The 'hood

A couple of weeks ago, at about 5:40ish I heard 5 or 6 gun shots through the window. I heard a car tear down the street shortly afterward. Turns out there was a shooting ONE BLOCK away from our condo that morning. This is not the first time we have had a shooting so close (I can think of a few in the past year). The street a block away is a haven for drug dealers, thugs, and gang members. It is *almost* a ghetto near the train station. Frankly, every now and then it scares the hell out of me to have a young child near the riff-raff I see over there sometimes. One day my mother-in-law was out with G pushing the stroller through the middle of a bunch of kids on the sidewalk. They were on the way home from the little family grocery on the Sketchy Street when a car slowed down and pointed a cap gun at the crowd of kids, then they all shouted "GUN!" and hitting the ground. Even though that gun looked real, it wasn't, but it COULD HAVE BEEN.

Here's the ironic thing about gang members-they have remarkably bad aim. They always seem to target one person (usually another gang member) and inadvertantly shoot the 5 year old birthday girl, or the honor student leaving for college in two weeks, or the pregnant mother of two. It's all tragic, but my worries are about my blameless, pure-lit girl getting caught in the crosshairs. It's city living, after all...

It's funny, because in safe Florida, we didn't even lock doors. Maybe that is a thing of the past. I struggle with my concerns because I love the diversity of our neighborhood, I love this city, and I love my girl. I don't want to have to explain what a prostitute is or why she's hanging out by the stop sign on Wayne. Or why drug dealers torch fabulous new businesses coming into the neighborhood because they're afraid their unquestioned ownership of the block might be shaken. I struggle with how to maintain Gillian's innocence with the crazy city world all around us, while being truthful about what it is.