[Normy]

Last month, I spent a day in Cedar Rapids. We stay at the Crown Plaza downtown, which is neither "crown" nor a "plaza", for what it is worth.

I slept during the morning, and since we had a late pickup at the hotel [8 PM], I woke up and went running in this Iowa town around 4 PM. This run? This was probably the worst run I've ever gone on. Listen: Cedar Rapids has some NASTY areas-!

The running route that I took was found on "Mapmyruns.com". It took me down 3rd Avenue to a street called "Bever", and then called for me to turn south on 16th and go two blocks, pick up a parallel street, and then return to downtown. I got as far as three blocks on Bever before I turned around. That was the HOOD! There were houses where about 10 dirtballs were hanging out drinking 40's and talking loud, the Hip Hop blasting in the background. "

"Damn, B**ch....run some of that ***** for me!" and such was what I heard from a few as I passed on the street. Uhmm...I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday; I got the F*CK out of there!

[I've hung out at "houses" and drank "40's" myself a few times....so I kind of knew what was going on~]

The long and short is that I think there are two reasons why CID hasn't degenerated into the situation that NOLA turned into after a flood: 1. Size, as mentioned. 2. New Orleans is probably a close second to Detroit in shear, pure violence. There is a culture of violence in NOLA that doesn't exist in provincial Iowa cities. For example, in New Orleans, crack whores give their children handguns and tell them to run up to tourists in the cemetaries and shoot them in the head. After the tourist is dead, they are supposed to bring both the gun and the wallets/purses back to their mothers. If they forget either they get the beating of their life!

That sort of local "culture" doesn't exist in Iowa, so there aren't the same problems as in NOLA.

N!