I Wish I Had Kept My Mouth Shut

In my last post, I talked about how my friends in Chicago went on and on about how much better the Windy City has gotten over the last 10 years. In particular, they told me repeatedly how much safer Chicago had gotten since my last visit.

Well.

Since I have been home we have had one carjacking of a car driven by a lone female over on Midland St which is about a 3 wood from my house here in the People's Republic of Hillcrest. As if that weren't sufficient mayhem for one weekend, by my count there were 7 fires of suspicious origin that destroyed vacant houses about 7 blocks from here. Seven! One of them was located next to the condominiums where one of my little lawyer friends lives. It is also right behind the new Midtowne Center full of high dollar tenants like Williams-Sonoma and Jos. Bank that just opened about a year ago. Up until some asshole put the torch to it Friday night it was in the process of being restored. I noticed the burned out structure for the first time as I went to get Chinese food for me and a friend Saturday night. It is not a complete stretch of the imagination to think that our little neighborhood is lucky that there wasn't more extensive damage involving high dollars given the high winds and the dry conditions. These events have been widely discussed in the Arkansas Times blog and by buddy Floaty on his site. The story about the house fires finally made it into the Democrat-gazette this morning.

I know at least 3-make that 5-people who have had their homes broken into this summer. I can't walk down the street downtown without getting panhandled most days. Granted, the latter is mostly an annoyance and that sort of low commerce was a real problem in Chicago too. But it didn't use to be this way in this town and we certainly never had these kind of issues to this extent in this little neighborhood.

I know. The story I get is that the cops rousted the street people to get them away from the Presidential Library. Some of them migrated West to Riverdale and Knoop Park. I also know that the County Jail has been overcrowded since they first opened the doors and that there is no room for low level offenders who tend to specialize in property crimes. I also know that we do not have sufficient space to institutionalize the mentally ill. So a lot of those guys are out on the street. About this time last year I had a pleasant conversation with a crazy bastard who told me that Jeff Bagwell of the Houston Astros bankrolled the defense of the rape he was charged with in Houston. I know.

Some of my Mississippi friends are coming to visit this fall. This will be their first trip to our fair city in about 10 years. I have regaled them without surcease about how much better Little Rock has become since their last visit. And it is true. There is certainly a whole lot more cool stuff to do now that we have the River Market and the Presidential Library.

But unlike my friends in Chicago, a city 5 times bigger than Little Rock, I don't think I can claim that it has gotten safer around here. I know the reasons why. I also see no reason why a place like Chicago can seem safer than a relatively small place like Little Rock.

Am I out of line here? You tell me.