I can't afford to live there?!?

A friend at church recently told me that he would love to live in Kansas City where I do, but that he and his wife could not afford to live there. Based on stories he had heard from a friend who had trouble with vandlism in east Kansas City, my friend reasoned that living in east Kansas City would end up costing him more in time and effort than he wanted to put into his living situation. Yet, he also mentioned that in the past month he had over $2500 of items stolen from his car outside his house in a far more affluent western part of KC. I don't know if his reasoning is based on fear or simple rumors and perceptions. It is true that my house in east KC has been broken into, but in comparison to my friend I did not loose much because my nieghbor watches out for me and called the police when she noticed something was wrong. I am wondering what is the main factor in what we deam as safe and unsafe neighborhoods? Is it possible that factors other than real statistics are the driving factors in making a person feel safe or unsafe?

Baseball!

I am still a Minnesota Twins fan. However one thing I have been looking forward to in Kansas is going to KC Royals games. In Minnesota, the Twins play indoors with no wind and a controled temp of 70deg. At the Royals game this week, the gametime temp was 34 deg with a wind chill in the low 20's. I like being outdoors, but this is just too cold for baseball.

Wrong Block?

I was outside watering my garden yesterday when I heard a voice say:
"You don't need to be here, You're on the wrong block! Thats right, I'm talking to you. You ugly white f--k!"
I think I would have felt intimidated by this, but the shouting came from a very innocent looking 9yr old girl who was walking home from school with her friends. How can I respond to this? My roommate later pointed out that this girl might have been addressing his girlfriend who was sitting on my front porch with him, but it doesn't make much sense that someone would just randomly deride a person on my porch for being female and white. No one ever said things like this to me in Minnesota. I am really confused and a little bit scared because I can't imagine that a 9 yr old girl came up with such things by herself.