Ballard's Access Guide Masthead


Safety


 

 

 

 

 
As a safety precaution, if your room or apartment window faces the street, you may want to keep a low-watt light on in that room all the time. That way, if people are casing your building from across the street and you come home after dark, it's not as though they'll see a room light go on a few minutes after you enter your building. In seeing a light go on, they might think, "Blonde in her 20's goes into 906 East 74th at 3:00 AM during the week, and lives on the 3rd floor, east side of the building." Not that anything bad can come of this, but it's worth paying the Utility Company those extra pennies per month to keep curious eyes from learning more info than you'd care for them to know.

At times, areas aren't brightly lit and I think it's good to carry a flashlight. Sometimes strangers are loitering on an apartment building's stoop after midnight. Some folks use a flashlight on night loiterers to get a better look at their faces, they generally move.

If the front door to your building's vestibule is unlocked, peer inside before stepping into it. If there are strangers in there, you can tell them to please leave the area, but step back as they do. Stay several feet away from them and ask them to walk up the street. Do not attempt to enter your building with a stranger on your stoop or in the vestibule. If need be, make use of a local bar's bouncer or a local building attendant. Or if you have just cabbed home, ask the cab driver to have him/her watch as you go inside your building.

Be safe!

 




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