A beautiful day in the neighborhood

It really is a beautiful day in my neighborhood. We've had this incredible summer (not too hot, not too humid) and this morning as the kids and I drove to Trader Joe's I saw yellow leaves on a few of the trees. Could we really sail into Fall that easily??

We got a new upstairs neighbor yesterday (for those of you who don't know we live in the lower half of a two family house. Two college guys lives upstairs). He seems like a nice enough guy. This afternoon two of his friends came over to see his new place. He was waiting for them on the front stoop, which is just outside my bedroom window. Which is open. So, you know, I kind of overheard their conversation, through no fault of my own ;) Actually, part of me wishes I hadn't.

Friend (climbing out of shiny new car): What is this? You live in the ghetto or something??

New Guy: No man! Are you kidding? Go down to the bottom of this street. Turn right. You're right were all the bars are! We went down Friday night, there were fucking cops on horses and shit. (Pause) It's not really that ghetto, is it??

Friend: Where's the food?

The more I think about this conversation the more I want to cry. Its sad that a 20 year old kid could actually, at some level, think this neighborhood is trashy. How can a block with an average home price of 650k be ghetto unless you've lived an incredibly sheltered life? I realize he was giving his friend a hard time, but: consider New Guy's response. The note of desperation that crept into his voice as he asked for validation that his new place wasn't somehow sub-par. There was a note of truth in there somewhere.

Of course there's humor, too- New Guy trying to argue that the neighborhood qualifies as UN-ghetto due to the nearby presence of bars and cops on horses. Yes, that's how you spot the classy places, folks!

And then there's the fact that I don't like living downstairs from two college kids, even reasonably nice and quiet ones. I wish we could just buy a home and be done with it...but we can't. Not in Nyack! Not on what professors get paid. But nearly all our friends live in Nyack, making a move to another town or county rather unappealing. I haven't yet figured out how to get us un-stuck from this particular issue, especially because it's not just housing prices here, it's also property taxes (which seem to average around 8-9k per year, though 10-12k isn't terribly uncommon).

Perhaps more knitting is the answer...