For publication in The Daily News on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008
I worry about our downtown.
I walk it every day, for one reason or another. The other day, as I crossed Fourth Avenue, a man was pushing a shopping cart over the crosswalk on the opposite side. Then he jaywalked through traffic and carried on down the street.
At the corner of Fourth and Victoria Street, I passed by a man and the woman, both shabbily dressed, coming in the opposite direction, talking loudly, she waving her arms wildly.
A little further on down the block on Victoria Street, and another shopping cart full of junk, this time parked by itself. Across the street, a couple more “street people,” just kind of hanging out.
After work, in the early evening, I emerged into the back alley to go to my vehicle. Sitting on the curb, a scruffy, long-haired man and a woman who was scratched up and looked like she’d recently had the crap beat out of her. I thought, “I’m not sure these are the kind of people I want to meet in an alley.” Read the rest of this entry »
