last night, after some wrangling, i met the lovely and talented colin (genocide fighter) at 7th & pennsylvania with brooke, hakim, jasmine, nia, and arianna in tow. colin was extremely generous and good natured about intercepting this pile of people that i dumped on the street corner before speeding away to find a parking spot.
this was a halloween like i had never seen. i'd like to write a lot more about it, but the thing that struck me the most was the extent to which this phenomenon revealed the socioeconomic and racial segregation in the city. once the 2-block street party ended at 7:30 and the hayride horses had left, mobs (not angry mobs, but mobs nonetheless) of people from other parts of the city (i'll call them the "guests") descended on this one little capitol hill neighborhood. residents there had either fled, leaving their houses dark (or maybe with a pumpkin or two), or they took on the challenge of handing out candy on their stoops to literally thousands of kids, who would line up and make their way down each walkway to the bowl. it was an amazing display. some members of the "host" community had gone above and beyond, building elaborate halloween sets in their yard, like life-sized wizard of oz characters complete with lights, smoke, and a lighted cast-list marquee.
colin had a cellphone camera, but it didn't quite capture the scene.
after getting the family safely home to their neighborhood (which was like a ghost town - not safe for trick or treating), the two of us went to dinner in my neighborhood. colin said, "this is where the adult costumes are." there were some good costumes standing outside clubs, but we didn't see a single kid. granted, it was later, so maybe they'd all gone in for the night. loretta, who lives a block away from me, said george had so many trick or treaters that he had to go buy more candy. but then again, she dressed her orange and black house up like a jackolantern, so it was particularly inviting.
the socioeconomic segregation has many impliations. there was an article in the
city paper recently on the problem of families in the city. there aren't many. people with families who can afford it move to the suburbs. one reason is because the public schools in the district are so bad. so for the most part in the more affluent neighborhoods in the district there are few families, and in the less affluent (and more dangerous) neighborhoods where there are kids, it's not safe for them to trick or treat. so last night we saw the result, and it seemed crazy.
