Saturday, January 17, 2009

Broadway & Wilson, 1988

This view has changed quite a bit since 1988. This shot is looking down from the Wilson L platform towards where the infamous currency exchange/strip mall now stands. Does anyone remember this view? It looks like a large parking lot stood on the corner at this time.
(photo: Genial23 Flickr)

9 comments:

  1. "Infamous" strip mall? Come on, stop hatin' on the Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins outlet! Some of us actually PREFER eating ice cream in winter - somehow the cold surroundings just enhance the flavors better, and it doesn't melt as fast.

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  2. I went to that Duncan Donuts twice. Both times, I was so repulsed from the deficated remains in the parking lot and the guys passed out in their own vomit and urine that I turned around and left without buying anything.

    Sorry gayle, the idea of ice cream from there churns my stomach, too. (pun intended)

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  3. Too bad that parking lot doesn't remain today.

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  4. Only when helen Shiller is out of office will Uptown become clean and safer.

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  5. Gosh, Zesty, maybe I'm just lucky or something but I've never encountered anything like that at the times that I've gone there. Was this something you encountered late at night? Maybe this was the after-effect of an Aragon or Riviera concert?

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  6. Gayle, that DD is just steps from my house, but I don't go there because of the aggressive panhandling in the lot. Once I walked by and a guy was taking a leak -- and apologized to me as he did. ;-) It's less of a hassle for me to drive to another DD than to go through the hassle of walking the gauntlet at that particular franchise.

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  7. That particular spot has the most aggressive and annoying panhandlers I have yet to encounter.

    In the lot, at the door, etc.

    The stores should get together and hire a security guard or pester the cops for better service.

    That is private property so I suggest they utilize our fine police services to affect some arrests. After a few arrests perhaps those folks will move to another location and harass the fine customers there.

    I know. I am a cold and heartless condo owner.

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  8. No gayle, these were all homeless men. Sorry to burst your bubble.

    Things in Uptown have changed some in the last few years, but believe it or not the homeless men and women who roam the streets of Uptown actually believed it was ok to use the sidewalk as their toilet!

    I'll never forget the time I saw a woman in front of the Riv spread her legs and pee right in front of me. (not a patron, gayle, but probably a homeless woman from the looks of her clothing) She had a dress on and probably wasn't wearing underwear since the jet from beneath her crotch was like watching a horse piss. As the steaming stream cascaded toward the curb, I pulled out my phone to call 911. (yes, we evil condo owners do that, even for such "slight" crimes as public urination)

    By the time the dispatcher answered, I noticed a man who had whipped it out across the street in front of the Broadway Bank building and was baring it all for the oncoming Broadway traffic so he could piss into the gutter. A split second later, I noticed another man squatted, deficating next to the Broadway Building (triangle building), in full view of anyone driving by.

    What did I end up reporting to the 911 dispatcher, gail? You can only report one crime in progress at a time.

    I ended up reporting the woman who used her car to babysit her infant while she was working in the hair salon where the BOA branch is now. The woman left the car unlocked, the keys in the car and the car running so that the baby would have air conditioning. Had someone tried to steal the car, which wasn't a stretch of the imagination in those days, the baby would have been stolen with the car. The reason I noticed the baby in the car at all is that the baby was climbing on the back of the seat and fell into the front seat, hitting her head on the steering wheel and started crying.

    gayle, believe it or not, marxism has it's ugly side too, but even Karl Marx wanted better for his people.

    I doubt highly that Karl would have shared an ice cream with you at the Uptown DD either, after witnessing what I had on those two visits.

    gayle, all I can say is that you're definitely on your own.

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  9. Zesty? Are you using one of my lines? About Karl Marx? Bless your spicy little heart.

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