I know lots of hard core folks on these streets and have lots of friends here, and all are armed and dangerous. I saw a friend of a friend let his Pitt loose on a cat and rip it to shreds. My house has been attacked several times, and I bought a Cane Corso and keep my Weimaraner here on guard duty at night. I have installed video surveillance cameras and security lights on the property and an AlarmForce system monitored by the police. We here all know how serious is the potential for violence at any time. Saturday nights are the most explosive... downright insane, at Lakeview and Euclid. When I came upon the photo above, a fight had just been broken up by the Marathon manager... really, the whole scene has the constant intensity of a fight, and the manager is just keeping the gloves on everyone, hoping for the best. The female clerk cowers behind the register. She and the manager appear to be Arab and I imagine they are family, and they know they can get shot at any time, but it is worth it to them. It is my understanding when they applied for the permit to open this Marathon they said they would not sell alcohol, which they do. They do not seem to use any real security, and they allow customers to loiter and disrupt their property and all that is in the environs. I suppose if they get killed they brought it on themselves, as they could keep the customers moving, run a respectable operation, and enhance the neighborhood so fewer dangerous people frequented the establishment. Otherwise, and soon enough, you get what happened recently at the Sunoco at the end of my street, where several thugs in the parking lot were killed. Since then, helped by the fact the city closed down the bar and flop house across the street, that corner has been quiet, haunted by memorial tags to those who died there.

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I've had many bad experiences with people on Roxbury and in the area (Cleveland and East Cleveland) - racism, theft, intimidation... a threat on a worker's life and several threats on my life - and that is just with the people who were hired and paid to work on the job... I don't know if anyone on the outside has caused problems at all. And, even though I have had aweful work and personal experiences with most hires, contractors and subs, I have had good experiences with enough, and seen some good changes in all, to believe initiatives such as this make a positive difference in the people who are part of the effort. I see individuals on the crew working as a team and becoming outcome-oriented, getting interested in the historic character of the building and the quality of the original workmanship, and... better late than never... caring about the quality of their own workmanship in restoring the building. For those on the team who have good character, this project has been a valuable work and learning experience - I'll ask them to share more on that on realneo themselves.

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