Last night, I got my laundry half-finished at the apartment of the neighborhood housing director, Jeff Skrenes, and so I had to haul back a big rubberized canvas bag of stuff that was clean-but-wet. I thought, well, I'll just go to Spin Cycle at Hawthorn (Sic) Crossings strip mall. My plan was that I'd go early in the morning, before the drug dealers awoke from their long slumber, visions of crack fairies dancing in their heads...
I figured if I got to the strip mall first thing in the morning, I wouldn't have to rub elbows with the thugs. Well, no such luck. The thugs have their own form of a work ethic, and they were actually out in force.
I read a discarded newspaper--the story of two North Minneapolis minors who beat a woman to death, and her 10-year-old son--while, outside in the parking lot, drug business was brisk.
At one point, one of the dealers came inside and sat in the corner. A woman who was sweeping the floor at the laundromat came up to him and told him, politely, he'd have to take his business outside. He stood up with a surly look, but walked outside, silently.
Gee, I wish my friend Jeff had a better clothes dryer.
There's a story behind my big rubberized canvas bag, which is so convenient for laundry and--just as importantly--conveys a certain sense of self-worth that you just don't get from hauling your laundry around in a black plastic garbage bag. Every time I see somebody hauling their clothes around in a garbage bag I think, "Does this person have no sense of self-esteem?"
Anyway, here's the story of where I got the bag.
I was working for an owner of "affordable apartments mogul" in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and one day he told me to clean out a storage locker which had been abandoned for, lo, many years. I took the contents of the locker--well, the stuff I didn't want for myself--to the Association For Retarded Citizens thrift store, per my usual practice.
But I kept that big rubberized canvas bag, which originally held ice skates and hockey equipment. The name of the hockey player is actually written inside, in Sharpie marker.
Well, a day or two after we cleaned out the storage locker, somehow the owner of the junk got word and was REALLY UPSET.
He ended up going to the ARC thrift store and, I hear, buying back his own skates, venting his rage on the handicapped. (Which was a lot better than being told his stuff was in a landfill, I think. Waste not, want not)
But I still have the rubberized canvas bag. The owner of the apartment building told me, heck no, I didn't need to give back the bag to that (expletive). Just keep it. So I've had the bag since, like, about 2003.
In the back of my mind, though, I'm always expecting some angry "Fighting Sioux" hockey player to come charging up to me at a laundromat, yelling, "HEY!!! THAT'S MY SKATE BAG!!!!!!"
This minor worry was not on my mind today, however, as I did laundry within sight of drug deals in the parking lot of the Hawthorn (Sic) Crossings strip mall.
6 comments:
Ya, I bought my 4 year old daughter to that Mc Donalds to pick up some quick breakfast, and got offerd all kinds of drugs before even making it into the building. Hello 4 year old right here!
Thank you for confirming what I'm seeing there every day. When is the management of Hawthorn (sic) Crossings going to do something about the drug sales taking place in their parking lot?
It's 1 a.m. so I am not going to research this right now, but here's what I will do in my official capacity as Hawthorne staff: I'll find out who I need to talk to and do my best to bring Hawthorn Crossings management to our next Crime and Safety Committee meeting. We'll see what happens then. Once I've confirmed their attendance, we'll announce that in various places, including your blog.
hawthorne resident tim baylor has some kind of ownership in the strip mall - it might just be mcD's i am not sure. he lives in the condo's on the river. I bet he could be very helpful in getting the stip mall management to take a more pro-active role.
this is such a dilema - my theory is that the businesses don't do a lot of volume, for what ever reason perhaps even because of the uncomfortable activities, so the shady people are there and are giving some business to the businesses but at the same time the shady people are keeping/driving the legit customers away. It becomes a wierd symbiotic or parasitic relationship. It's just like Big Stop or Wafana's was.
If the mall management can make a difference in the ambiance, then what we need to do is do as much of our business there as possible - as a way of thanking and confirming their efforts.
Soon there will be a public plaza between broadway and the shops, they will expand the sidewalk area into the parking lot and make a plaza - we will need to organize some events there and again, flood the plaza with upstanding northsiders as a show of force.
How about some dramatic readings from the Johnny Northside movie cast.
So, I'm not saying there is no nefarious activity going on at the Hawthorn(e) Crossings, but I can't help but feel like folks are exagerating its bounds a bit, which really isn't helpful. I frequent the center, as I have a french fry loving toddler. I have been to the McDonalds, many, many times, with and without my kids, at various times of the day and night, in the drive through and inside, for food and the Redbox. I've also been to the Little Caesars many times (we don't cook much), and the clinic in the center. Never, not one time, in any way, have I ever been approached/solicited/winked at, etc, etc, etc, in hopes of completing an illicit transaction. Nor have I ever seen anyone bound up to anyone else's car door as they got out to enter the McDonalds to offer an array of alternative pharmaceuticals. Is there some extraneous activity going on in the parking lot? Probably. As a customer of the business establishments in the center, are you really in danger of being assaulted by overzealous peddlers? Unless the DVD man is out, probably not. Trying to paint an overly dramatic picture of the circumstances, at Hawthorn(e) Crossings, and especially at Cub, is just going to scare away solid customers and legimate businesses our community needs.
OK, so there IS drug dealing in the parking lot, but we shouldn't really WORRY about that? We should have no worries about, for example, random bullets around toddlers? Just mind your own business and get your French fries and pay no attention to the dealers?
I think we get far too accustomed to this kind of thing in North Minneapolis. If higher standards aren't demanded, these dealers will be dealing their junk in the parking lot until kingdom come. Dealing on the edge of the parking lot, or in front of the laundry, or even across the street at the crappy, unsightly buildings are ALL UNACCEPTABLE and I will call b.s. on it until something goes POP!!! and the management starts to take action.
I've never told people NOT to do business there, however. I think people SHOULD do business there, and call 911 on blatant dealing from their cars.
Oh, and on the bright side... here's a part of North Minneapolis that is already a walking and shopping destination for a certain percentage of the public.
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