More on Lawlessness in Norfolk - Is Mayor Fraim Paying Any Attention?

Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim

Yesterday I wrote a follow up post on the out of control crime wave that is gripping parts of the City of Norfolk, particularly around the Old Dominion University campus near my property.  The mayor and City Council are pouring many millions of dollars into a new hotel development - over the protest of existing hotels - while slashing funding for neighborhood preservation and doing nothing to address the greatly under staffed police force.  I had a lengthy conversation with the head of the Third Patrol of the police force and got a lot of blather about being patient, waiting for the "process to work," etc.   Meanwhile the situation is worsening although the City Attorney's office can still find time to harass small business owners, especially those of Arabic descent.  It's a frightening state of affairs and as the Virginian Pilot reports, the shooting of an 11 year old boy two nights ago was "random."  Yep, thugs and gang members running around with guns and firing off shots at will.  That's why my family members have evacuated to Virginia Beach and why my residence is going up for sale ASAP.   Here are highlights from today's Virginian Pilot article:

An 11-year-old boy who was shot in the foot while walking in a neighborhood Tuesday appears to have been a random target, police said.

The boy was walking on 31st Street near Colley Avenue about 9:20 p.m. when someone in a dark sedan with tinted windows began firing, police spokesman Chris Amos said. The boy began running and felt a sting in his foot, Amos said.

He was treated for a minor bullet injury. Officers recovered shell casings from the street.

Welcome to Mayor Paul Fraim's Norfolk.  As for the perpetrators of the shooting being caught, don't hold your breath.  Forensics confirm where the gunfire that hit my home came from and neither the tenant of the property nor the landlords have met with any consequence.   The city is headed back to the old days where its not safe to be in some neighborhoods even in broad daylight.  Thanks a lot City Council and Mayor Fraim.  Norfolk desperately needs a clean sweep of City Council.

Hampton Roads from Chesapeake Avenue

As much as I complain about living in backwards Virginia, I will concede that our neighborhood known as Old Wythe in the City of Hampton is beautiful.  The scene above was taken by a neighbor down the street looking  across Hampton Roads harbor towards Norfolk and Portsmouth to the south.

Labor Day Weekend Retrospective

As I indicated in a post yesterday morning, I had a truly wonderful weekend spending the vast majority of the weekend with my boyfriend of roughly a month and a half. We did, in fact, end up spending the afternoon at a friend's pool sipping white sangria my boyfriend whipped up. The pool crowd is both interesting and fun. The owner of the house with the pool is a single gay man who lets neighbors from the surrounding close knit neighborhood congregate and socialize at his pool. The other neighbors are a mix of single gays, gay couples and several middle aged straight couples, all of whom are totally accepting and cool hanging out with the gay boys. It's a unique crowd and exemplifies how all neighborhoods should be in my view.

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I intend to protect my boy friend's privacy, but one strange coincidence came up that I want to mention, in part because it will allay questions of what he looks like. We were chilling last night and watching the gay romance theme movie, The Trip, which I have seen before but which he had never seen before. The coincidence is that the Tommy character in the movie played by Steve Braun (especially in the portion of the movie where he has mid-length hair) looks remarkably like my boyfriend in an old high school senior picture he had showed me earlier in the weekend. It was really uncanny. So, those of you who want to know what my sweetie looks like, go rent the movie and picture a somewhat older version of Tommy. :)

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One thing the weekend definitely re-enforced for me was just how sweet and talented my boyfriend is. He has a beautiful heart, is intelligent and is totally comfortable in his own skin. I also very much like the way he confidently and unapologetically introduces me to all of his friends as his boyfriend. I find all of these to be very attractive qualities and hope that as time passes we come treasure each other even more. Is he "the one"? I'm not sure yet, but he is definitely a contender.