Stolen Bikes and Starbucks Seats

For the last three months, every morning on the way to school I would pass Jeffrey, who would sit outside Starbucks asking for money. After the first week, he stopped asking me for money and would just say hello, ask how I was doing, and we would chat for a few minutes. It was a small thing, but I enjoyed the regularity of seeing him every morning (although ideally he wouldn't have to beg outside starbucks). In the afternoon when I passed by, he would ask, "so what did ya learn today?" and I gave him some medical fact before going on.

As of last week, I don't see Jeffrey anymore. Starbucks put up a rail about 7 feet off the side of the building and put inside of it some more permanent tables and chairs. It looks nice. It keeps the street litter from coming in and allows people to sit and drink coffee without beeing bumped into by folks on the side walk. But it also means that Jeffrey can't sit there anymore, at least not without buying something first. Earlier today I saw him a few blocks away by CVS and said hello. He said he doesn't like sitting outside CVS as much. "The people aren't as friendly," he said. "I think coffee makes people happier, they give a little more money."

The scenario is a small picture of a much larger issue. Starbucks does something to make their store a little nicer, not in itself a bad thing at all, but it displaces Jeffrey. The same thing happens on a bigger scale when new stores and houses are built in lower class renting neighborhoods where rent prices fluxuate. What makes me frustrated is that there shouldn't be anything wrong with making a nicer store front, fixing up houses, and improving the neighborhood. These are beneficial things that don't end up benifiting the people in the neighborhood. How did the system come to be like this?!

On a related but different note, last friday a bunch of bikes were stolen from outside my apartment building. Mine had already been stolen earlier in summer. A women saw the guys doing it, yelled and said she was going to call the cops. The cops came later and asked some questions, but let's be honest...DC police have better things to do with their time then chase down bike theives. Since I live in a newly renevated building, all of the people have just recently moved into the area. As I read the responses to the bike theft (and attempted break in earlier last week) on our building listserve, I was so frustrated. These events confirm their prejudices and stereotypes and I wanted people to love the neighborhood.

It is absolutely true that stealing and breaking in are wrong. It is legitimate to feel anger and hurt in response. And if we were to look at it on the flip side, there are negative effects for our neighbors due to the fact that our building was redone, new people moved in, and it has made the block "nicer." Their feelings of powerlessness and "being moved in on" are just as legitimate (though harder to quantify).

When I think about what God's goodness looks like, I see something that doesn't discriminate. It isn't good for one person and not another. It is good, all the time and to everyone (though maybe not always felt as such). But we don't see that played out in life on earth very often. What is good for my apartment building and for starbucks was not good for the neighborhood and for Jeffrey. And what Jeffrey and the neighborhood might define as good may not feel that way to others. But God's creation was a creation of goodness. Tov! It's tov, very tov! And it's our hope that it will once again be (and is on its way to becoming) even more good. That isn't a goodness that is easy for us to see, or understand, or even to have the faith to hope for. But I think I'm learning that solid faith in God's goodness actually changes the present reality (not just my perception of it in some spiritual sense) into something that is in fact closer to the goodness of God, because it changes what I do, see, say, think, and understand. And our faith and hope in promised goodness is legitmate because "he who promised is faithful." (Heb 10:23)