Living On The Edge
Our neighborhood sucks.
On the surface, it looks like a slice of suburban heaven. The craftsman charm is, in actuality, skin deep and entirely misleading. Under the facade of picket fences, our neighborhood is a breeding grown for illicit behavior. The following has occurred within a one block radius of my home in the past 10 months:
- A marijuana grow-op, resulting in the seizure of a home
- Marijuana use on the lawn at the side of my house by two men I’ve never seen before
- A police raid on a garage apartment; we presume this was drug-related
- A motorcycle DWU that resulted in a woman being airlifted to a trauma center
- Two (or was it three?) arson fires in the extension of our development currently under construction
- Our neighbor’s basement tenant beat the snot out of his girlfriend while I watched in horror
- A fatal stabbing
- And – today – a man was shot. Twice. We don’t know why, and the police still have the street closed.
This list ignores the moderately annoying this we deal with on a constant basis… young garage apartment tenants partying until 3 am, punk kids smashing windows in the retail construction two blocks away, graffiti, littering…
This is my neighborhood:
(I choose to ignore the fact that the woman arrested as a person of interest does not look like the sort that would shoot someone. I’m sure the Surrey RCMP know exactly what they’re doing. )
Regardless, I feel like I’m living with all the hazards of the “hood” without any of the soul. There’s nobody sitting on the stoop, there’s no hip hop, there’s no double dutch in the street, there’s no fire hydrant spraying a crowd of kids on the hottest day of the year. Perhaps that’s an idealized image that hollywood fed me, but if I have to live constantly looking over my shoulder, I would far rather live in a thriving metropolis than an apathetic suburban cesspool. In the eleven years we lived in Seattle, we didn’t witness anything close to the crime that is practically in our backyard.
And I suppose it doesn’t help that I’ve been feeling exceptionally home sick lately.
It is kinda funny that as I was chatting with Pete the song “By the Rivers of Babylon” came to mind and I felt that I was like one of the Israelites who found it difficult to praise God in a strange land. We are through the 18 months that should give us cultural stability and yet we still find it difficult. I think anyone who says that Canadians are like Americans need to move here and see how really different they are.
That said my devotions gave me a timely reminder, they were about Stephen giving the history lesson to the Sanhedrin before they stoned him, that all through history times like this happen and it is during these times that we need to press into God and trust Him, that even tho’ we don’t understand and know his reasoning and working outs etc that He is TRUSTWORTHY and knows exactly what He is up too. lol
Welcome to our neighborhood. Maybe our Life Group needs to get out and do some prayer walking in the hood. Oh and if we do pray we don’t get shot, or knocked over or breathe in some fumes from the great god weed.
hugs I love ya
HOLY CRAP. That’s a lot of crime. Be safe!! And lock your doors, and windows at night.
I know, right? Turns out another girl was actually killed in our neighborhood in the past week or two as well. And lets not forget about the janitor that hung himself IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. Scary stuff.
Two words: Blair, Nebraska. It’s been over 30 years since there has been an attempted murder, muchless a murder.
Update: someone was stabbed in our neighborhood last week. What is this? The ghetto? It’s ridiculous! Nebraska seems so nice, safe, and tame. I doubt I could survive the winter there. I think I shall move to Arizona and take up residence in a gated condo community with retired folks with dentist grandsons severely lacking a girlfriend who can make awesome cookies. Plan???? I think so…
Sigh… I hear ya… we used to live in Surrey at 102 and 133, right in the heart of Central Surrey… we got so tired of not being able to walk around at night, that we finally packed up and moved to White Rock. It’s a little pricier, but it’s a little calmer life style here. Maybe someday our next move will be California LOL Not sure why Surrey (and other areas) can not deal with all this crime. I guess it is our justice system that doesn’t do anything about it.