Overload...

My stress level has either dropped or I've overloaded it.

Remember when your parents used to say, "I've had it up to here with you!" and they would draw an imaginary line near their neck. That's basically how I feel but my stress line has always been much higher. I've learned over the years how to handle a lot of stress. However, I'm being overloaded with stress and numerous other things.

Work has been the same as always except for a couple things. An establishment close to ours has decided to start doing hip hop nights. It's drawn huge attention from certain types. The people that go to this place have a tendency to hang on the sidewalk in front instead of going inside. This deters people from walking down the sidewalk. I've literally seen people cross the street in order to walk that direction down the road.

Now, I'm not against this particular type of event occurring. Not as long as the establishment can handle what's going on. As long as they can police their own property and make sure gang activity, drinking outside and such matters are under control.

A few years ago there was a place just down the road that had this same event. They could not handle the situation and it turned into a shooting gallery. Not only were guns involved but knives and constant fights. They could not handle the event and the owners did what they thought was right. They closed down, remodeled and removed all chances for live entertainment. Personally, I thought that wasn't the best idea. They could have brought on extra personnel and the proper equipment to handle the situation. They could invest in hand held metal detectors and patted everyone down as they came in.

So here's my worry. Being in such close vicinity of this venue has caused some problems here as well. We've had some problems now with gang bangers coming in. They come in, grab ass, throw around their gang signs and cause arguments. This isn't a problem that bothers me. The problem that bothers me is what they might be carrying.

Here it is illegal to wear a bullet proof vest unless your a cop. Luckily I know the right people and I have been able to acquire something very similar. Most of the cops I know already know that I wear it at work. They don't care because they know it's useful for me and I'm not a threat.

If I'm lucky I'll be out of this business soon. While I can recognize the changes in the neighborhood it seems that the management and owners can not. They don't seem to know the problems that are happening. They seem to think that they're paying me enough to deal with it. Well, they're not.

No matter what you do, it always comes down to money. You can do the same job your entire life but if the money never changes you'll find a way out fast.

With the economy changing as it has, wages need to go up in order to survive. Or the economy needs to become better. Take a guess which one will happen first. Neither. It will be a stalemate until the person that is earning the money makes the change. That person is me. I'm not getting a raise or any type of benefit by keeping this job. It's time I moved on.

More as it occurs.

Be Safe.

Gentrified....

Every once in a long while a club will change it's appearance or the types of events it has. Usually this is done due to a change of ownership or in hopes of making more money doing something different. Rarely the club changes due to problems with the clientele. This change shouldn't happen if the right type of security is there to enforce the club's rules. Unless the security personnel's hands are tied.

There was a club in a nearby neighborhood that made a drastic change a while back. They used to have a lot of hip hop, reggae, and house music nights. They also had live music that ranged from country to heavy metal. They tried to bring in a mix of all the different styles to keep a mix of customers. They worked like this for many years.

The hip hop nights became very popular. They started drawing in a lot of people. This particular form of music sooner or later brings in a particular type of people. People who like to wear baggy clothing, hats turned to a side, and certain pant legs pulled up to their knees. All of these are characteristics of gang bangers or wanna be gang bangers. Once enough of these characters show up there's usually different members from different gangs showing up, which is never good.

At some point after the different gangs showing up it's only a matter of time before more drastic measures start to happen. Someone's looking at someone else's girlfriend, someone bumped into someone, or someone is just wearing the wrong colors. Then the fighting, knives and guns start to be shown and all the idiots involved ruin it for everyone else.

That's exactly what happened to this club. They did too many hip hop events and the idiots started showing up there. The idiots started bringing their guns and knives. The guns and knives started to get used. The club closed down for remodeling.

Now some people might say that it's the clubs fault for this to have gotten that bad. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've said it a few times myself. The club should have gotten metal detectors or i.d. scanners. That might have scared off some of the problems. Instead, the club closed down and remodeled the entire place. They even went so far as to stop all live music.

Now I don't know if the problems were the entire reason behind the remodeling. I don't have the inside track but to me they're just as good as anything else. In fact, other people had the same idea.

As I stood outside of my doorway a skinny black guy with his pants hanging below his ass walked up to me. He didn't look familiar at all. With the club I mentioned above closing we've started to get a lot of newer faces in the area. No doubt they're looking for another club in the area that is hip hop friendly. When he walked up I asked for his i.d. and he presented it.

"Yo man, you got beats in here?"

"Do we have what?"

"Beats man, you know, hip hop an shit."

"No," which was a partial lie, we do have some hip hop on the juke box.

"No? Shit... hey man, you hear bout Sound Club?"

"I heard they remodeled."

"Yea, that some bullshit man. Justa keep us out. Wha you think bout that?"

"I think it's great."

"Wha!? It some fuckin bullshit man..."

"No, the bullshit is the idiot gang bangers and their guns. You think I want that kind of shit in here?"

"Wha eva man.. they jus tryin gentrification us."

At this point I was confused. Why wouldn't the bar try to better themselves? "Seriously man?"

"Fuck yea.. just tryin to keep tha niggas down is all. Can I go in here or what?"

"Yea... just pull your pants up. We have a dress code."

With that the guy stared at me, waved his hand at me and walked off. I couldn't help but laugh a little bit. Here he was trying to seem like he was smart. Makes me wonder if he heard someone else use that word earlier and people agreed with that person. He used it so it must be the right word to use...

Gentrification is basically when you take something bad and turn it into something better. So here he was admitting to being something bad and not wanting to become better.



What a great state of mind.