When I first got to the corner of Edgewood and Boulevard, I was looking for a nice place to sit while I took my notes. The faint hint of trash and urine wisped my nose right about the time I found a comfy looking concrete ledge outside of the infamous “Department Store,” and realized the ledge was covered in vomit.  The first thing that popped into my mind was “Welcome to Edgewood!”

My first impression of Edgewood is the cleanliness.  Or, lack thereof.  The chainlink fence overgrown with greenery separates all of the bars and passersby from a large green field.  What looks like is gum stuck to the sidewalk in a pattern that almost makes the concrete look polka dot, a substance that has been stepped on so many times that it’s permanently embedded into the sidewalk.

I crossed the street into a medium sized parking lot that connecting to a building with a large mural on it.  The mural had a black background with a plethora of multicolored swirling patterns.  There were only a few cars parked in the lot, but then again this was not Edgewood’s peak business time.  The traffic was flowing normally, most of the cars blasting hip-hop.  I took my seat on an uncomfortable concrete ledge, (not covered in puke) and noticed that once again, this area was trashed.  There were empty red plastic cups, empty glass bottles, broken glass bottles, cigarette butts, empty small plastic bags presumed to be used for drugs, pretty much anything  you would find in or around your local dumpster.  The grass in the parking lot was overgrown and appeared no one had been taking care of it for quite some time.

Across the street, I could see one of Edgewood’s most infamous bars called Church.  Church has ironically placed Christian decorations in their windows.  They have colorful lights that are turned on at night, but the bar still stays fairly dark.  Across the street from Church is another bar on Edgewood called the Department Store.  The department store is an old brick building that was formerly used as an actual department store.  On the side of the building you can still see the faint white lettering that reads “Brown-Hayes Department Store.”  The paint is old, faded, and hard to read.