I am strongly considering moving on from Obs. I have simply had enough of the nocturnal scene - the world outside (specifically on the Reload/ Groove Lounge etc... stretch this Friday and Saturday night sounded positively apocolyptic.
There was a woman screaming like a banshee in the parking lot behind our house (behind Trump Towers), there were people schreeching tyres and yelling, smashing bottles, dumping trash in noisy metal cannisters and revving motorbikes and car engines.A constant din of voices, shouting and laughing in the street carried on all night - as it does EVERY weekend. The mixture of at least five different strains of music (so loud I had to turn up my TV to hear it properly) became even louder as the night wore on. Of course, around four in the morning the shouting and swearing and pissing and bottle throwing starts in the road (Trill) as people weave their drunken ways back into their cars so as to drive at outrageous speeds the wrong way up roads, over our pets and out in to the night to kill themselves and others on the their way home. Saturday night my husband was out and got home at about midnight. A man and a woman were having a physical fight in the street outside our house and he was physically threatened when he tried to intervene - luckily a Vetus Schola patroller happened around the corner at that moment. Why is Cozy Bar open again? I thought they were closed down and denied a licence to operate further based on the previous contraventions? Where are the police when these drunk people fall out onto the street to vandalise property, disturb the peace and drive drunk. Yes - I do hear them sometimes - pipping their sirens and talking over their loudspeakers but I have given up calling them to intervene as it has no effect. I thought that these bars and clubs were meant to be silent from the outside now : doors closed when playing loud music, bar shut by 4am. Good things were happening at one point - things quietened down and it was looking like the tide had turned. Its back to bad. Why do we have to have drug-turf wars that result in stabbings right here in the midst of where we live. You might choose it but I do not. Would you accept this if it happened in the day? I know that there are plenty of people who have spent time and energy on trying to get these bars and clubs to tow the line. I cant understand why the few steps forward we take are always followed by those same steps back. What can be done to fix this problem? How can I try and ensure that walking outside my front door will not result in a broken bottle over the head, how can I stop these places that are not invested in the sustainability of Obs, from robbing me of my sleep every weekend (incl but not as bad on Thursday and Sunday nights). If I beat the OBSID clean-up team onto the pavements on a Saturday morning, how can I know that I will not have to ask my two year old son to pick his way through the glass, cigarette butts and litter as we walk towards a place where I can get a much-needed strong coffee. Do they people who left this mess behind even live here? Why do we have to drive through a seedy alleyway of dark,dingy clubs filled with drinkers at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon? These are the thoughts that I lie awake with on weekend nights as I contemplate where I can move to and how soon. We are doing much to clean up Obs by day. I am seeing the improvements and I am believing in the results. I dont even know if OBSID has the financial resources or the power to sort out our night-time hell. What can be done? A study of how SeaPoint and town got rid of their drug and alcohol offenders? A task team? Partnership between business, police and OBSID? Or do I just have to move? I have lain awake at night asking these questions for too long.Maybe I am just too tired to see this thing from any other perspective right now? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Observatory Neighbourhood watch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/obsnw?hl=en To unsubscribe from this group, send email to obsnw+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject.
