Hilltop: general impressions

local crackhouse on left

We moved to the neighborhood near 14th and So M St in December '09.  Hilltop, baby.  I grew up in Summit near Canyon Rd.  Close enough to have absorbed the reputation Hilltop earned in the 80's (when I was in grade school at Fruitland Elementary), but far enough to never get any first-hand exposure. 
I came willingly to Hilltop, I wanted to live here and be a part of it.  I dread the day I live in an all-white upper-class neighborhood, surrounded by people just like me.  (Ok, I'm not upper-class, but like a true aspirational American, I expect to be someday.) I want to be among colored people.  I want to be among poor people.
Hilltop has its share of that.  I happen to live half a block from a crackhouse, so we get quite a lot of foot traffic and night-time activity.  This building and the business it does has become a mini-interest of mine.  I'll write about it in the future.
Aside from the crackheads, it's a wonderful neighborhood.  I know the names of every kid on the block.  I know my neighbors better than any place I've lived in my adult life.  I strap Xavier to the back of my bike and we tour around in the afternoons, or we walk the one block to Ferry Park. 
Hilltop is a neighborhood of pockets.  There are sketchy streets, then a block away are beautiful well-maintained homes.  You can't live around here and not occasionally see some twitchy dude pushing an empty stroller go shuffling by at 6 in the morning.
It's awesome.