Monday, September 14, 2020

My Neighborhood




 I grew up in the Gun Hill Projects in the Bronx.  I went to Evander Childs High School and City College.  I rode (and still ride) the buses and subways and never gave integration a thought.  My world was made up of people of all religions and all races and I assumed the world was like that.  I guess I was just dumb and sheltered.

When I moved to Queens I expected the neighborhood would be the same.  Boy, was I wrong.  My lily white neighbors had a fit when a Black family bought a corner house and were pissed at me when I was happy to have them as neighbors.  My only criteria for a good neighbor is one I can say hi to and who keeps the house nice.  More is nice, but not a requirement.  Friendships take a while to develop although my husband and I quickly became friends with the family on the corner.

Today, as I do every day, I wander the neighborhood, camera in hand and check out blocks I have never walked on.  Today's walk included blocks with houses mostly owned by Asians, Hispanics, African Americans, South East Asians and every nationality immaginable.  The houses are beautiful, well kept and if there are people outside, they are always friendly.  It warms my heart to be living in such an international area but it hurts when I think of the people who fled when the neighborhood "changed".  It hurts to see young people who look like me are no longer interested in buying homes here.

The guy in the White House is worried about keeping the suburbs safe for suburban house wives.  While I am not in the suburbs, I am in a suburban part of Queens.  These people keep my neighborhood safe so I and people like the women pictured below can live safely and in nice homes.

I never want to go back to an era where we can't all live together.  I want Trump to lose big and I want to send all the racism and hatred he has brought back to go back to the 50's 




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a fear that neighborhoods might fall apart such as parts of the bronx like the harlem section or south bronx where these places were once havens to live in until immigration took over and now the neighborhoods are not livable. Harlem was once featured as a haven to live in clean and rich and yet today it has become the hood....

Pissedoffteacher said...

Homeowners are not destroying their neighborhoods

ed notes online said...

Harlem is one of the hottest neighborhoods before the virus. Check prices there.

Anonymous said...

Harlem is one of the hottest neighborhoods huh? why because corrupt bill clinton moved there....that was a political stunt the clintons live in chapaqua pal

Pissedoffteacher said...

Iit took away homes, recreation, jobs from the people it was supposed to help

Anonymous said...

the neighborhoods in the boroughs are now called the hood meaning they ain't worth a chit