De Blasio time

So this is how it is. I have told the story about the kids who would come out of the store and act like little hooligans as they walked down Court St to the Red Hook projects. How Nelson and Abdul and I had to stand outside of our stores and watch them as they walked by. Well it has been the winter and they have been kind of subdued lately. It is too cold to fuck around. But there was an incident on Tuesday that sort of set the tone for how it will be this summer in NYC.

We have these neighbors on the block where we live. They are old time Carroll Gardens people. I know the husband since we were ten. The wife is from Bensonhurst and we would run into them all the time. They are like us. They know all the merchants and the guys at the old time places like Marco Polo and the Red Rose. They are particularly tight with the owner of the gym on the corner. The wife is good friends with Lisa and they stop and talk all the time when we pass in the street.

So she comes in yesterday to tell us a story. It seems she was walking down the street pushing her wagon full of groceries and what not when she was suddenly surrounded by a bunch of these rowdy kids. They were shouting and roughhousing and talking about they were going to "mess up this kid." One of the kids goes "I gots to get this off my back to get ready when it goes" and reaches in his back. His partner goes "Yo stupid the white lady heard you," Now she kept her head down and kept walking but when she got to the corner she looked up and the kid had opened his jacket and he had a gun. He made some threats and then continued down the street to the subway. Naturally she called the cops. The 76th precinct not 911. They said they would send someone right out. After a half an hour with nobody showing up she left.

Now she could have come into the store as she was right across the street but we are closed on Tuesday. She came it tell us that this had solidified a decision that her family had made a while ago. They were selling out their brownstone and moving South. It is only going to get worse and worse. The police are not just lazy but handcuffed by the new administration. It is back to the 1970's, If you stand up for yourself you are branded a racist. So it is time to move on.

It is another brick in the wall. You know?