What is my neighborhood coming to?

[catnapper]

Every day I see signs of the city creeping in. Every day the township fights the fight --- with good intentions but the wrong methods. They will allow people to live in single family houses but have about 30 people living in them, but heaven help the person who has a weed taller than 10" They allow the gangs to spray paint like mad around here, but watch out if your house is the one they spray painted (yes, WE got a citation for spray paint that was covering our shed for a whole 18 hours -- they thought we could have painted over it as soon as we discovered it and it was dry.... forgive us for needing to run tp Home Depot for the paint to cover it!).

Well I couldn't sleep last night I came down to the kitchen and made a pot of decaf tea and looked out the window. I gasped thinking there was a human on our lawn, but thought twice about it because there couldn't POSSIBLY be a human sleeping on the grass underneath the trees! I have problems seeing properly, so I thought someone just dumped their garbage on our yard (for the zillionth time - the local kids have parties and send the bags of beers cans & pizza boxes flying out their car windows so mom & dad don't find the evidence). I had forgotten all about it and went back to bed. Hubby woke me a few hours later saying "Did you know we had a visitor?" I thought he meant a chipmunk or something got intothe house! Nope, we had a homeless man on our yard all night. Hubby went out and woke him and asked him to move on.

Can you believe it!?!?!?!

And now I ask you: Where was the police? Our house is on a VERY BUSY street. The cops drive by a hundred tiems a night. Where were they? And you'd better be sure they'll send me a citiation tomorrow about that 10" tall dandelion I saw out there this morning.

Sigh. Anyone want a beautiful 85 year old home situated in the heart of a beautiful suburg soon-to-be-city?

[kittycats_delight]

Oh Kim I am sooo sorry. It seems that no matter how far away from the city you are the city and it's "trash" seems to creep up from some little cubby hole it is hiding in. We are in a small town too and it is normally very quiet. But summer is approaching and all those city dewellers that want away from the filth and hustle and bustle of the cities seek out these quaint little quiet towns and with them they bring noise and disturbances and parties and garbage and whatever else they can find. Of course go to their lovely little cottages on the lake and there is not a scrap of anything to be found. Just lovely and pristine. When it's time to party and get wild and rambunctious they bring that into the town and trash the place. Go figure. I hope the police and township come up with something to help the good people that are there.

[elizabethann]

How big is Reading PA?

It sounds like the city I grew up in (and where my Mom lives to this day) - Manchester, NH. Manchester is a city of over 100,000. My Mom has had her house burglarized (while she and my Step-Father SLEPT)!! When I moved back briefly, I found clothes folded nicely under the lilac bush in the back yard. It looked like somebody was living there. Well, I helped them move! I threw everything away. We never saw anymore clothes since. Manchester is getting to be a big city and along with it, comes the problems.

And of course, there are no cops around. They're all at Dunkin Donuts!

Good luck!

[lizbud]

Do you have a Neighborhood Community Organization? some
are know as Neighborhood Crime Watch groups. Ours meets
once a month in a church located in the neighborhood. We have
representatives of local law enforcement, area legislators, some
busniss people & regular folks who live in the area.

You'd be surprised how much city hall listens to a group of
concerned residents about local issues.

[K9karen]

Whew! I'm considering myself really lucky! Our neighborhood has become racially and ethnically diversified over the last 10 years. Some of the residents are elderly and have lived here for 50 years, others are young, first time home owners. We have groups of kids walking and milling around, but have never had any problems. I can still walk alone at night. We're around the corner from a university, and down the block from a major street. Some neighbors just say hello, others we're more friendly with, but all the kids are respectful. We hope it stays so nice, being right outside the city limits, but we also love the cultural differences. We have a little town watch too and the local cops and volunteer firefighters are awesome. I guess I should count my blessings so far...

[catnapper]

Karen.... hee hee, how well I know that area! My college is the university you're talking about! Well, it was Beaver College when I went there, and now they changed the name to that stupid named University. I think your area is safe fro a while. Mine's the first neighborhood next to the city. You litterally go two blocks from my house, cross a bridge and you're in the city. Crossing that bridge is WEIRD because on one side you have nicely maintained homes with lawns and nice cars parked out front. Then you cross the bridge to boarded up row homes with peeling paint, cracked cement with weeds popping through and no cars parked out front, except maybe a few old beat-up ones.