2001-07-31 - 11:25 p.m.

There Goes The Neighborhood

It was with some relief that I left the squabbling of Planetarion behind and checked to see what was going on with the burst pipe. It turned out to not be as serious as I feared it could be.

Looking at the Hamster Palace from the outside it seems that my store is on the first floor, but it really is in the basement - there is nothing underneath the floor of the store but earth. This "ground floor" is divided into two unequal parts: about 80% of it is the store and the last 20% of it is called "the basement." It was there the pipe had burst.

That's a good thing, if the pipe had burst in the back room of the store, thousands of dollars of comics could have been ruined. As it was some comic supplies that were store in the basement were rendered unsellable. Oh well. Like I say it could have been much worse.

One of the nice things about the neighborhood I live in is that there are many useful businesses as close hand. About four houses down on the other side of the street there is a plumber, and on occasions like this it sure is nice to have one so close at hand. I called them up and one of them wandered over about a half hour later. In the meantime we'd shut off the water main to the building, like he'd instructed us to, and tried to rescue what stuff we could from the water-logged basement.

The plumber's name was Paul, and I'd spoken with him on a couple of occasions. I was still bleary eyed from lack of sleep, but I talked with him while he worked. Actually he did most of the talking, and I helped by moving stuff out of the way for him.

Actually, he had some bad news for me: the plumbing business he worked for was going to be moving away. They had just put a "For Sale" sign on their building.

There were a number of reasons why they were moving. Foremost was the fact that they needed a bigger place with more storage room. They had applied for a permit to build a storage shed on the vacant lot next to their property, but the city had stupidly denied it. Frown Town is governed by idiots who seem to feel that there are too many thriving businesses within the city limits.

But basically, the plumbers were just tired of the neighborhood. They were tired of the kids breaking their storefront windows, they were tired of having their vans broken into and having their tools stolen. They were tired of the noisy, trashy neighbors. They were just tired of the hassles, the theft and the vandalism.

So a useful business becomes and empty building, and the street looks that much more like a place where nobody wants to live.

Across the street from my store there is a vacuum cleaner store that has been there for years and years. That place is closing too. The owner is tired of the horrible tenants and the penny-ante hassles of running a retail business. He wants out, and he wants out now. He's selling the building he's in for a song. He's only about three houses up from the plumbing place.

So, in a few months, the other side of the street is going to look like crap.

Seeing two long-standing businesses closing within a couple months of each other makes me stop and think. Is this neighborhood going down the drain?

I've been here for almost 20 years, and all the while people have been telling me the neighborhood is going downhill. Frankly, I've been skeptical of talk like that - everyone tends to romanticize the past and downgrade the present. Some things have gotten better, other things have gotten worse.

I was talking about it with the Manager a few days ago, and in some small ways I've made the street a better place. I've kept my business going, I've kept the house up and I've brought nice tenants into the area. It would be nice if other landlords cared as much.

After the plumber left, I went upstairs and checked to see what was happening with Planetarion. The attackers from Arthur's galaxy had retreated from every planet, except for at Adamantium's planet, where there were too many attackers to defend. Adamantium lost about 30% of his resource-producing asteroids, which was kind of painful. Unfortunately, I don't think we've seen the last of the mean guys from Arthur's galaxy.

After I checked in with my galaxy I went in the bedroom for some much needed sleep. I was practically dead on my feet, and was unconscious almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

When I got up, it was dark I felt much better, but was still very tired.

I was puttering around, and just about to get ready for bed, when I heard a loud thumping noise outside, like someone was repeatedly hitting something. Then I heard some loud voices. I went to the window and looked outside.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but the people who live downstairs in the house across the street that had the fire moved back in again. The second floor looks like a total loss, but I guess the first floor is still livable. It hasn't exactly been nice to have them back - they've been rather noisy with their stereo.

Anyway, the female of the couple was walking up and down the sidewalk in the dark, shouting and waving her arms. The male of the couple was talking to her from the kitchen window. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but it was plain they were having a fight.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that it was one in the morning.

The woman stopped shouting, bent over and picked up what looked to be a board or a broom handle, and began clubbing the car parked behind their house. That had been the loud noise I had heard earlier. The male, still inside, responded by throwing stuff out the kitchen window. The woman dropped the board and began picking up some items. It looked like the man was throwing her clothes out the window, and she was trying to retrieve them.

She picked stuff up for a bit, talking loudly all the while, until finally the man came out of the house. She then threw down the clothes and the two of them started punching each other.

Enough is enough, I said to myself. I'd be damned if I'd stand by while they pummeled each other. I grabbed the phone and called 911 to report a domestic disturbance. A very bored-sounding guy took down the information, and said that someone would be right over.

Truth to tell, the fight did not look like much. The man was very much bigger than the woman, and he mainly seemed to be trying to ward off her rather weak-looking blows.

I can't tell you what the sequel to this was. I was so exhausted that I went right back to bed. All I can say is that whatever happened next wasn't loud enough to wake me up.

So is the neighborhood going downhill? It's certainly starting to look that way.