Ready for Take Off
Alexis and I love the outdoors but we’re definitely city people. Since living in Richmond both of us have lived in either the Fan District or Church Hill. Full of interesting historic row houses but block to block it’s always been hit or miss. Blocks with homes selling for $800,000... could have abandoned homes just a block or two away and there always seems to be one street that is the dividing line between quaint and keep your eyes open.
When we bought our house we ended up on the wrong side of the tracks again. Not that it’s a bad thing. It’s just different. We’re closest now to a place called Manchester. Article 1, Article 2. We have friends a block or two away so we’ve always kept an eye on the area. The renovations are headed our way and they are only two to three blocks away but it always amazes me how much of a difference those couple of blocks can make.
There are a lot of retired people in our neighborhood. People that have lived there for the past 35 years. We have a lot of kids also. This guy is Michael.
Michael and his brothers have taken it upon themselves to come over and help out…all the time. Very cool kids. These kids can’t get enough Popsicles.
But the reason for this post is that I realized this neighborhood has a lot of crazy stuff going down other than just our storm windows being stolen so I’ll be sure to add more stories as the time progresses.
Two people riding their bikes coming down the street.
Girl: What’s out here?
Guy: Not much but we’re about to find out.
As they started pedaling harder to get out of the neighborhood faster.
posted by The Bishops at 3:54 PM
4 Comments:
This post reminds me of where I live in Chicago. Urban problems but a nice neighborhood really- just not for people who want to live in a bubble.
That neighborhood kid looks very sweet- we haven't had that experience, but I meet so many people as I work in my front garden and chat with them-all walks of life.
Sometimes it is peoples negative perception of a neighborhood that makes it seem bad and not that the neighborhood is really bad itself. I was talking to someone about my neighborhood last week and someone listening in said they “wouldn’t go in to that neighborhood with out a gun”. I think it is a very nice place to live. That’s not to say there aren’t some problems. For the most part, though, the problems stem from landlords who don’t care about their properties. These landlords are the very same people that live in the “nice part of town” and wouldn’t come in to my neighborhood with out a gun. It is a very odd irony.
The neighbourhood we live in is great, but it has it's problems as well. Prostitution, drugs, grow-ops. The neighbours are so good though, I don't think I would feel this kind of community out in the burbs.
I am understand completely! We just moved in to the Chestnut Hills area of Highland Park. One block up looks like San Francisco (huge fully restored victorians), one block behind us looks like Belfast in the 80's. Most of our immediate neighbors are retired as well. It's actually mostly a very quiet neighborhood...inspite of what I suspect is a thriving drug market a few blocks away. (sigh) Richmond is such a city of contradictions....
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