Every Tuesday and Thursday, we run down what’s going on in local Internet discussion groups.

CherrydaleCitizens
A homeless man is spotted on Arlington’s N. 16th Street rooting through trash bins. Anybody want to overreact to this one? OK—John: “We probably don’t need to remind folks that the majority of homeless are mentally ill and/or have various addictions,” he writes. “Hopefully the County can be forced to deal with this problem before a child is abducted or someone is assaulted—or before the problem starts to affect property values.” On high alert—though not high enough to second John’s proposal on banning shopping carts from public spaces—is another resident who reports that golf clubs and a power saw have gone missing from her unlocked garage. This grim affair causes William to reminisce about Arlington’s bad old days. “I agree that Cherrydale seems a bit less safe,” he writes, “though we had plenty of troubles with an Irish-American family of criminals thirty years ago.” To which a woman bearing the name O’Rourke replies, “I know what ‘cha mean about tem tieving Irish. Anytime I take myself to a family reunion, I got to keep my hand on my wallet! Tis hard ‘cause I need at least one hand for the drink.…sometimes two!”

columbia_heights
“Jon is fucking cracker asshole,” writes batboy8686, who notes that if he and Jon should ever meet on the street, Jon “better be prepared to do more than run.” Sara expresses her own distaste for Jon. “You sad little coward,” she writes. “I was raised in a nice, white, rich, suburb. But apparently I was raised better than to cast aspursions on an entire group of people.” Michelle takes the torch and flings it back at Sara. “What are you on??? I mean, seriously, what are you on when you get up in the AM, get dressed, go to work and then spout out some bs like you just did in this email???” And Jon himself finally enters the fray, defending his post on how a black mother he saw “smoking a joint in broad daylight” has doomed her kid to “no chance in life.” “[I]f the cracker assholes and yuppies didn’t move in to your neighborhood it would be the same ghetto it has been for the last 30 years,” he writes. “Who do you think is footing the bill for all of the free lunches?”

Brightwood_DC
Arlene is concerned with diversity—specifically, how it’s making her gag. “I am writing to you about the group home at 1419 Van Buren Street, NW.…I regularly witness the residents (retarded women) emptying garbage unsupervised,” she writes in an open letter Ward 3 Councilmember Adrian Fenty. “Councilman Fenty, this group home needs at least 2 more super cans. There are approximately 10 women living in that house and a good number of them wear diapers. I know this because these diapers have been among the garbage that been in my yard, when super cans are not properly secured.” Two hours and 27 minutes later, Fenty posts a response, promising to look into it. “Thank you for this information,” he writes.