I live on the Upper West Side in NYC where two weeks ago the government, in the dark of night, relocated 500 men from shelters into two hotels within blocks of each other and smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood crowded with schools, churches, synagogues, elder centers, young families, professionals and elderly. 300 men who are addicts and another 200 mostly men including about a dozen registered sex offenders, that is, known rapists and pedophiles, surreptitiously, per the mayor’s per orders, per COVID justifications, were just dropped there within hours. Since their arrival we have seen drug dealers and prostitutes in the neighborhood and have had several violent assaults and robberies occur, including two in our local subway station. The hotel residents have set up encampments on the street, rather than sit in their little rooms, and freely engage in lewd and scatological activity in pubic. As the police are, arguably justifiably, pissed off post the protests, there are not as many cops on the beat as there were prior. So we’re in a bit of trouble. I sent out the Bat Signal to a friend in the Guardian Angels and bless him, he contacted Batman himself, Curtis Sliwa, who then contacted me to help roll out the patrols. I am not a community activist, I just know a guy and have access to a couple of websites. So it came down to me to organize two events over the weekend, which we held at an entrance of Central Park, where Mr. Sliwa could speak to assembled residents in order that he feel the Guardian Angels were “invited” by the community, which they were, quite enthusiastically. As I was riled by what was happening in my neighborhood, by the weekend events, and by some of the new more awful facts about the situation dropped by Mr. Sliwa who had conducted some investigations prior to the presentations, of course our PareaGroove was focused, at first, on these events. We have a couple UWS residents, but also several in other neighborhoods who are seeing a deterioration of the street vibe. So we talked a bit about that, a bit about politics, and a bit about other ways COVID has changed our world. We continued for a an hour or so, and then we stopped to take a song break. One of our regulars can sing, I know this because I used to enjoy her regular open mic performances many years ago. I encouraged her, with our downtime, to polish up her chops again and get back to singing. We’re a safe, supportive group so I suggested she take a first step or two with us. So, we were treated to a lovely rendition of “Blue Moon” from her Zoom box, complete with a virtual background of yes, a blue moon. We have other singers among us, as well as artists and doctors, so we can look forward as more of them are encouraged to be our speakers and our presenters, perhaps a first practice with PareaGroove and then onward for them.
Sunday August 11, 2020 – The Guardian Angels c’est arrive & a song
