Problem In Community

The Boulder Run Issue

                        I drive back home from a long week at school looking forward to seeing my friends form my hometown at the main shopping center in Wyckoff, Boulder Run. As I am rolling by I am yelled and cursed at by some 8^th 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 6^th grade that are smoking marijuana and drinking from a brown paper bag. The area wreaked of beer and marijuana smoke and I had, had enough. At this point In time I just went home and decided to hit up my friends later to hang out with. While I was driving home I thought to myself that something needs to be done to end the problems I just saw. The underage drinking is bad enough but the fact that they were so young really upset me. Smoking marijuana is illegal and should never be done unless needed for medicinal purposes and I highly doubt that those kids all had medical marijuana cards. The disrespectful behavior that those kids have towards their superiors is not necessary and their something that should be implemented to stop all that. What I believe that should be done is have 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.

            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. Patrols 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 their which I can say I have seen from first hand 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 is in the area which is marijuana smoking and underaged 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 rectify the issue.

I remember how Boulder Run once was when I was a freshman and a sophomore in high school, it was almost like 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 and I would see many of my friends on the 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. 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. 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?” She continued writing that, “Their dismay led them to view ness as negative…”  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 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 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 and issues that we have occurring today. This is why the marijuana smoking, alcohol drinking and verbal profanity should be squashed amongst 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 commence 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.