Its been a while since the Freret neighborhood here in New Orleans has let me down. A couple of nights ago there were 7 shots fired within earshot of here in rapid succession, but I’ve come to ignore this as part of “the neighborhood’s charm”. Besides, the people around here, although firing a lot of rounds, don’t seem to be very effective in taking each other out. So who cares. The last time was really when the thugger dotted my eye while I was locking my door, which kinda pissed me off, but, eh, I’ve been hit harder.
Tonight the neighborhood out-did itself in both insult and weirdness. I’ll document the details I know here for posterity. I woke up cause Scout was barking - this isn’t something she does often, but it could be a cat or something so I wasn’t put on alert. But there was a car out front, I walked into the front room as it turned sort of slowly onto LaSalle. I was looking out the window (the lights in the house were off) and the car took off, not speeding but pretty fast. I figured it was just someone being dropped off from the bar or something. Looking out the front window there was a hispanic-looking guy with a plastic beer cup in his hand who walked over toward my front door; this isn’t unusual since the trash cans being right there, people throw stuff in them, which I encourage.
So I was checking email on my phone a minute later when I noticed the same late 80s-early 90s dark colored (blue or black) car on LaSalle again, but it got my attention because it was back but also because when the driver took his/her foot off the brake the tail lights went out completely. So I thought, ‘That looks like the same car but with the lights off - Shit!’ That’s when I remembered I’d moved the garbage cans around back when I started coming and going through the back door. Which means Hispanic-looking dude was a lookout.
I was moving from the front room though the bedroom trying to keep an eye on the car and figure out what the hell was going on when I heard a loud sheet-metal bang out back so I thought, ‘they’re going for the shed’, but before I could get the door to the kitchen open there was the sound of breaking glass so I bust through the kitchen door running figuring the window on the back door was what was broken. And the car sped off West Down LaSalle. But as I get into the kitchen I notice the back door is fine and there’s something all over the floor and the washer and dryer. Very confusing. So I head back toward the front door thinking it was a distraction and maybe the lookout dude was going to come through the front door but nothing.
So I call the cops and look around while I’m waiting. There’s a window facing LaSalle above the washer and dryer - a small one - with Burgler Bars on it. There was dirt and pieces of terracotta all over the laundry room. So apparently the fools were trying to see if anyone was home by throwing a potted plant through the side window. I didn’t think it smart to go outside since if that was a lure to get me out there I certainly didn’t want that kind of hassle. Plus the door’s locked, why unlock it?
Right after I hung up with the 911 operator what looked like the same car came down Valence and west on LaSalle again - this time they beeped the horn a few times to say hi. The cops came and there was no drama after that. The two female cops that showed up were nice, and professional. I have no complaints about them - but I also don’t think they’ll ever catch anyone or do anything more about it. Its just another piece of paper signifying nothing. So I cleaned up the dirt and glass and terracotta. I put a piece of cardboard over the hole in the window to keep the air out a little. And a sheet over the back door window so you can’t see in now until I can hang a curtain. Looks like I at least have plans for Christmas weekend now: I get to figure out what to do about the window and fix it.
Happy Holidays, Bitches - Indeed. It makes it very hard to spend so much time and money fixing up this Shanty (not to mention the challenges of living in the house itself for the last few years) when Freret neighborhood itself seems to resent what I’m doing. In short, if you’re considering buying a house in the Feret Neighborhood: don’t. It isn’t worth it no matter the price and you’ll just end up regretting it. Unless you’re a criminal or a crackhead; in which case I’m sure you’ll feel right at home. And don’t get me wrong, there are some great people doing great things here but they’re losing. For every one of them there are 100 assholes undoing their work.
But that’s just my opinion.
*if it seems like I mention freret neighborhood a lot, that’s so the search engines will index this higher if people are searching for Freret Neighborhood.
