Saturday, August 28, 2004

Just when you think it couldn't get any worse..

I live in a dominican neighborhood at the northernmost top of Manhattan in an area known as Inwood. It is pretty much a nice place to live. The rent is cheap (I pay $925 for a fiarly large 1BR), the local cuisine is fairly low priced (I can get an amazing breakfast deal for $3.25 and a decent dinner meal for under $10), and there are a plethora of amazingly cool .99 Cent stores that sell everything from tools, to cookware, to burritos.

What I do not like about my neighborhood is the merange music. At first, I thougth I could get used to it. When you hear it, it sounds very happy and does make a person feel good. The trouble is, I don't actually hear it "directly". I hear it as it passes through my walls from apartments all over my building and the buildings surrounding my apartment. I get the deep bass (as its turned up to ear-splitting decibels) that shakes my walls, paintings, floors, and teeth. AND.. (this is the annoying part).. AND, all the songs have the same bass beat.

The music in my neighborhood pretty much blares at all times of the day and night. Sometimes, there is a lull in the music and I can get some peace and quiet. At other times, say, at 3am in the morning, it gets turned up, my teeth begin to chanel the bass music, and fury begins to froth deep within my loins.

But then.. just when I thought the music was more than I can tolerate, something else happened that topped even the loud music. Every night, about 10pm, we now have an ice cream truck that begins its evening by parking in front, or near, the apartments on my block. The music from the truck, turned up to drown out the loud merange music (so you can imagine how loud it is), is this chorus of sound that plays over and over and over.. and it begins with, "Hello!!.. (music, music, music).." Arghhh!! The ice cream truck plays, in one place (usually right outside my window), for about 4 hours (usually ending about 2am in the morning). The only establishments that are up later that the ice cream truck are the many barber shops dotting each corner. They don't open until around 8pm and they close about 4 am. Is that nuts? However, I must digress because that is for another post.

I heard from some neighbors that they think the ice cream truck is really a vehicle that delivers the various drugs in the neighborhood. That actually makes sense- if you are ever wanting to get high without actually smoking pot, you can just walk up my block and the smell of exhaled pot will surely do the trick.

Do I live in a schwanky 'hood or what? My friends all say, "Bo, you get what you pay for," meaning because my rent is so cheap, I shouldn't be surprised that I live amidst the craziness of Inwood. However, the thought of paying $1800/mo for a 1BR apartment the size of my living room with a tiny closet in the bathroom is nuts (there are many apartments like this; heck, a friend of mine lives in one where his shower is located in his kitchen and the toilet in a hallway water closet). Living like that just isn't appealing to me.

Sure, my apartment has a few downsides (like the ceiling in my bathroom that leaks water several times a day so bad that Roy now keeps an umbrella near the toilet for those moments when he's caught beneath a cascade of water while sitting on the pot); and yet, I live far enough away from the city that I sometimes feel like I live in another country (it doesn't hurt that few restaraunts or businesses speak any English whatsoever). New York City is such an amazing place for sure. (By the way, the super has promised the water will stop falling, while its taken him 3 months to actually do it, I've noticed that my bathroom ceiling hasn't leaked all day now- I sure hope that's a good sign).

No matter how ill I speak of my neighborhood though, there are still some amazing things to like about it. I have a couple of the city's most beautiful parks nearby, I am about 4 blocks from the Hudson River and the Harlem River. There is, surprising as it may sound, no crime. The food is cheap and the subways are just around the corner. I guess my big learned lesson in all of this is that a person can put up with a whole lot more than one realizes... one just has to get to the point where that becomes more applicable to one's life situation.

Appreciating my life lesson reminds me of a saying I heard when I was young, "I once complained about having no shoes until I met a man who had no feet." That saying sort of puts things in perspective for me (not that I am NOT planning on moving, mind you, but that I really shouldn't complain. It really could be worse...knocking on wood, "thump, thump, thump").

5 comments:

Paul said...

Not to rub it in, or anything, but my house payment is less (substantially) than your rent, I have four bedrooms and two bathrooms, and I live on the last street of a very quiet neighborhood.

Needless to say, I do not live in NYC. You don't make me want to live there, either!

By the way, I'll have a double dip chocolate, hold the weed.

Paul said...

Not to rub it in, or anything, but my house payment is less (substantially) than your rent, I have four bedrooms and two bathrooms, and I live on the last street of a very quiet neighborhood.

Needless to say, I do not live in NYC. You don't make me want to live there, either!

By the way, I'll have a double dip chocolate, hold the weed.

Bo said...

Know any evangelical liberal churches in your area that'd tolerate a fabulous ol' homo like me? I can't even imagine living on a quiet street and paying a mortgage on a 4 BR HOUSE!! for considerably less than my present rent. I am happy for you, really.. (grrr..!) ;)

I went looking this week at a few apartments for sale in my neighborhood (only in quieter places, if that is actually possible, I don't know). I found some pretty good deals- I found this one jr. 1BR (440 sq ft) for $183,000 with a maintenance cost of only $550/mo (that's on top of the mortgage, it pays for the doorman, garbage, and the like). It was nice- and almost affordable- I doubt I'll find anything cheaper in Manhattan.

Paul said...

People have to be nuts to live there! ;)

Bo said...

Nah, you don't HAVE to be nuts to live here, but it definately helps! ;)