DailyHeights

Breaking! Lucas writes: “Whoa – no less than half an hour after I left [the Wed. night Daily Heights happy hour at] Soda, BUILD caught a brick (or something) through the window… A report from the streets:”

20 minutes ago (say, 10:50 pm), the sound of breaking glass spilled into my living room, immediately followed by an inaudible yell (“Fuck You!” ?). My roommate and I walked over to the window (no, we didn’t jump up and run; smashing glass isn’t unusual around here – La Rena, the market across the street, was robbed a couple weeks ago at 5 am). We looked down from the third floor and tried to determine what was going on. A police car was stopped at the Bergen/Vanderbilt light, headed westbound on Bergen. There were no more than 4 or 5 people on the street. The police car crept forward as the light changed, paused for a minute (a 20-something black man in a tank top was walking towards the car, away from the sound), then the police accelerated quickly away. My roommate and I sat down, assuming someone had broken a beer bottle. Less than 10 minutes later, the breaking sounds resumed …

More photos and story after the jump! …

Less than 10 minutes later, the breaking sounds resumed with loud crashes followed by more purposeful breaking noises. This time we stood up quickly and looked to see where it was coming from. Someone was clearing out a broken windowpane from the BUILD storefront. I grabbed my camphone and I walked downstairs and crossed the street. There was an employee from A-Z Building Maintenance and Cleaning Services pulling broken shards of glass from the window frame and throwing them onto the sidewalk. I asked him what happened – he said “Just some stupid jerk.” I asked if he’d called the cops – he said “What’s the point?” I said that there was a policeman just down the street right down when it had happened – he said “Figures. They don’t care.” As the conversation wasn’t exactly going anywhere, I stepped away and examined the situation.

There were several people sitting on stoops, watching the guy clear the glass. They hadn’t moved since I’d originally walked to the window at the first sound of broken glass. The employees at BUILD (maybe two or three people) were standing in the very back of the room, watching silently.

Stupid jerk? Local politics? Who knows. More importantly, how about the reaction time from A-Z? 10 minutes and they’re already there, cleaning up the mess. Gotta love that service. If only my landlord had the same work ethic.