In response to Ms. Thomas on "The Other Side of Freetown" (IndBox June 28), I can definitely see that you live light years away ' from reality! If you are two blocks from the university then you are protected by the University Police Department from the speeding and drunken college students that most definitely find my neighborhood and particularly my street.
I live two blocks into Freetown from the infamous "strip." How nice it must be for you to only encounter polite students! When they are stumbling back to their cars at 2 a.m. they have no respect for our neighborhood. They are loud, obnoxious and offensive. I am constantly picking up empty bottles, cans and cups from my yard. My dogs have been physically harmed by beer bottles, garbage cans, and even stolen pool balls being thrown at them for barking. They will sit in front of our homes with the car stereo so loud that our windows rattle, never taking into consideration our sleeping children. If this is happening a couple of times a week with a couple hundred students, how do you think this glorified dorm of 400, seven days a week, will improve our standard of living?
I do apologize that our neighborhood "assaults" your eye, but the one trailer park is well maintained, and these people are about to be evicted from their homes for this "improvement." My "marginal" home has increased substantially in value over the past five years because crime has decreased in our neighborhood. The only overgrown lot in the area is the property that is being "developed."
I invite you to walk your dog (please clean up after it) in our neighborhood at any time. Eleven p.m. is still safe because the drunks are not yet racing down Stewart Street. Just be careful if it's a rainy day, you may drown with your nose so high in the air.