(I'm not big about fishing for advice on Internet forums, but as this is a rather odd problem, I feel it would take the collective input of a few smart political minds to come up with an inventive solution. Not to mention it's 2 in the morning and none of my friends are awake).
On the outside I live in a pretty normal town: a rural-ish suburb of about 5000 that serves as a bedroom community to a nearby city of 60,000, itself an exurb of D.C. Overwhelmingly white, heterosexual, Protestant type place. I've lived here for eight relatively peaceful years -- the worst that's happened was the theft of the radio from my sister's car (which I suspect she may have lied about). I don't know if things have been changing recently or if I'm only just now becoming aware of them, but something's seemed different these last few months.
There's a group of kids, about half a dozen maybe 10-12 years old, who've been playing just outside my house. They litter the damn place up, scream, set of fireworks, etc. They come inside our yard all the time to get footballs, shoes, shirts, etc., that for some reason they throw into our yard. They don't ask our permission. (We have dogs that bite). We've told them not to play there, that there's a park right down the street, and they refuse to use it.
Someone egged my car. I have no enemies here, and no reason to be hated by strangers -- I'm as white, heterosexual, and Protestant as everyone else here.
Every few nights there's a group of teenagers who stagger drunkenly down the sidewalk, screaming insults at passersby. (I've run afoul of them a few times).
Loud muscle cars roar down the roads at midnight and later.
There's dog poop everywhere. I mean everywhere. And this despite the signs that plaster the place announcing the $25,000 fine for not scooping dog poop.
Kids ride bikes through the streets. There's this weird group of out-of-towners who come in late at night and loiter in the shopping center. If you drive through town, people on the sidewalk make eye contact with you and don't let go, like their animals challenging your domain.
Our police department, a whopping four officers, was recently fired en masse in a big corruption scandal. The new batch of officers, like the ones before them, mostly spend their time staking out roads for speeders and are otherwise largely invisible.
Now I am big on community -- but there's not an ounce of it in this soulless town. No one cares about anyone else. People are, frankly, just plain assholes, sometimes criminally so. (I was almost moved to tears a few weeks ago when my neighbor told me he followed a kid home who had seen snooping around my house at four in the morning). So what went wrong? What can be done to make this town not a ****hole? What can I do personally? I am sure other towns have faced similar problems and, because of the leadership of a few concerned citizens, managed to clean up their act. What do you guys recommend?
On the outside I live in a pretty normal town: a rural-ish suburb of about 5000 that serves as a bedroom community to a nearby city of 60,000, itself an exurb of D.C. Overwhelmingly white, heterosexual, Protestant type place. I've lived here for eight relatively peaceful years -- the worst that's happened was the theft of the radio from my sister's car (which I suspect she may have lied about). I don't know if things have been changing recently or if I'm only just now becoming aware of them, but something's seemed different these last few months.
There's a group of kids, about half a dozen maybe 10-12 years old, who've been playing just outside my house. They litter the damn place up, scream, set of fireworks, etc. They come inside our yard all the time to get footballs, shoes, shirts, etc., that for some reason they throw into our yard. They don't ask our permission. (We have dogs that bite). We've told them not to play there, that there's a park right down the street, and they refuse to use it.
Someone egged my car. I have no enemies here, and no reason to be hated by strangers -- I'm as white, heterosexual, and Protestant as everyone else here.
Every few nights there's a group of teenagers who stagger drunkenly down the sidewalk, screaming insults at passersby. (I've run afoul of them a few times).
Loud muscle cars roar down the roads at midnight and later.
There's dog poop everywhere. I mean everywhere. And this despite the signs that plaster the place announcing the $25,000 fine for not scooping dog poop.
Kids ride bikes through the streets. There's this weird group of out-of-towners who come in late at night and loiter in the shopping center. If you drive through town, people on the sidewalk make eye contact with you and don't let go, like their animals challenging your domain.
Our police department, a whopping four officers, was recently fired en masse in a big corruption scandal. The new batch of officers, like the ones before them, mostly spend their time staking out roads for speeders and are otherwise largely invisible.
Now I am big on community -- but there's not an ounce of it in this soulless town. No one cares about anyone else. People are, frankly, just plain assholes, sometimes criminally so. (I was almost moved to tears a few weeks ago when my neighbor told me he followed a kid home who had seen snooping around my house at four in the morning). So what went wrong? What can be done to make this town not a ****hole? What can I do personally? I am sure other towns have faced similar problems and, because of the leadership of a few concerned citizens, managed to clean up their act. What do you guys recommend?
