Let's Hope This Blows Over

So, on Monday night we had a drive by shooting occur just down the street. We were out to dinner when it happened so we missed all of the hoopla. I found out about it from our neighborhood list serve, my husband found out about it from someone he works with who lives just down the street. From what I’ve gathered, no one was seriously injured. I guess as a car drove by, the driver began firing at the “victim” as he stood in his front yard, he in turn pulled out a gun and started firing back. Luckily, a police car was in the area, it arrived seconds after the shooting and was able to stop the car; the “victim” escaped on foot and was picked up later. It is questionable how much of a “victim” the victim actually was, and it’s pretty obvious that this was an isolated incident. The shooting occurred at about 8:30 pm, a time when kids and people walking dogs are out en masse enjoying the early summer evening.

Although I find it somewhat disconcerting that we had a drive by shooting less than one block away from our house, and that the idiots who were shooting at each other could have put kids, pets, anyone, in danger, I’m more frightened by what could happen in our neighborhood now…. My real fear is that people will get scared and put their houses up for sale, or try to make changes in the neighborhood by creating or enforcing rules that would take away or change the things that give it character and make it special. I’m hopeful that the whole thing will just blow over, and it will remain an isolated incident with the bad apples now securely in jail. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Comments

[Carol]

Hey, it can happen anywhere in Durham! I read in the paper that a Duke administrator who lived on the edge of Forest Hills was found bound and dead in his house, apparently a robbery. And Forest Hills is pretty nice.

[Nicholas]

I find it amazing how much power real estate agents can have. If they decide that a neighborhood is not a "good" neighborhood anymore it will be come a "bad" one. If real estate agents steer people away from a neighborhood, the houses will not sell. Prices will start to drop, which will make real estate agents downplay the neighborhood even more. People who can't sell their houses will rent them. So it starts to spiral downward to where no one cares about the neighborhood anymore. Years later the real estate agents will redicover the low prices in a neighborhood and people will start moving back in.

It will probably not happen in your neighborhood.