AidelMaidel

“When you point a finger, there are three fingers pointing back at you.”

That is probably one of the wisest things I’ve heard all day (at least) and I just had to say WOW.

And owtch.

Interesting blog, too, she’s a Hasidic woman in NYC.

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Good Grief!: Writing for weblogs

Good Grief!: Writing for weblogs

This should increase my traffic, I think.

And that is probably one of the better blog names I’ve seen out there!

(And I will be honest, part of me wants to see how this trackback feature works, which is why I was so quick to link to the above entry.)

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Quality of Life Issues in NYC

I live in a quiet residential area in Brooklyn. It’s nice, I feel the kids are safe outside.

Today my daughter went to the corner store with her older friend. No streets crossed, just walk to the corner, that’s it. Regular event in her summer.

Well, today she came running into the house out calling for me. Apparently there was this elderly drunk guy who was calling them over, and then trying to go after them. He fell over. He got up, and then got as far as the ramp to our block, and fell down the ramp.

Now, I would have called 311, or the local precinct, but every time I call about something like this, they say call 911. So although no one was dying or getting stabbed or robbed, I did. As I did this, a neighbor went up to chase the drunk away. He got him out of the private court/alley we live on, and back on the main street, where our drunk friend fell over, again. Took a while, and the guy was rude to him, refusing to leave, at first.

Eventually the cops showed up. We kept a distance (I had kids with me) and as I started to walk away, the cops started to get into the car. WITHOUT the guy. So I ran up, flagged them over, and told them that he went after the kids.

“Why didn’t you tell us that?” they asked me. Well, gee, I didn’t think that they would leave someone just laying on the sidewalk, on Emmons Avenue (a rather big street around here). I said something that was true, that when I worked in an emergency room, they used to bring people in messed up all the time. I suppose Bloomberg isn’t as concerned about quality of life issues as much as Guiliani was, or perhaps we are too busy getting ready for the RNC to pay much attention to the outer boroughs. I don’t know.

So they seemed rather put off by all this, but called an ambulance. Eventually the ambulance came, and everyone drove away. But really, what kind of city leaves an elderly intoxicated man who has caused enough trouble, doesn’t try to talk to any witnesses nearby but makes them flag them down?

Maybe if you find a guy in the gutter, and he isn’t bothering anyone, maybe leave him there. Not compassionate, but maybe no one will notice. Here, someone obviously phoned in that this guy was disturbing people (if you check the 911 call) so maybe you should DO something?

Just doesn’t make any sense, to me.

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