As I grow older, I have begun to somewhat sympathize with the suburbanites, as painful as it is to admit.

I have lived in Midtown Kansas City for almost seven years now, and I still think it is the best part of town to live in. Midtown has the most eclectic group of people within the nearest three hundred miles. Yet this diversity comes with a price. Thugs live here too.

This used to not bother me. Everything changes when you have a child, though.

Allow me to spell out four encounters I have had in the last month.

One Friday in September, while waiting for a tow truck by the Broadway entrance of the campus parking garage, I was accosted by a self-described "hustler" who didn’t understand that I didn’t want to buy any drugs. He wouldn't go away, so I made my demeanor less and less friendly as the conversation unraveled. The engagement became so intense that we almost started swinging at each other. He finally pedaled off on his likely stolen bicycle, shouting the whole way.

One Saturday morning while two buddies and I were pulling up to a CVS, a crack-head in serious need of a fix approached us as we were getting out of our car. The crack-head grabbed my buddy’s hand and wouldn’t let go. I don’t put up with this, and I pushed the guy off him, which immediately led to fighting words and accusations that I was "pregnant" - which we later deciphered as "prejudiced." Had we not outnumbered him three to one, there might have been trouble.

This might make me seem like a violent person, but I assure you this is not the case. It takes a rare individual to make me hot under the collar.

Last weekend, in the building right next to me a guy pulled out a knife and chased a Latino man down the street. The man didn’t know English that well, but was obviously trying to see his friend who lived in the same building. I don’t need that in the building right next door.

The icing on the cake, though, was on Wednesday of last week; I was robbed at gunpoint at the intersection of Southwest Trafficway and Linwood. That’s right, across the street from the Penn Valley campus, while walking home from school. Four guys in a stolen SUV pulled up, and one got out with a gun. I promptly gave him my wallet and they were on their way, but what if he hadn’t been so nice?

I have a three-month-old daughter, and I would like to be around to raise her. I don't need her around pushers and crack-heads. I don’t need her around crazy neighbors that pull out knives when they don’t know someone who is knocking on their door. I especially don't need her to be there the next time some nut pulls a gun on me.

So suburbanites, I get you now. It is probably nice to raise your child in an area with accredited public schools. It might be nice to live in an area where the biggest crime is some teenagers having a party. It might be nice to leave a window on the first floor open while you leave the house, without having the fear that some bum is going to break in and steal your valuables. It really might be nice to walk to the store without being asked for change on every corner (get a job, bums).

So, I hate to admit it, but before my daughter is school age, I will be moving out of Midtown. Loyalties be damned, my daughter needs an education and a safe environment to grow up in.

When Midtown is your alternative, the suburbs look really appealing.

Suburban greed might be my own personal Satan, but I now have developed sympathy for the devil.

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