Saturday, September 10, 2011

15 Yr Old In Critical Condition After Stabbing

A 15 year old boy was stabbed this morning, and is in hospital in critical condition. Apparently he was out bicycling at 2:40am with another 15 year old. And some words were exchanged with a group of people, if I have my facts right. Then the group stabbed him in the upper body several times.
What I want to know is what were those two 15 year old boys doing bicycling down the street at 2:40 in the morning? And what were the other people doing out at that time of the morning? Shouldn't they be at home?
Maybe we need to set curfews on our young people to keep them from danger.
If people cannot make responsible decisions on their own, and their parents are not making responsible decisions, maybe the state needs to step in.
Maybe we need a curfew to keep the streets safe after dark. I'm just sayin'.

Friday, September 9, 2011

The Power Went Out Last Night, Again!

The power went out last night. I was watching Craig Ferguson and next thing I know, we are in a black-out. It wasn't even raining. The black-out lasted a couple of hours.
This is the third time this summer that the power has gone out. Last night our entire street went dark, and the next street over as well. A week ago, early in the morning on Sept 1 the lights went out in the middle of the night and stayed out until 9am or 10am. But that was during a storm, and a big chunk of the North End was without power, including several traffic lights. Before that, the power went out during the evening, and affected only our street and the next street over again, just like last night. It was on one of those hot summer nights, when we had our air conditioners running. We were without power for about an hour that time.
Is this the new normal? Every week or two we lose power?
Give me a friggin' break. I pay my taxes, just make the electricity work. This isn't a third world state, it's Winnipeg.
Again, I just want the basics. Pick up my garbage, arrest the criminals, and provide basic water, sewer and hydro. And give me a friggin' break already.

Monday, September 5, 2011

It's Not Working, The Neighbours Keep Talking

It's a beautiful day outside today. What a great end to a long weekend. My husband and I were doing a bit of tinkering in the yard, and tending to things that need to be done. We took a break and went over to the neighbours. We got to talking, and one thing led to another. Issues on the street came up. And issues facing the North End came up. My husband visited another neighbour and more issues were talked about.
Somebody, stop the madness. Stop talking about this. Nobody wants to hear it.
Nobody wants to hear anyone say "something has to be done". Nobody want to hear how frustrated you are. Nobody wants to hear how messed up things are.
Just stop talking about it.
Lets all drink lemonade, and have happy thoughts.
Lets pretend everything is fine.
Put on your blinders, stop looking, stop talking.
Nothing happens to people unless they are involved with gangs or drugs. Nothing will happen to you.
Just stop talking about it. Maybe it will go away.
If we all pretend it isn't happening, maybe it will go away.
Maybe.

The Less You Know, The Better It Is

The less you know, the better the North End is. Or, that's the way I see it.

Before I started my little project of fixing the North End, there wasn't much that I knew. I just knew my garbage wasn't always picked up, and police were on my street all too frequently. And I knew that my neighbours were loud, and dogs barked all night. That was about the extent of what I knew about my street.
We would make jokes about the armed standoff down the street where the Police crouched down behind an old broken fence saying "come out with your hands up". And we got used to asking the Police if we could go home, even if the street was blocked off. We were told just to stay inside once we got there. And nothing ever happened to us. These armed standoffs and road blocks are really just precautions, just incase there really is a gun, and just in case the supposed gun is discharged. But really, how often does that happen. Not often at all.

The less you know, the better it is.

If I am not watching for issues, I don't generally see them. If I don't ask people about issues they have had, I don't know about those either. And if I am not involved in crime, I am not attracting criminals and criminal behaviour to my person or property.

The less you are involved, the less it affects you.

If I am not dealing drugs or using them, I am not affected by those activities. If I am not partying all night with known gang members, I am not affected by their actions. If I am not causing problems for people, they have no reason to cause problems with me.

The less you associate yourself, the less you are involved.

What I am really trying to say is, the North End is not so bad, if you don't look at the bad. It's just a neighbourhood like all the other ones, unless you look down the street.

It's really not that bad.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Where The Heck Is "The Times"

Thursday has come and gone. That's the day we get The Times in our mailbox. That's the day our local newspaper arrives to our doors. But this week it never came.
I just found that local paper this morning. It was sitting in my dumpster along with a pile of other undelivered flyers. I guess I know why I never got The Times in the mailbox. It's because the flyers were delivered to the dumpster in my back lane. Maybe they got the address mixed up, and thought their job was to put the entire pile of flyers into a dumpster instead of giving them to people who may read them.
I have no photographic evidence of these flyers, as I don't really feel like getting my camera, running outside to take a photo of garbage, and coming back, unloading the image, resizing it, and filing it on my computer. I just want to say that the flyers and community newspaper were yet again delivered to my dumpster.
I guess good employees are hard to come by these days.
If those at Flyer Advantage are reading this, I have applied for the position of flyer delivery person in my area. I will actually deliver them to houses. I will put them in mail boxes, and not in the dumpsters behind the houses who are supposed to get these items of information that someone has paid for.
Just a heads up. If you want them actually delivered, call me.