What I Learned From the Guy Who Stole My Bike and Ran Off Yesterday

I caught him in the act and it made all the difference.

I haven’t been homeless in New York because I’m lucky. My mother brought me here when I was 3 years old. She worked so hard that I never had to worry that the city, however brutal, would abandon me.

But I like living in ghettos. And sometimes the ghetto reminds me it has fangs and a short memory. Project buildings cloak alleys in shadows and wash the night in whispers. I fear living where it’s too…