the scariest thing in my neighbourhood. i think it's a haunted house.

cj sullivan of the new york press is a pompous fuckwit.

having said that, let me tell you a wee bit about the borough of new york city in which i live. my neighbourhood in particular, as i, unlike SOME people don't go around speculating about places i've never even visited.
i live in the bronx, the woodlawn section, the 47th precinct. i've lived there a little over a year and to date have never been shot or even shot AT once. (i tell you this cos that's the first thing people usually ask me about when i tell them i live in the bronx.) i am not a criminal, or a junkie, or even particularly poor. i am not on public assistance. and YES for the 6 millionth time, I DO HAVE MY FREAKIN' GREEN CARD! i don't live here because i HAVE TO, i live here because i WANT TO, and to be honest, there's probably noplace in this country i'd rather reside. when i leave the bronx, i'm going back home to ireland, and that's that. i am sure cj sullivan would be appalled. maybe you are too. but if you are, that means you don't know jack shit about the bronx and really aren't entitled to an opinion. let's talk, shall we?

i am not attacking mr sullivan. i'm just attacking bronx-bashers in general, and his article targeting both the bronx AND the 47th precinct was sorta the straw that broke the camel's back. i hope he doesn't take this personally, but he's named here cos i consider him a good, shining example of an uppity narrowback snotrag who's using the slagging of the borough where he grew up as a somewhat less than obvious outlet for his innate irish self-hatred. not that i can blame him; we ALL hate ourselves...it's in our genetic code right alongside the guinness-swilling chromosome...and additionally, he's got more reason to despise the pathetic crumb of humanity that he is than the rest of us do (to despise ourselves, that is, not to despise HIM. i despise him quite well, thankyou.) but let's leave MY precinct out of it, shall we? i'll get down to the basics here. i am quite well aware "idylllic" isn't the first word that comes to mind when thinking of the bronx, and some of the neighbourhoods here are...dodgy, to say the least. but is it any worse than any OTHER big city? hell no. and is the ENTIRE 47TH PRECINCT, as sullivan says, a "murder factory"? yeah, RIGHT. here in my little corner of the bronx, you don't even feel like you're in the usa, let alone new york city. the place is maybe 75% irish immigrant, 20% irish-american, and 5% everyone else. it's all residential and mom-and-pop businesses, with a whole shitload of wee pastel houses complete with picket fences and tiny gardens. in the warm weather people DO hang out in the street, all right, but it's usually no-one more threatening than a load of little kids from the local schools running up and down katonah ave with a football or a couple of old men chatting on the benches outside the bakery. it's so (dare i say it) BORING around these parts that some loose troublemaking trollop (the words of the local old biddies, not of myself, i assure you) was out doing god-only-knows-what at like 5 one morning not too long ago and was mugged...and the police up and started an all-out search for the guy that did it (i should know...i fit his description, as did a whole shower of other young guys and we were all questioned) leaving no stone unturned, till they caught the sucker less than a week later. so much for the 4-7 being a den of crime and corruption. the poor cops are so bloody bored they'll jump at a chance to do ANYTHING...even if that means sending out a team of senior officers to search for a mugger.

so go on...slag on the bronx. insult it. berate it. but for the love of god, do your homework first. i really don't like having to be the designated fact-checker for the lot of you.

{BACK}