|
|
SubTitle: Stoops
Posted by: Bob Sheridan (bobsheridan@earthlink.net) on 11/13/1997@21:06hrs:
In Reply to: Re: The Real Function of Staten Island posted by: t.j. on 11/13/1997@14:33hrs:
Ha! There's an Old SI word I hadn't seen or heard in decades; it ranks right along with "dorp" and "kill" meaning waterway as in Kill Van Kull for evoking the Island.
You know, in San Francisco, the town is divided into dozens of neighborhoods, much as SI was, except that I don't remember there being any neighborhood associations on SI. In SF the place is all neighborhood associations which meet monthly and take positions on all sorts of things from building permits (we get notice of the applications and have plenty of time to object to someone, say, adding onto their house and blocking the view. When the earthquake knocked down the freeway that cut apart an old neighborhood, the neighbor groups organized to keep it from being rebuilt. The rest of the city voted for it, but it's still being blocked by the Board of Supervisors, whose members court the neighborhood vote. I don't recall SI having a board of supervisors although I'm aware that NYC has a city council which is similar in function and makeup. On my block on SI we all used to sit outside in the summer evenings while the adults gossiped and the kids hung around picking up tidbits we were supposed to be too young to here. But when the people from Brooklyn arrived and did the same thing, we thought it was declasse, that only someone from Brooklyn would do, and laugh at their pink flamingo statues, like we were so classy ourselves. The great lesson of SI is that we c a n n o t put on airs, certainly not with any credibility. I revel in that and think it's great.