[Chat] Walking & Neighborhood Walkers

[Crystal]

Hey Charsky,
 
Long time, no see! I hope your recovery will be quick and easy. In the day time, I'll walk pretty much everywhere, though the distance from my house or the purpose of my trip (such as dropping off flyers) generally keeps me above 25th Street, between Maryland and Greenmount, and south of University Parkway. I've never walked on Greenmount south of 29th. It's more common for me to walk on St. Paul and Charles because there are more people walking and driving.
 
Typically, I don't go too far from my house after dark, so the area where Justin & I walk covers from about 29th and Charles, to 33rd and University Parkway, to 30th and Abell. Plus Hopkins Homewood Campus and the Dell. We've never had any trouble, well except once 6 drunk, football-player-sized, young white men held up our walk for a few minutes because they wanted to know if Justin was a Guardian Angel, since he was wearing a black beret with red trim. Guardian Angels actually wear red berets with black trim. Fortunately, they were just curious, although I wonder if the outcome would have been different if Justin had said yes. Did they want to start a fight with a Guardian Angel?
 
Anyhow, it's always safer to walk with people, and, since it is Spring again, it's time to put out the call for Neighborhood Walkers. As you may have heard, Neighborhood Walkers are people in the neighborhood who have agreed to set aside an hour or so a week to get together and walk around the neighborhood. My group covered Thursday nights from 9 to 10 pm in generally the same area described above, except that we included alleys and Barclay Street, and we didn't include Hopkins Homewood Campus and the Dell. Since I have a class on Thursday nights this semester, I haven't been too active and need to get back into it. 
 
For the walks, we carry flashlights for visibility, small notebooks, and at least one mobile phone for the group. We look for anything out of the ordinary, but haven't seen anything spectacular  -- just people loitering, or appearing to case cars. They move along quickly when they know people are watching. Generally, we just write down the serial numbers of street lights that are out and report them to 311. It's good excercise and a service to the community.
 
If you're interested, Sheila Rees is the main coordinator (though I don't have her new phone number & e-mail address just now). Charles Baker and a few others were especially active below 29th Street. If you wish, I can pop them an e-mail and let them know that you're interested.
 
Also, last year an undercover cop hung out on the corner of 31st and Guilford for a few days trying to get mugged, but no luck. Afterward, she said she was amazed that there were so many people trying to be helpful -- offering to let her use their phone to call her "friend" that was supposed to pick her up, offering her a ride, offering to hang around at the corner with her to be sure that she didn't have any trouble. Wouldn't you know, one of those helpful people was me ...
 
:)
 
Crystal
 

Charlene293 at aol.com wrote:
shes back! back from hospstal nad told to exersice!
thanks nad given thses reprots of robers usng knives, from radius of 26oo block st paul? hwich directons do poeple considr safe and hwich not? for walkng? before/after dark?
my own thoghts are from here >north ok west ok souht nono s east soso<
others? i maen others's thoughts? >crystal?< >christin< >judy?< >debora< >nico< >dawna?<
charlene ostrovsky "charsky" 

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