Suburbanism strikes the big city, part one
Some idiot in Brooklyn complained to the city about a 6-year-old's "graffiti." From the New York Daily News:
A 6-year-old Brooklyn girl's family was threatened with a $300 fine after a neighbor complained to the city about the girl's blue chalk drawings. The absurd warning from the city Sanitation Department arrived Oct. 5, a few days after Natalie Shea scribbled a blue flower on her parents' 10th St. stoop in Park Slope.
I understand the "broken windows" theory, but if you're worried that a little girl's drawing of a flower can tip your neighborhood into the slum category, you're probably better off in a gated community.
On an unrelated note, I was intrigued by the last pararaph of the story, which is an altered quote from the little girl's mother:
"I'm a good New Yorker. I like to obey the rules," she said. "If it's really illegal for Natalie to use chalk on her own stoop, if that's really upsetting to Mayor [Bloomberg], I will comply."
Why the brackets around "Bloomberg"? Did she really call him "Mayor Jerkwad" or something? Maybe she thought Rudy Giuliani was still mayor, which makes no sense because Rudy would have made a special trip to Brooklyn to see little Natalie put in handcuffs.
Labels: City life
posted by Robert David Sullivan at
10/13/2007 09:43:00 PM
1 Comments:
Something similar happened in the South End recently in front of a city-sponsored graffiti wall for inner city teens. A resident of the nearby yuppie high rise requested that the kids not paint anything too offensive, presumably as the wall is within her maginificent view of the South End. Move back to Wellesley where they don't have graffiti walls!! Its a city, for god's sake!!
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