There are six identical structures occupying the whole block. Twelve low-income families live inside. About twenty kids can be found running around the yards yelling and playing at any given time. The buildings are called "projects" -- subsidized housing for the poor.
Across the street are five normal homes. Two are owned by young couples, two are owned by elderly widows, and one is owned by a divorced man who yells at his dog a lot. There are no children on this side of the street.
The adults in the projects are all thin black men and obese white women. Some of them must be couples, but it's difficult to tell. The women don't come outside very often. The men talk loudly to each other in the front yards.
The people in the normal homes are often outside doing yard work. They stop occasionally to talk to each other in hushed tones about how the people in the projects are ruining the neighborhood. Denigrating the lower class is a bonding ritual they cherish.
The kids in the projects are always causing problems. Most of them are undeniable brats; a few are well behaved, but obviously dim-witted. One might say they're a lot like rich kids. They pretty much run rampant and do what they want.
The two widows are the most annoyed by the kids, and are most often the targets of vandalism. The widows don't know which kids belong to which "project," and have never met any of the parents. They call the police when they have a complaint.
The people from the projects seem to produce more waste than other people in the neighborhood. It's common for several plastic bags of trash to pile up around their garbage cans, which still overflow. The wind blows frozen pizza boxes up and down the block.
The two young couples across the street plan to move when they save up enough money. "We can't invest in this house and fix it up. It'll never be worth more than we paid for it. Not with the projects across the street."
The divorced man thinks the people in the projects are con artists. "Is that an ATV in their yard?" he says in disbelief. "How can they afford that? Talk about scamming the system. That's my tax dollars right there."
Paul Lundgren is a newspaper columnist and a very nice man. His e-mail address is paul @ geekprom.com.
