The
Boulder Run Issue
I
drive back home from a long week at school looking forward to seeing my friends
from my hometown at the main shopping center in Wyckoff, Boulder Run. As I am
rolling by I am yelled and cursed at by some 8th graders just for
driving past them and I was very surprised by their disrespectful behavior.
They also were hassling the people who were coming in and out of stores and
just all were being annoyances. I continued driving and went behind the
shopping center to look for better parking and what I witnessed shocked and
confused me. With my own eyes I saw kids who looked no more than 6th
grade smoking marijuana and drinking from a brown paper bag. After seeing this at
Boulder Run I just went home and decided to hang out later.
While
I was driving home from Boulder Run I reflected on what I just saw. I thought
to myself that something needs to be done to resolve the problems my town has.
What should be done to get rid of the problems? I believe there should be more
police patrols at the shopping center to demoralize those young gangsters and
let them know that they have a higher chance of being caught. There are already
patrols in the area to prevent normal problems such as drug dealing and theft
as it is a shopping center. Also what should be implemented into the Wyckoff
shopping center are more security cameras behind Boulder Run that will be
linked to nearby security to investigate exactly what those kids are up to.
I
remember how Boulder Run once was when I was a freshman and a sophomore in high
school. Boulder Run has changed so much that now it looks like as if it was a
completely different place. I would always go from my bus stop to Boulder Run
with my best friends to get some food or look for jobs to make some quick
cash. I always loved walking from my
home to Boulder in the spring and summer too because it was a nice walk. The
warm sun felt good on my skin and I would see many of my friends on the walk on
my way there. Slowly over time I noticed a change in Boulder and just how it
feels to be around there. Most of all my old friends started to not show up as
they used to do and younger kids started showing up and were obnoxious from the
get-go. They displayed this to the community by vandalizing property by
breaking windows and the kids were also being too loud. As I was graduating not
many teenagers my age went to Boulder as we all had vehicles and many more
responsibilities such as jobs and sports. The middle school kids started to
take over since no one other than older shoppers populated Boulder Run at this
point. The kids followed in the footsteps of how the teenagers acted by smoking
marijuana and drinking alcohol except they started very early. Business owners
are complaining at how the kids are acting outside their shops but the cops
haven’t seemed to have done much about that.
I
can compare this drastic change in my community to Valerie Kinloch’s research
project titled, “Harlem, Art and Literacy and Documenting ‘Harlem is Art’ /
‘Harlem as Art.’” Kinloch writes that,
“How did the youth view ‘Harlem as art’ in relation to the influx of newness in
the community?” (Kinloch) She continued writing that, “Their dismay led them to
view newness as negative…” (Kinloch). The newness in my community is the
younger generations not walking in the steps as the older and much more
respectful generations. I am in dismay at how my town is becoming now that all
the seniors have gone off to college and that no one is repopulating Boulder
Run. The only thing that is all over Boulder Run is the smell of marijuana
smoke, vandalized property and litter. The crime rate is increasing and the
fact that the younger generations are taking up terrible habits is not helping
out the situation. This intoxication and growing thug mentality explains their
bad attitudes and always acting up to the older generations like they are tough
or trying to prove themselves.
The police in Wyckoff are very tough
and are always there to help out the younger generations with any issues they
may have and will not be overly aggressive towards underage issues. My friend’s
father is a cop in the area and he tells me that patrol cars are always in and
out of the shopping parking lot just to make sure everything is safe and sound
in Wyckoff. Every once and awhile they will catch a drug deal or give a driving
related ticket. Security cameras are also around the entire premises and inside
many of the stores such as Marshalls and Stop and Shop. This is precautionary
to make sure that no illegal activities will occur and also that if any theft
and anything else occurs that the perpetrator will be apprehended. More cameras
should be put up behind the shopping centers as many illegal activities occur
behind there which I can say I have seen from firsthand experience. At this point in time I believe that the
patrol cars should pass through Boulder more frequently. If a kid has to be
detained due to their folly then so be it. This will teach them a lesson and
that they should correct what they did wrong. The police force should be
notified of the underaged problems that were slowly arising. This would give
the Wyckoff Police more of a clue as to what the main problems are in the area
which is marijuana smoking and under-aged drinking and obnoxious behavior. If
the police know in detail what the problems are and where they occur then it
will be much easier to fix the issue.
The
future depends on the up and coming generations as they will take over all the
jobs that the older generations are leaving for them once they retire. If we
want a good future for ourselves and our children then we should solve the issues
that we have occurring in the present. This is why the marijuana smoking,
alcohol drinking and verbal profanity should be squashed among the middle school
kids in my town. Boulder Run and Wyckoff itself can become a much better
community with the implementation of frequent patrols by police cars. The
security cameras behind the shopping centers as well as tips to the police
about the illegal activities that the minors are participating in will also aid
in the removal of the young crime.
Khaleeq, a man from Harlem that Kinloch interviewed
compares how an area can change for better or worse depending on what the
generations have done to assist. Khaleeq says while interviewed that, “They
were never here when I was growing up. They were too afraid to come to Harlem,
and at night! Never would've happened.” While Harlem changed from worse to
better Wyckoff, on the other hand, is going to better to worse and it is up to
the community to cause a change and remove the corrupt thoughts from the
generation’s minds.
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