Where Is The Unknown Region?

 “You’re here because you failed to renew the lease,” snapped the lawyer for the landlord who brought the building my disabled mother has lived in since President Richard M Nixon had to leave The White House because of The Watergate Break-in.

“I’m here because your client failed to give my mother her renewal lease. Your client gave my mother two leases to other apartments. I declare these leases null and void,” I said like a pissed off Detective Columbo as if played by Al Pacino who, like me, is from The South Bronx. I was just getting worked up with more evidence for the judge

“You’ll get the lease,” the lawyer said, spooked by my nostrils that flared like a hungry lion on the loose.

And just like that it was over-----NOT!!!!

The Bronx Housing Court is always packed with tenants and lawyers.

I saw drama that erased the bull feathers* of TV shows and wished a reality upgrade for Matlock and Perry Mason and the impotence of Ralph Kramen from The Honeymooners

I saw how the law really works and it’s ugly.

Rewind the tape to show how harassment began.

I saw clothes, furniture and toys thrown out of windows like a movie about Nazis evicting Jews to homeless shelters in Poland called concentration camps. This can’t be happening here. This is The South Bronx.

My poor mother became like Ann Frank hiding in the attic when we became the only tenants left on our side of the building. Then the lights in the hallway were broken. 

 “You’re here because you failed to renew the lease,” snapped the lawyer for the landlord who brought the building my disabled mother has lived in since President Richard M Nixon had to leave The White House because of The Watergate Break-in.

“I’m here because your client failed to give my mother her renewal lease. Your client gave my mother two leases to other apartments. I declare these leases null and void,” I said like a pissed off Detective Columbo as if played by Al Pacino who, like me, is from The South Bronx. I was just getting worked up with more evidence for the judge

“You’ll get the lease,” the lawyer said, spooked by my nostrils that flared like a hungry lion on the loose.

And just like that it was over-----NOT!!!!

The Bronx Housing Court is always packed with tenants and lawyers.

I saw drama that erased the bull feathers* of TV shows and wished a reality upgrade for Matlock and Perry Mason and the impotence of Ralph Kramen from The Honeymooners

I saw how the law really works and it’s ugly.

Rewind the tape to show how harassment began.

I saw clothes, furniture and toys thrown out of windows like a movie about Nazis evicting Jews to homeless shelters in Poland called concentration camps. This can’t be happening here. This is The South Bronx.

My poor mother became like Ann Frank hiding in the attic when we became the only tenants left on our side of the building. Then the lights in the hallway were broken.  

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