2002-01-19 - 2:27 p.m.

Now. When we held our Project Crackwhore meetings, there were always people who wanted to turn it into a prejudice issue. In our case, anti-gay sentiments. This makes my blood boil for a number of reasons, but mostly because it's just not logical. It's a room full of people who live in Greenwich Village, for God's sake. Many who have lived here for decades. Noone who chooses to live in the Village is homophobic. It's equivalent to a diabetic living above a candy factory. You know, you've got a clear choice.

But there were always people in the meeting saying we were persecuting them for being gay and drug-addicted. Um, no. We're persecuting them for CRACK SMOKING ON OUR STOOPS and HAVING SEX IN OUR VESTIBULES FOR DRUG MONEY. You know, little annoyances like that. So now, on this Christopher Street issue, it's sensitive because of all the possible problems. Racism, anti- transvestite-ism (don't know the legal term for that one, sorry) , homophobia. So the politicians won't touch it. And our city councilwoman has a tough job, I admit. Politics is politics. But it's hard to listen a woman suggest that we all write weekly letters to fifty people, including the phone company, to get the payphones blocked on the corner. That maybe then she'll get a preliminary possible pre-meeting meeting, and then maybe we could discuss it. Hey, I have a suggestion! Let's get some wire cutters and end it right now, this minute! Wouldn't that be novel? It's frustrating.

I still have to doubt how aggressive they are, though. They never bother me, and I'm an easy target. (well, not really. They haven't heard about my elbows of death.)

But it's clear that nothing is being solved. Yes, I didn't love having them around, I wanted something done. But it's just moving around, from one residential neighborhood to the next. Be interesting to see what the new CEO of NYC will do.

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