I hear Narberth is nice this time of year.
In a message dated 1/29/2005 3:50:12 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
With the influx of new entrants into the neighborhood it appears I
now have as neighbors people, who have different expectations of what
being a neighbor means. One of my neighbor tried to run me over last
Wednesday evening! This was due to road rage - or rather "parking
rage". As you all know, after heavy snow, like we had last weekend,
parking gets very tight and for some reason people think that if they
dig their car out of a spot then they own the spot. On Sunday we dug
out two spots, our car and one where our weekend visitors had parked,
we also helped out a neighbor. When we got back home after work on
Monday. All the parkable spots on the street that had been shovelled
(including "ours") had been taken so Milt dug the snow out of another
spot so that we could park. When we got back to our house on
Wednesday there were several parking spots available but folks had
put trash cans and other objects in them to save them. There was a
long stretch very near our house and the spots we had dug out (now
occupied by others) that could accommodate about 3 cars. I got out to
move the trash can in the spot nearest our house. As I was doing this
a guy pulled up in a car and started screaming at me that it was his
spot. I denied this and continued moving the trash can. He reversed
sharply into the spot knocking over all the other cans, aimed his car
at me and accelerated towards me forcing me to jump into the snow
bank to avoid being hit. Milt pulled in behind him and got out of the
car to ask him why he had tried to run over his wife! He shouted some
invective and took off down the street disappearing into a house
several removed from ours - and from the parking spot! I was really
shaken and upset and we decided to call 911. The police officers who
came were very sympathetic and went to his house to tell him that it
is illegal to block the street because the city owns the street and
it is also illegal to use your car to intimidate your neighbors. They
came back and said that he had admitted being in the wrong and we
would not have any more problems with him. We declined to press
charges.We have not received an apology.
What is sad is that for the first time ever, Milt and I seriously
discussed moving out of the neighborhood. This is after 17 years and
surviving the crack-cocaine epidemic, having our house burgled, our
car broken into several times and being robbed in front of our house.
Despite all of this Milt and I always felt that our neighborhood had
a sense of community and well-being towards one another that was
lacking elsewhere. However, the neighborhood has changed - most think
for the better. Sure our property values have increased with the
influx of new owners but it seems to have lost the sense of community
I so valued and that kept me dedicated to living here. I had hoped
when the neighborhood became fashionable that the kind of people who
wanted to move here would share my general values and ideas about
what is acceptable conduct. There has been a lot of discussion on
this list serve recently about street crime. Well, this has been a
reality of life in our neighborhood for many years but somehow I
always managed to take it in my stride. I know that I have never felt
more unsafe than when this "new neighbor" attacked me because he was
so angry and out of control. I am still hoping that this incident is
the exception and that we have some positive experiences with new
neighbors that off-set this extremely negative one.
Sadly,
yvonne
--
Yvonne Paterson, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology
University of Pennsylvania
323 Johnson Pavilion
36th St. and Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6076
Tel. (215) 898-3461
FAX: (215) 573-4666
http://www.med.upenn.edu/immun/Faculty/paterson.html
http://www.med.upenn.edu/micro/faculty/paterson.html
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