Neither more nor less

Sitting here dumbfounded at the keyboard, I am looking for the words to express the feelings that I am experiencing while looking at this picture.

And to think, I was just complaining about life in general today.

I just remembered how much better my life has become lately.

Thank you God
 

Why should the sight of two dead drunk (or even dead) dudes on the sidewalk get in the way of oblivious narcissistic yuppie scums chattering away?
 

Hi Chris,

That's what I mean.

It is amazing how 2 plains of reality can coexist without effect.

Having been on both sides of that picture, at that very cross section, it struck home.

I knew a guy that died on the side walk of the next block, and can vividly remember watching the professor fall backward and smash his head on the wall of the power building there. I had to take the ride with the ambulance in order for them to take him to Belview. They were just going to leave him there, being that he was not going along with the program.

Oh well, whatchagonnado?

Such is the world these days......
 

Well, we can always return the favor when we see these yuppie scum sprawled out on the sidewalk in a pool of their up-chucked all-you-can-eat sushi dinner....

I hear you're doing waaayyy better where you are SM, but it's not as much fun on Avenue A without you =[
 

Thanks pal.
 

your perspective is your own, but i think it is short sighted. what do you expect these young and inexperienced people to do for those suffering weary people on the ground? they are not responsible. the concept of "the other" that yall buy into is an illusion. it is an easy way to assign blame or deflect emotion. it simply is what it is. each person in that photo is living their lives in the world that is unfolding the way it always has.
 

right, everyone always stops to help people lying on the street. only the yuppies just walk by - everyone else will stop and make sure the person is OK.

self righteous lately?
 

I spent years inside Sofie's, but I never came out and saw people sleeping so far from the wall. Usually they lay against the power substation wall. Franky, I find it rude.
 

I understand your point.

However, it is a concept of neighborhood.

There was a time when people watched out for each other, or at least were concerned about the folks in their small piece of the planet.

Lot's of variables to be sure.
 

Hey Anonymous dopes:

At the very least, SOME one in this photo could make a lousy phone call to 911 for an ambulance if they can't or won't help someone who's fucked up!!

But, alas, that would tend to cause an interruption in the mindless chattering by the pictured yup swine.

More likely, they'll take a cell phone photo and text their friends about the dangerous bums they encountered during their slumming on the Lower East Side!!
 

...make a lousy phone call to 911...

That's an obvious but, um, real point. For years, when I saw stuff like this, I stopped, checked to make sure the person was breathing, asked if they were okay, and then called 911 if necessary.

Hmmmm. I don't do that any more. It's a rare day when I stop to check to see if a passed out lump is okay. Yeah, I just move around them unless, I dunno, I just saw someone fall or there's a lot of blood or something.

Why don't I call any more?

Part of it is habituation--with the clubs, the summertime bonus crusties, the NYU kids, etc. it seems to me that I see a lot more people passed out that I used to. Sometimes, I walk past, oh, six people passed out between Ave. C and Bowery. Part of it is that the last two times I saw someone who was clearly ODing, it consumed my afternoon _and_ some of the people involved, cops, ODer, friends of the ODer, neighbors, etc. were extremely hostile to me and the whole business was a mess. Part of it is that with so many drunks around after the clubs close that I assume a lot of the people I see passed out are just, well, sleeping it off and calling the cops would make it worse.

Anyway, thanks, Bob, for that photo. I see that scene everynight and it's bothersome all around.

I guess I should figure out a reasonable strategy. What do you guys think? Call the cops every time? Ride a bike and ignore the sidewalks? Buzz the nearest buzzer and ask the super to deal with it?
 

everyone is lame
 

How do you know someone DIDN'T call 911?
 

"More likely, they'll take a cell phone photo and text their friends about the dangerous bums they encountered during their slumming on the Lower East Side!!"

guess you got it all figured out. you're awesome.