Monday, January 04, 2010
Taxi to Bayway
Today a taxi to an appt was well worth the expense. A bureaucratic thing in a dreary section of the city called Bayway, bring the proper paperwork & it's routine. On a really cold day you can spend a lot of time outside waiting for the bus. In Bayway, the stop is on a four-lane road roaring with trucks headed to & from the Turnpike & Goethal's Bridge, across from a Dunkin' Donuts I can't use because the bus might come while I'm there. I did ride up S. Broad St, an old working class neighborhood of houses, apt buildings, & small stores selling a remarkable variety of things, I wonder how they stay in business, but they do. Years ago, Bayway was heavily Polish & I think S. Broad an Irish area affixed to St. Mary of the Assumption Church.
Many people probably have the impression that Elizabeth is overall a very African-American city. It isn't. It's diverse, but the general feel is Hispanic. No doubt there are thousands of illegal immigrants, but in my neighborhood you set a sense of a settled, permanent population that switches easily between two languages & reflects the middle class lifestyles of Colombia & Venezuela. I'm not sure Mexicans feel comfortable in my part of town, or even if they're all that welcome. There is a little old lady who looks like she stepped out of a village in the high Andes. She rolls a two wheel shopping cart around & digs through garbage collecting cans & bottles. Some days she dresses miserably, other days in native peasant garb with felt hat. You can't earn much collecting recyclables the city picks up every garbage day, & I think she's someone's slightly daft grandmom, feels useless & utterly out of place, doesn't know a word of English, & her family gave up trying to keep her in the house.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Many people probably have the impression that Elizabeth is overall a very African-American city. It isn't. It's diverse, but the general feel is Hispanic. No doubt there are thousands of illegal immigrants, but in my neighborhood you set a sense of a settled, permanent population that switches easily between two languages & reflects the middle class lifestyles of Colombia & Venezuela. I'm not sure Mexicans feel comfortable in my part of town, or even if they're all that welcome. There is a little old lady who looks like she stepped out of a village in the high Andes. She rolls a two wheel shopping cart around & digs through garbage collecting cans & bottles. Some days she dresses miserably, other days in native peasant garb with felt hat. You can't earn much collecting recyclables the city picks up every garbage day, & I think she's someone's slightly daft grandmom, feels useless & utterly out of place, doesn't know a word of English, & her family gave up trying to keep her in the house.
Labels: Elizabeth NJ
