Home Sweet Hood

I grew up in Coney Island. The home of Nathans hot dogs. Coney Island is also reknown for producing great basketball players. Anyone up for a one-on-one? Actually, riding the bench 3 years for the HS of Telecommunications "Lasers" should be a clear indicator that I had nothing to do with Coney Island's basketball glory. So I'm reading this sports book that chronicles some hoop stars from my dear old Coney Island. The book is set in my neighborhood, my block to be exact. At first I'm psyched to see Coney Island in print and getting some well deserved props. Then the writer goes on and on about how bad of a neighborhood it is. One critic called it a wasteland. I know I didn't grow up in Mayberry, but a wasteland?! I've spent the last few days asking myself was it really that bad or is the writer inflating things a bit to sell books? It's probably somewhere in the middle. It's not like I vacation there now. So to all my more recent friends who refuse to believe I'm from the mean streets, take a look at "The Last Shot" and chew on that.