WRITINGS & NEWS
As you may know, I live in a less than reputable apartment complex, so I was enthused to hear on my return to town that in order to decrease crime/shootings/genocide in our parking lot, management added a large spotlight to illuminate the grounds. Y'know, that whole "bright places are safe places" bit. If nothing else, it gives our residents decent light to aim their handguns by.
So I'm thrilled about the light, it's just its placement that I mind.
Yes. That is my bedroom window.
When I first moved into my new apartment, I complained a lot about it. I had a right. No A/C, no stove, no fridge, broken toilet, broken sink, broken lock on the door, trash everywhere, etc. I was pissed, and I think I had a right to be. And my apartment complex adopted an incredibly laissez-faire attitude about the whole thing, passing the whole thing off, ignoring it as much as I would let them. But finally I got a stove and an fridge and an A/C and a lock and a sink and a toilet in, and so even though everyone was telling me I should just move out, I stuck around.
Well, I should've listened.
Since we moved in about six weeks ago, we have had:
1. A shooting in our parking lot. I wasn't there for this one, but Chris called me to let me know to be careful on my way home. Believe me, I was - I even had him unlock the door as I was pulling in, so that I wouldn't have to spend any time fumbling for keys.
2. Domestic disputes. Our next door neighbors are a somewhat troubled live-in couple who have about six kids who live with them. Every now and then they'll get in a fight and and one of them will call the cops, or one of them will come over and have us call the cops for them. By the time the cops arrive, the dispute is always taken care of, so they'll inform the cops that "nobody called them." As a result of this "prank calling" on our part, the cops don't like us much. On the other hand, the couple next door are our best friends at the complex by far.
3. A dead body in our parking lot. I couldn't go to work one morning because when I went out the door, the way out was blocked by police cars. Our landlady told me that there was nothing to worry about, and that the man had died of natural causes and wasn't a resident. This seemed a bit callous, and also probably untrue, since this didn't explain why there were 8 patrol cars and a detective examining the scene of this natural death. Our next door neighbor said he thought he'd been shot, but by then it was mid-morning, and so of course he'd already had a few.
4. A lot of angry men sitting in their vans staking out our apartment complex. I don't know who they're waiting for, I'm just glad it's not me.
5. A lack of good parking spaces.
6. Groups of brutish looking twenty-somethings pounding on our door, looking for "Luis." We don't know who Luis is, but we wish he'd stop giving people our address and telling them it's his.
7. A mass arrest. This afternoon, Chris arrived home to discover a group of undercover cops had come and arrested a good portion of the neighbors. We don't know what they did.
So it's been an interesting month and a half. What's funny about this is that my mom wanted me to move away from my old apartment because it was so dangerous, and I lived there a year and there was only one murder, plus my mailbox and car getting broken into a couple times. So really, in comparison, it was a very safe environment, a veritable Seahaven. How naive we were.
Still, maybe things will get better. Maybe this mass arrest is a good thing - it might solve some of the problems mentioned above. If nothing else, it should at least solve the parking situation.
