Sunday, September 12, 2010

There goes the corner

Dear Editor (Queens Chronicle):

Back in the early 1960s, before my family moved away from Hollis, well-to-do people of other ethnicities were already leaving, commenting to us that “the lower element is moving in.” I never quite understood what this meant, being a young child, but the comment always stuck with me.

Now, some 45 years later,this statement finally resonates with me, as I feel I encounter it every day when I step off the A train after work to wait for the bus at Cross Bay Boulevard and Liberty Avenue.

This corner has deteriorated so much in the last year, with unruly teenagers hanging out daily, garbage strewn all over and loud hip hop music blasting from a convenience store. I’ve observed that the music seems to get louder when they see the people at the bus stop looking annoyed — this no doubt is done on spite. This sets a bad impression for the neighborhood, a ghetto type of atmosphere.

Back in May, some radio station was broadcasting from, I believe, the cell phone store. Not only did they block up the whole sidewalk, but those of us waiting for the bus had to endure loud, obnoxious music,not to mention the mass of teens it attracted. I am sure there is some kind of ordinance as to where these radio stations can be, and I am certain it is not on a main thoroughfare.

This area is quickly sinking downward, but why am I surprised when society in general has deteriorated?

The corner should be cleaned up, as it’s only a matter of time before something serious happens. This mentality does not breed anything good and will most likely get worse with the school year beginning.

F. Petito
Howard Beach

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sorry and sympathize with you but welcome to 3rd world Queens and it's majority of welfare and illegal folks.

You just happen to be in their path as they replace everyone who previously left.

Anonymous said...

I blame puff diddly daddio and russell simmons- everytime they mention the words "hiphop culture" in the media they get a commission check :)

georgetheatheist said...

Call the cops. They'll immediately rectify this nuisance with their decibel meters. The police are here to help you in situations such as this.

Dj Tito 151 said...

These comments are very familair. The American Indian's said the same thing back in the 1600's...... thiers poverty in any country, even in Europe, Mr. Who ends his name in a "o".....

Anonymous said...

wheeling out the tired "whites stole America from the Indians" argument? how far shall we go back to justify our half-baked positions? Ancient Babylon? Mesopotamia? Why dont you move to an apt. on the corner there, and get back to us about how you feel then? Youre a DJ, I'm sure you can hop on the wheels of steel for a set.
This aint about poor people, its about people behaving poorly.

Anonymous said...

"Call the cops. They'll immediately rectify this nuisance with their decibel meters. The police are here to help you in situations such as this."

Funny George, they won't even leave Dunkin Donuts for a homicide.

Deke DaSilva said...

wheeling out the tired "whites stole America from the Indians" argument?

Well said, Anonymous, I couldn't have said it better myself!

When they ain't got any solutions, they always roll out the "white man is the devil" meme.

Do you think "DJ Tito 151" has ever heard of the word meme before?

Anonymous said...

no he hasnt. but once he looks it up, Im sure he will change his name to DJ MEME, sounds mad scientific n what not. since he cant spell, he will be DJ MEAEM

Anonymous said...

"Funny George, they won't even leave Dunkin Donuts for a homicide."

And Dunkin' Donuts is just across the way from that corner.

Anonymous said...

911,311, letters to all the local politicians...the squeaky wheel gets the grease.........

A Better NYC said...

Minorities and immigrants will continue to be treated as second class citizens for as long as they choose to act like second class citizens.

There are specific nationalities that have been pouring in the US for generation and genertaions and generations....but have yet to rise about the status of being a consiered a "minority".

Why is this..?

Anonymous said...

Funny George, they won't even leave Dunkin Donuts for a homicide.
-----------------------------------
I have to ask this every now and again, because nobody ever seems to ever have a answer to it; What exactly is peoples' obsession with linking cops to donuts? I know quite a few cops and not one eats donuts. If anything, they only ever go into Dunkin Donuts for coffee.

Anonymous said...

Call the cops. They'll immediately rectify this nuisance with their decibel meters. The police are here to help you in situations such as this.
----------------------------------
And the next day the recipient of the summons will have his mug in the Daily News with a sad face, hloding up his summons claiming that the NYPD violated his civil rights and are harrassing him, his culture and his community because they are some protected ethnic or religious group. The story will also add how the poor soul came to America starry-eyed and looking for a better life, how local politicians are backing his cause, how the court already dismissed the summons, and how the DA's office is looking to hang the cops who issued the summons, on civil rights charges.

Anonymous said...

The police can shut this down by being a pirate radio station in a heartbeat. It's a felony, but these kids don't have a clue about the law so they don't know they are committing one.

GL said...

And what about those ragamuffins and their rock and roll! the devil's music I tells ya.

You people complain so much and do nothing about it. Go out there and pretend you're charles bronson in death wish if you are so concerned about it.

Anonymous said...

use eminent domain to get them out just like the city does all over the place and build a nice park

Anonymous said...

YOUR LOOKING AT THE REASON I LEFT NYC....WILL NOT SAY I MOVED TO AS IM NOT ABOUT WATCH THE FLOOD OF CRAP SHOWING UP...

Anonymous said...

"F. PETITO"
Howard Beach

An Italian is going to talk about "the lower element is moving in" and immigrants turning a neighborhood into a ghetto type of atmosphere?

Last time I check Italians were once immigrants and a rather disproportional amount of Italians who arrived some 140 years ago were CRIMINALS. Now the children of these CRIMINALS reep the benefits of their cladestine and underworld ways/

Anonymous said...

the "last time I checked, we were all the sons and daughters of immigrants" argument AGAIN? What is wrong with your brain? this is about bad behavior, which always gets worse, not better unfortunately. why dont YOU move there and get back to me?

Anonymouth said...

It's so sad. What ever happened to the good old days when the streets were clean and teenagers weren’t unruly and we didn’t have liter? Why can't they all be like snookie or lindsey lohan?

Deke DaSilva said...

Why can't they all be like snookie [sic] or lindsey [sic] lohan?

Snooki (22 years old) and Lindsay Lohan (24 years old) are teenagers?

But then again, conservative cultural critics often decry how today everyone is engaging in prolonged adolescence.

Perhaps you're one of those conservative culture critics?

Anonymous said...

"Last time I check Italians were once immigrants and a rather disproportional amount of Italians who arrived some 140 years ago were CRIMINALS. Now the children of these CRIMINALS reep the benefits of their cladestine and underworld ways"

NICE TRY

Italians came over LEGALLY through Ellis Island and assimilated. They learned the language, went to college and became homeowners. ALL with no welfare, food stamps, free health care or "minority" scholorships.

Italians didn't produce anchor babies, rent illegal basements, blast music, and leave Malta bottles on our neighbor's lawn.

Now, we Italian "children of clandestine and underworld ways" get to watch our parents' once beautiful neighborhoods deteriorate into ghettos.

And learn how to spell-- it's clandestine. Fool.

GL said...

"rent illegal basements, blast music, and leave Malta bottles on our neighbor's lawn. "

You must be forgetting the tenements of Manhattan right?

But you are right, I'm sure the immigrants back then were more concerned with learning English rather than say getting a job so they could eat or pay the obscene rent for such a decrepit living space. I mean we all know the first generation immigrants from Europe went straight to Harvard and Yale...screw getting some job as a butcher or in the garment business.