The LAST thing I want to do is make our neighborhood look bad. Over the course of a month, there have been VERY VERY few bums around. This neighborhood is quite affluent. (In fact, a lady at the grocery store told me she sees Sam Shepard (Law & Order) walking his dog here regularly.
But we have come to look for a few "regulars" as we stroll the streets around our apartment. First, we have "The Can Man". You get 5 cents back for returning bottles to the grocery. This guy goes thru all the bagged garbage on the sidewalks prior to the garbage truck coming thru and fishes out the returnable can/bottles. Another regular is "Indian Joe". Sadly he is an alchoholic that hangs out around the 14th St. subway station. We saw him the very first day, and daily till we left. The corner newspaper vendor and a few others seem to "keep an eye" on him. We also noticed the "Regular Beggar"--a guy who only panhandles M-F. He takes weekends off (don't want to work TOO hard!). And lastly, we never figured out "She-Man". Gary thinks its a woman, I think it's a transgendered man. Most evenings sh(h)e is out on the stoop, and always speaks to us when we walk by. Not that it really matters, but it's just a topic of conversation for us to debate.
It was nice having our "familiar faces" in the neighborhood.
