New Crime Porch

New Years
If you had said, you'll be in Nashville by xmas, I would have thought you were insane. If someone had told me a lot of things, I wouldn't have believed them. But I wouldn't change a single thing about this year. 2010 is coming to a close this week. I was going to write something about all my changes, and how I'm a 'better person', or 'I'm going the right direction', about how "I believe I can do anything', but it's pointless, not because I don't truly own those feelings, but because I'm the only one they really mean anything to. Not to say people can't be or aren't proud of me, but they are proud because of the things I have done since I've taken those truths into my heart.

East Side Crime
In other news I'm continuing on my path of discovering the dangerous side of Nashville, which of course I'm right in the middle of. There have been some rather intense burglaries around this side of town. First starting with fast food joins up on Gallatin, and now they're becoming bolder and robbing restaurants and bars. The last hit they held 40 people at gunpoint demanding wallets and jewelery. A place I visited a couple weeks ago was robbed by these two fellows, just two nights prior. Now with my boy working at a cafe in the neighborhood, you can understand my concern. My interest is peeking clearly. The local news report that the MetroPD is adding extra patrols to the east side neighborhoods and they've got video surveillance perhaps identifying the dudes, so they are 'close to catching' them. It doesn't make me feel any better, and it's definitely the talk of the east side. At the salon the women were nattering about it, people are definitely uneasy.

But is it any more unsafe than LA? Does the small town feel of the east side generate its own fear because everyone knows everything that's going on all the time? My mum's car has been broken into right in front of our house, there were routine helicopter chases at the park just down the road. But in LA these things are one of hundreds any given day, and so they do not always make it on to the evening news. They seemed removed from my daily life there, even though they are happening all around you.

I am in no way saying that this place is safe, it's clearly not your average neighborhood. I think yes, it's more likely something 'bad' could happen to you in East Nashville. It's why property is dirt cheap and I could rent a 3 bedroom newly renovated craftsman style cottage for $700 a month. But like I say, East Nash's neighborhoods are slowly undergoing gentrification. Good god if I were in a geography class right now... PAPER TOPIC: Comparing East Nashville Tennessee to Venice Beach California. But I'm serious, the funkies are still walking their dogs, the hipsters are walking around with their guitars, kids are skate boarding, and I'm sitting on the porch with the cats.

Sitting on the front porch
It's 65 degrees today, thanks to the incoming thunderstorms. The birds are singing, Bjorky is sleeping in the chair next to me, and I'm rocking back and forth like a true southerner. I swear this is a good enough reason by itself to have moved here. This is something I could do all the time, anytime. For some reason a front porch is just more friendly than sitting near mum's Koi pond back home. It's acknowledging the rest of the world, not hiding from it. Maybe that's a little idealistic, but hey I'm happy and I can't help myself.