T
taye
Guest
I’m posting today because I have some serious concerns about the area where I live and wondering if this sort of thing is commonplace in cities. We live in a typical middle-class neighborhood, there is one street close by with expensive homes. We bought the house 7 years ago, and it seemed like a quiet place to live. Close to schools, daycares, yadda yadda. Perfect for the young family. It would be my 6th home (if you include basement appartments/rented homes) and I was convinced it would also be the safest place to raise our family.
Well, you know where this is going… My dreams turned into a nightmare. I have a hard time understanding and accepting where things are going right now. Can anyone share with me if these are normal things to be expected when living in the city? Keep in mind, we’ve only been here 7 years and we certainly don’t live in the slums - it just feels like it sometimes!!
1 - Within the first year here, someone came by for us to sign a petition to get a convicted child molester out of neighborhood. Said man wasn’t allowed to buy a house as per the court, but his (loving!!) family signed the papers for him. Don’t know if this man still lives there or not, there is a different car in the driveway I believe, but that doesn’t mean much.
2 - Several reports of stolen bicycles, BBQs, even during the day.
3 - 2 or 3 years ago, someone threw a commercial-sized fire extinguisher into the neighbors’ window (of course he pulled the pin first). It blew up and sent fire-retardant foam all over the living room and kitchen area. I think it caused something like 10 000$ worth of damage. Good thing he had insurance and that no one was standing near the window at the time!! I firmly believe that the perpetrator had meant to throw it at our window, as this happened during the weekend. We owned an RV at the time, and it was always parked on the side of the road during the weekdays, so they would have known we were gone every weekend. No one at home = no one to report incident, if you kwim.
4 - One summer night, we heard what sounded like a herd of wild animals running toward the house. We looked outside and saw at least 30 teens running through our yard and onto the street. Talk about respecting private property! Thankfully, the neighbor set up a fence since that incident, so that is no longer possible
.
5 - Dangerous drivers squealing tires at all hours of day/night. Most other streets in the neighborhood curve quite a bit, while ours is straight. By the time they get through the maze of windy streets, they end up speeding on ours.
6 - A couple weeks ago, we were up late with the baby and we heard this car speeding up and screeching tires really bad. Looked outside to see this car drive through 2 yards, do a 360 in the neighbor’s driveway, driving into his garbage, sending it spilling out into the street. It was no “accident”, he just drove off. The next day, I took a walk around the neighborhood and it was quite obvious where he had been. He did the same thing at two other homes - driving in their yard and knocking over their garbage. It was one of the large annual collection weeks where they pick up people’s big items so he timed that well. At first I thought that it was someone high or drunk, but if that had been so, he would have crashed into a car, a house. He was doing this for kicks. The neighbor told us this wasn’t the first time she’s seen this person driving like a maniac.
7 - Once again this morning, I woke up to the sound of same crazy lunatic driving off at a ridiculous speed down the street. At 8:00 in the morning, while the bus was coming to pick up the older schoolkids
! This wasn’t the same car, it had a different sound to it, unless Mr. Bad Driver got new wheels after he smashed up car #1…
Is this normal? You tell me. We’re considering moving in the next few years but this craziness has me wanting to expedite the process.
Also, for you country-dwelling folk, do you feel safe where you live? Our last home was in the country, and I really felt much safer there. If I would have known better, we wouldn’t have moved out of there in the first place.
Well, you know where this is going… My dreams turned into a nightmare. I have a hard time understanding and accepting where things are going right now. Can anyone share with me if these are normal things to be expected when living in the city? Keep in mind, we’ve only been here 7 years and we certainly don’t live in the slums - it just feels like it sometimes!!
1 - Within the first year here, someone came by for us to sign a petition to get a convicted child molester out of neighborhood. Said man wasn’t allowed to buy a house as per the court, but his (loving!!) family signed the papers for him. Don’t know if this man still lives there or not, there is a different car in the driveway I believe, but that doesn’t mean much.
2 - Several reports of stolen bicycles, BBQs, even during the day.
3 - 2 or 3 years ago, someone threw a commercial-sized fire extinguisher into the neighbors’ window (of course he pulled the pin first). It blew up and sent fire-retardant foam all over the living room and kitchen area. I think it caused something like 10 000$ worth of damage. Good thing he had insurance and that no one was standing near the window at the time!! I firmly believe that the perpetrator had meant to throw it at our window, as this happened during the weekend. We owned an RV at the time, and it was always parked on the side of the road during the weekdays, so they would have known we were gone every weekend. No one at home = no one to report incident, if you kwim.
4 - One summer night, we heard what sounded like a herd of wild animals running toward the house. We looked outside and saw at least 30 teens running through our yard and onto the street. Talk about respecting private property! Thankfully, the neighbor set up a fence since that incident, so that is no longer possible
.5 - Dangerous drivers squealing tires at all hours of day/night. Most other streets in the neighborhood curve quite a bit, while ours is straight. By the time they get through the maze of windy streets, they end up speeding on ours.
6 - A couple weeks ago, we were up late with the baby and we heard this car speeding up and screeching tires really bad. Looked outside to see this car drive through 2 yards, do a 360 in the neighbor’s driveway, driving into his garbage, sending it spilling out into the street. It was no “accident”, he just drove off. The next day, I took a walk around the neighborhood and it was quite obvious where he had been. He did the same thing at two other homes - driving in their yard and knocking over their garbage. It was one of the large annual collection weeks where they pick up people’s big items so he timed that well. At first I thought that it was someone high or drunk, but if that had been so, he would have crashed into a car, a house. He was doing this for kicks. The neighbor told us this wasn’t the first time she’s seen this person driving like a maniac.
7 - Once again this morning, I woke up to the sound of same crazy lunatic driving off at a ridiculous speed down the street. At 8:00 in the morning, while the bus was coming to pick up the older schoolkids
! This wasn’t the same car, it had a different sound to it, unless Mr. Bad Driver got new wheels after he smashed up car #1…Is this normal? You tell me. We’re considering moving in the next few years but this craziness has me wanting to expedite the process.
Also, for you country-dwelling folk, do you feel safe where you live? Our last home was in the country, and I really felt much safer there. If I would have known better, we wouldn’t have moved out of there in the first place.
.
