Quite a lot....

has gone on since I sat in the 145th street library Saturday early afternoon and wrote the last blog post.
So, to begin:
Saturday afternoon: did go to the rally at the Heights on Sherman Avenue and Broadway. Good strong turnout, people are very angry at the proposed site which is supposed to be mostly luxury housing. The usual complaints: wealthier people in the neighborhood, stores closing, harassment of tenants in nearby buildings--and of course, they are all true. How do we stop this?  More and more people are waking up to the fact that they are being left behind, as the builders show their strength. This administration has been completely in league with the developers---very frustrating. Heat was grueling, but I stayed about an hour and a half, and gave out a few flyers for the march in Brooklyn on Saturday.
Returned to Men in Boats Saturday evening, really to see Kristen and her performance. Play is not very deep but performances and dynamics or very impressive. Great cast, though I missed Becca and Jess B.
Afterwards, waited for Kristen, then walked her over to the 3 train---we talked a lot about gentrification, what the newcomers to the community could contribute if they valued the community they were moving into. Said goodbye to Kristen on the downtown 3 stop---she was going to Crown Heights, I too Dive Bar. At the latter, had a blt  (good but expensive, of course); did not want french fries, but got them anyway, gorged myself on them, in spite of my best intentions. Stomach heavy. Returned home and woke up early on Sunday. Sunday morning, the usual, Daily News and Coffee and then the "Alex" revelation---left about 12, headed to Standings for some baseball before hitting the fringe lounge. Watched games for two hours,  nice talk with a guy named Nick, somewhat new to the city, lives in the Pacific Park area, tells me that rents are being lowered because of lack of tenant interest. Good to hear.
After that, visited the Fringe lounge for some info (got most of it) walked to J and F station from 2nd and 4th street---went to South Fourth, nice time there, said good bye for three weeks to bartender Olivia (a really nice person) and headed to Bean for some desert and coffee. Bean was hot--no air conditioning, knew I could not stay there, opted instead for some chocolate ice cream from the truck on Bedford off seventh, really good filled my stomach wandered around the newly built apartments that line north 8th and the other streets between Bedford and Roebling, and finally hit the subway around 9.
Dream last night: intense; a Baltimore dream, I am there for the summer to participate in some kind of helping project (at least that is what I think) first staying in the downtown area--fairly safe, then all of a sudden find myself living in a large apartment house (project, I think) on west north avenue, a few blocks from where Freddy Gray was first chased. I look outside, across the street---the north side is the more gentrified side of North Avenue---see police standing there with guns. What are they doing? Protecting the people on the north side of the street from the poorer people on the South Side. How did I wind up on the south side? Awake with a start! 3:15 A.M. All alone---amazed and frightened by the dream, can't sleep, the next hour filled with visions, recriminations, trying to figure things out, a memory: at the last reunion (2014) a thirty something woman arrives with her mother---the widow of a classmate of mine, who has just recently passed away. While I chat with the daughter, the woman wanders around the front of the hall---distracted, a look of sheer emptiness on her face---totally unreachable. One extreme to another. It is strange that after such a "good" weekend, and my final weekend before the Fringe, that I should have such an intense dream.  But the morning arrives, and events return to their normal selves.
That is it for now----have a few things before tomorrow, will report on it then...