There are a lot of things about Greenpoint that I love, but none of those things came to mind while walking my dog through McGolrick Park early this morning. What came to mind was horror and disgust. Every day there is trash, empty vodka bottles and generally an unkept atmosphere that I have pretty much gotten used to since my arrival in this neighborhood a little over a decade ago. But when you add the charm of sidewalk chalk used to support Neo-Nazism, it’s beyond fucked up and completely unacceptable.
And then you see a tree branch uselessly severed, next to empty bottles of liquor, it’s enough to feel total disgust for the ugly side of this largely Polish neighborhood that, at times, gives gentrification a good name. Sorry, but hipsters don’t do swastikas.
I will admit that some aspects to city life has been especially trying on me lately (I just need a few days away, which is happening in a week) but this shit gets old every day watching these white men with the resources of a nationalistic community in front of them waste the day and nights away getting shit-pissed drunk, fighting, pissing and shitting all over the one tiny square block of nature that I have access to. I don’t have a front or back yard except this park where you use and abuse without a second thought. I may sound angry and mean, but let’s start the conversation now, because very little is being done. Where are the wives of these men? They remain on the sidelines, closed-lipped and eyes down with their thin cigarettes and degenerative gaze. I know where you came from but the secret police aren’t looking for you in Greenpoint. Reach out to these fathers and husbands and do something more. Don’t just ignore the problems of your culture and wait for hipster churches to fund and feed your own kind. I donate my hard-earned cash to places that feed your men, but they won’t be able to rehabilitate without you.
Yes, I wrote this all in a grumpy, early morning rant and I should just file it into the “too angry to publish” file and go about my life sugar-coating my reality in Greenpoint, but today fuck it, I’m posting it.
As far as the meaning of “Zcunczyk”, the Google tells me that it’s a fairly common surname. I suppose it’s possible that the offender put his own name next to the offending symbols. We should be so lucky. Okay, that’s all I got.
