Open Thread Wednesday

The post, is marked as and is obviously as response to Mr Stanton’s comment which in turn refers to a series of incidents in the 70’s when we were overwhelmed with drugs and violent crime. In that time several of the best people decided we had enough and took (gasp) independent (not through casino/BHA/BHP channels) action.
We were VERY effective but the firestorm from, again, the casino/ BHA crowd was not to be believed. It didn’t help that more than a few brats from leading families ended up with (well deserved) drug records. Finally, when they saw public opinion going increasingly
In our direction, they made the charge that people who were critical of the drug situation were being dictatorial depriving people of an individual choice(!)

Anyone not having the longevity in Heights activism to know about the real history is not going to know the reason(s) for Mr. Stanton or several others’ basic hostility towards me.

Oh man…do you ever have in-person conversations with neighbors and someone says “oh, yeah, I read the Blog” and then there’s one of those Larry David moments where you look at each other trying to figure out what handle the other person hides behind?

For me, I dunno, I’m mostly conflicted about being active in a comments thread at all. Not sure if anything I write is so controversial. Maybe would be helpful to get other perspectives.

Does anyone know what has happened to Alan Marks, a white-haired gentleman who was an avid book-buyer? Neither I nor other friends have seen him in the neighborhood in the last several months. I think he lives (lived?) in the Columbia Heights building next to the playground at Middagh Street.