first couple months living in the Artspace building i spent most of my time staring out the window. in awe of the view that was now mine. mine? it’d been a while since i’d felt secure in a place so it’s not a shitty mine, it’s a relief mine.
anyway. the looking off in the distance view is great. and since my apartment includes space on the corner of the building, it’s doubly great.
closer to home, i have a look straight down view of franklin street. this fascinated me. most of the people walking by, a fair amount and sometimes a whole bunch, were either very rich looking or very poor looking. foot traffic-wise, i have a good view of only this block so it’s not an observation born of how great their car is. most people are walking by from parked or moving on from elsewhere. to be honest the why of i’m still not entirely sure of. except that some of the poor i’m talking about are carting their belongings with them up from having slept in washington park. this having come to light from some of my super early morning walks down to the lakeshore. Charles R. Westcott Park?? anyone? anyone?? i’ve walked there even more often and never saw a single person enjoying the park other than the couple of times i rambled in there to see someone sleeping on the back corner bench and once off behind in the weeds.
i digress.
the entirety is granted, somewhat of a half-assed observation based solely on dress and walking demeanor. still, if i wasn’t so poor, i’d bet money that i was correct a majority of the time. i wouldn’t have said so back then. back then was just curious, noticing and wondering.
these days, i’m not wondering about the potential problem. i’m just wondering about the solution.
our building is pretty diverse. gotta give it up to artspace for that. i have plenty of complaints.. hi i’m miss opposition, thank you. but on this important point, i see obvious effort that paid off. pretty impressive when you think about it for two seconds. odds are good that it’s at least part of the reason involved when there is grumbling around the city about “waste of taxpayer’s money.”
don’t roll your eyes at me. i don’t think it’s hanging any more but a few months back, less than a mile from here, hung an over-sized confederate flag from the front porch.
i’m an introvert. not running around the streets trying to engage..anyone, to be honest. i can get away with that for the most part. because i’m WHITE. unfortunately, i am also a WOMAN. bully for you Indiana. you are more misogynistic than Illinois. i had no idea. point being, despite a fairly non-confrontational way about things, i have ended up in yelling back and forth fits in the street more than a couple of times, walking just in these few blocks.
i can’t imagine what it must be to walk around here a POC or anyone thumbing their nose, obviously, at gender norms. or anyone (GASP) looking to be showing too much affection to someone of the same sex.
one grown man (whitey) calling another grown man (POC): boy. BOY.
my guess is that POC would only be amused at how angry this makes me. i would guess that based on a completely unphased reaction by one of our (POC) residents when physically threatened by a whole group of whities toting baseball bats and fucking crocodile dundee knives i mean wtf!!!!!
i don’t want to hear this shit is minor…or, turn on the news and open your eyes, it’s so much worse. yeah, agreed. it’s so much worse that we must pay attention to the “minor” shit.
the arts district is not reserved for the elite. not reserved for the straight, white people. ALL ARE WELCOME. It’s the friggin’ arts for fuck’s sake.
i cannot guarantee, even, what happens when you leave here, walking to your car or just down the road.. but KNOW this: the only people not welcome to this event (https://www.facebook.com/events/121652431787594) or any other event i’m involved in organizing here, are the hatemongers. bigots, i know you’re often quiet about it and who can fucking tell, but understand: zero time will be allowed for that BS.
that is all.
thanks much for reading,
mm (nice white lady full of smiles)
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Michele McDannold is the author of Stealing the Midnight from a Handful of Days, a book of poetry available from 
