Tuesday, September 18, 2012

'To the person who stole my rainboots'


Spotted on East Ninth Street yesterday ... (This one looks a little familiar... I looked through the Urban Etiquette Sign archives but didn't see it...)

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

It seems that the fancier the area gets the worse it gets just sayin. Nasty people live everywhere unfortunately.

Anonymous said...

Who wears rainboots?

LvV said...

Sorry about yer boots, but to quote the great EV fave David Schwimmer as Ross, "Y-O-U-apostrophe-R-E means 'you are'; Y-O-U-R means 'your!'"

Also, stop leaving your shit in the hallway already. Long ago, when one at least nodded at one's neighbors in the hall, instead of giving them a rude precious look you stole from your iPhone, you could leave your umbrellas and duck boots and stuff in the hallway because it was a home and no one would disturb your things.

Welp, you all were the ones who turned our homes into dorms. Privileged college shits? steal things.

long story short: stop whining

LvV said...

maybe that was an unfair assumption on my part and this person is not an NYU style wanker

sorrys in that case :(

Pumpkin Patch said...

LvV, are you trying to tell me that all thieves/criminals are not (current or former) students at NYU? I find that hard to believe.

LvV said...

I'm saying it is my experience that overprivileged college jerkoffs steal things moreso than working-class people going about their business. I have no data, just a lifetime of memories, the most vivid being that jackass Carl stealing my Calvin and Hobbes compendium when he thought I was asleep, which I WAS NOT

Anonymous said...

At any rate, if you leave your stuff outside your door, you run the risk of it being stolen. This is true anywhere in the world. So the letter writer has no one to blame. Also, I am sure the winter's suckitude is not dependent upon whether or not you have rubber boots.

Shawn said...

Dear victim & neighbor,

I know what its like to be poor. So I will be happy to buy you a new pair of boots since you are struggling.

We can meet at the K-Mart on Astor Place. EVG can pass you my contact info.

The only caveat is you have to keep them IN your apartment this time. Please do not leave them (or anything of value) out in the open.

Anonymous said...

this reminds me of a blog post i read - can't recall if it was here or on jeremiah's vanishing new york - about the woman who left her bike unlocked outside the chase on 2nd avenue, while she ran in. THIS IS NOT THE SUBURBS PEOPLE, SO STOP TRYING TO TURN IT INTO ONE!!! who leaves their frickin' boots in a NEW YORK CITY apartment building hallway.

Pumpkin Patch said...

Much of this seems like defeatist talk. Call me crazy, but I'd like to think we can try to get to the point where people don't steal neighbor's shoes (yes, even in big, scary New York City).

Anyway, I've heard these types of arguments before. Sometimes it is about leaving shoes in the hallway, or talking on a phone walking down the street. And other times it is (more insidiously) what a woman is wearing.

glamma said...

I agree with this:
Long ago, when one at least nodded at one's neighbors in the hall, instead of giving them a rude precious look you stole from your iPhone, you could leave your umbrellas and duck boots and stuff in the hallway because it was a home and no one would disturb your things.

Maybe for another discussion and for the record I am sorry for the boot victim. But I am sorry to see a neighborhood with such a strong history of TRUE community morph into world where self-important orbs blather around in their own little holes on their dumb little phones in their own little orbits - it's just gone SO far in the other direction that it's insane around here. Help your fellow man? Please! These people walk right into elderly puerto rican ladies and don't even say EXCUSE ME!!!!

BabyDave said...

It’s a sorry state of affairs when some people get downright antagonistic about a matter like leaving one’s wet and/or muddy boots outside an apartment door to dry off. This may be a tough town, but there still should be enough common decency left that a pair of boots on one’s doorstep is safe. It’s not at all like leaving a bicycle unattended while you pop into a bank, or leaving a phone on a Starbucks table while you use the restroom. It’s a very practical matter, and not a conceit from “the suburbs.”
And Shawn, I’ll chip in. Grieve can get in touch with me.

Spike said...

We've got a "no shoes" inside policy at Casa de Spike & Mrs. Spike. So we leave em outside our door in the hallway, neatly. If someone steals them, oh well, I guess they really need them badly. We wouldn't change our policy due to a theft, as we prefer thinking this world can be a better place. Oh, unless someone's throwing a party, then we haul them inside for the night. We've got values, but we're not stupid!

LvV said...

Pumpkin Patch: Do you really want to equate rainboot theft with rape, or would you like to stop trolling now?

Hey19 said...

@LvV
Blaming the victim is a slippery slope. Something you may want to keep in mind.

LvV said...

Hey19, if you, too, would like to equate rape with rainboot poaching, I'll see you at the polls, voting for the Mormon.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to see that the first several comments here do nothing but place blame with the victim.

I know nothing about this person who lost her boots. I'm not sure if she's a precious/rude NYU student with an iPhone, or if she's a middle-aged single mom. But I do know that it's not right to take something that doesn't belong to you.

Hey19 said...

Thank You Anon 752.
@ LvV, I guess you missed my point. But it seems with your views on victim blaming, you would be more likely to vote for The Bros than I would... I try not to blame the victim in any case, I dont pick and choose where, depending on my views of the victim in question.

This thread has gotten heavy, its a pair of rain boots. No one leaves stuff in the halls in my building, so I dont have much to go on on this one.

LvV said...

Jesus Christ. I never, not once, "blamed the victim." I said that new EV tenants tend to look out for one another's belongings less and may be more likely to take stuff. (Which also may be pure speculation on my part -- I don't keep up with hallway-shit theft.) Yeah, I suggested that people not leave their precious wellies out there, but one of you geniuses will have to stop being sanctimonious for five seconds and tell me exactly how that's "blaming the victim."

I've heard these types of arguments before. Sometimes it is about leaving shoes in the hallway, or talking on a phone walking down the street. And other times it is (more insidiously) what a woman is wearing.

Here is when it "got heavy" (and totally f*cking ridiculous). When people equate wellie theft to rape, I tend to get angry.