Black Man in a Black Hoodie Has Got to Wait Somewhere Else

Bella's weekend walks were enjoyable. On Saturday night, we were walking on 21st Street and started passing two women standing by a pickup truck loaded with furniture parked on the opposite side of the street - sort of a latter-day Okie look - when their large, growling dog abruptly broke free, crossed the street, and started menacing Bella. The women shouted at their dog to return, but the dog wouldn't obey. Ordinarily, 21st Street is busy, and having a dog running all over the street would have courted disaster, but not at this late hour. Everybody kept their cool, we passed by, and no harm resulted.

Tonight, about 1:35 a.m., we were walking towards the light rail station, when we spotted a vaguely-scary stocky man in a black hoodie lurking up ahead. Passing cops did too. They whirled around, parked with flashing lights, got out with flashlights, approached him and asked "Remove your hand from your pocket." I'm thinking, "Do the cops know this guy? Because if he has a pistol in his pocket, then Bella and I are so close that we'll end up wearing police bullets too." I didn't hear what the soft-spoken stocky black man in a black hoodie said, but as we passed by, the cops were explaining the light rail schedule to him, and that it would be hours before a train arrived.

There has been a lot of discussion in metropolitan circles lately that, especially with the opening of the new arena in October, the city has to get as many people taking light rail as possible, but ridership is going down lately, and that maybe they need to be more vigilant about security near light rail stops to encourage ridership. The upshot is, the soft-spoken stocky black man in a black hoodie has got to wait somewhere else.

Half a block away, EMTs were loading a haggard-looking bearded man in his 30's into an ambulance. Not the best evening for him either.

At 2 a.m., at the all-night Mexican food place, five lanky, raven-haired and platinum-blonde beauties with painted-on jeans were preparing to order food. Angels of the evening. Dios mio! I wanted to ask, "do you prefer red or green chile?", or "do you like flan?", or maybe buy everyone a burrito. But, alas, I never carry money on these walks.....