of struggles and conflict. But again with the god forsaken trash! I can’t take it, makes me crazy. Walking to Rita’s to get a water ice, I had to step over empty bags blowing in the wind, cigarette butts, cans and bottles…you name it. And then it occurred to me, instead of ticketing litter bugs (which never happens as far as I can tell), ticket those folks that don’t keep up their sidewalk, especially merchants. Should be part of the cost of doing business in a community; should be a legal responsibility. I mean why not? All of that trash comes from merchants, right? McDonald’s bags, coke cans, ice tea bottles, snickers wrappers….all making money, all sold in my community, all littering my life, all contributing to a sense of helplessness and depression. All sucking big time. So way can’t the consumer demand that the merchant give back by sweeping three times a day…whatever it takes. Why not??



*Please note that along with my general experience in Portland, it remains on the of the cities in which I made the closest, most generous group of friends a gal could ask for. This group of people, I still contend, though I’m sure they may beg to differ, were the exception to the rule.