My Life In Brooklyn

On July 16 the Flatbush - Empire Ave Merchant’s Association (FEMA) held their annual street fair. 

I usually do a “walk about” though honestly I haven’t been inspired to buy anything.  However I was slightly tempted by a tee-shirt design this year, though decided it was way too hot to bother.

Anyway, so no traffic on that section of Flatbush, of course (from Empire to Parkside Ave) and after – I think it may have been 7 pm this year – the fair ends and status quo resumes.

On my street, however, there were 70+ people gathered in front of the drug dealers building and a party continued until midnight.  Mind you none of the drug dealers actually live in this building nor do the other party attendees, it is a gathering place that the police appear to allow.  I called the police three times, my neighbors called many times as well.  Nothing. Oh a couple cruisers drove by and I saw one even stop and chat, but not a word suggesting dispersal or toning down the noise.  Among other “activities” there was a loud and active dice game; and residual effects included lots of public urination, garbage, and broken bottles.  The party continued until well after midnight, in smaller but still notable numbers.  Since I went to bed I cannot say when it finally ended.  Below is a photo of a small part of the party:

Now the truck you see to the left in the image was strange.  First of all it is a filthy dump truck, a small one — not being judgemental here, that is the nature/function of such a truck.  However, at the end of the FEMA fair I watched some guys — presumably the truck owner(s) – load up all kinds of tables, food, cooking devices into it.  That white bit you can see at the top of the truck is a propane tank for cooking. Yeah, they were selling food at the street fair, caveat emptor people.  Once the truck was loaded they all joined the ongoing party.

I love that we get double-speak from the precinct.  Always telling us to call in when there are problems, and treating us like we are an annoyance or ignoring us when we do.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 27th, 2006 at 8:44 am and is filed under Brooklyn, Crime. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.