Driver's Log 12/03/14 Afternoon, N. Gay St. and North Ave: I'd never actually seen dude beat the shit out of guy with a golf club until today.

I can only drive up and down i83 so many times before I get bored, so when I don't have a fare in the car my tendency is to take routes through bad neighborhoods. I used to be terrified of these areas, but I suppose having an electronic compass, a GPS, and a relatively solid car has made me bolder. I prefer driving these streets late at night after the junkies have all passed out and the streets are too cold for foot traffic, but on Wednesday afternoon I was in a hurry.

From a purely aesthetic viewpoint, these areas a fascinating. People that photograph places like these call it "decay porn", though I've yet to attempt taking pictures. The streets are lined with once thriving business, now closed and boarded up. Some avenues are lined with three or four story residential building that in NYC would be worth over a million dollars, but here sit vacant. The city couldn't give them away for a dollar, a program they attempted back in the 90s.

What few cops I've seen are usually in SWAT gear, and every lamp post is topped by a security camera with a flashing blue police light. Even on the quietist night each block looks like a crime scene. I have no idea how the few remaining residence get any sleep with those blue lights flashing in their windows, alerting them to the fact they are being recorded.

Back in high school some of the Rude Boys and Punkers liked to joke around about beating the crap out of people with a golf club. I assume it was a reference to a movie I've never seen. But middle-class art schoolers that poof their hair, ware black trench coats, and cover themselves in metal studs and spikes are slightly less dangerous than kittens, so no golf club aided violence went down… not so with the dudes on Gay and North. They were serious.

I was stuck at a stop light at first, but I pulled over after the light turned green to see how it would play out. I didn't bother calling the cops, because everyone else on the street was either doing so or filming the event. Realistically everything they were about to do to each other was going to happen way before the cops showed up.

The fight seemed to revolve around a women that they had mutual interest in. They exchanged great deal of profanity, and shit talked for the five minutes needed to work themselves up, then the guy with the driver started whaling on the unarmed guy. He was a gentleman about it, working the body rather then knocking the other guys teeth out. After a few good swings the shaft of the club bent and the assailant discarded it. They then grappled briefly but arrived at a stalemate. Then made up and limped off together.