A nine year old in Buena went joyriding in a bright yellow-school bus. Strange enough as that is, what’s even stranger is that the New York Times covered it as a “local” story.
The only thing that surprises me about the incident is that the hijacker isn’t one of my very own next-door neighbor kids (formally known as “the Delinquents”). Sure, why not steal the bus and drive to your friends house?
“He wanted us to all get on,” said Millie, 13, who lives just up the block from the boy. “He let go of the wheel, and was beeping and waving at us. He could have killed somebody.”
No, what’s really bizarre is that this article appears in the New York Times, who placed it in their “New York Region” section. Since when is Buena the New York region? It’s easily a 2 – 1/2 hour drive from Times Square, it’s below the Mason-Dixon line for goodness sake (or to be technically correct, below it’s meridian since the line wasn’t drawn through Jersey). They helpfully tell us that it’s “pronounced BYOO-na” but I would have loved listening in on the phone when the reporter called down for “Bu-EN‑a” as she sure must have. Two weeks ago the Times put the Oaklyn, NJ would-be mass murders in the “New York Region” section too. Do we need to buy a couple of maps for the erstwhile Old Gray Lady? South Jersey just ain’t your region, a fact for which every native I’ve ever met is very happy. Every driver on the roads around Buena were surely muttering “go home shoobie” when your New York plates drove by.
UPDATE: Oh no, even bloggers are taking the Times’ cue that Buena belongs in NYC News!
Look, I don’t know if this belongs in NYC news, but the story was gold — gold I say! Crazy nine year-old kid, who is a petty thief? Who wouldn’t blog about it?
Oh I agree it’s a great story and I can understand it’s bloggability. But I could just set up a webcam and get this sort of news. On one side of my house is a family with four kids all averaging around nine years old, all of whom are capable of the gravest mischief. And on the other side is a woman who drives a school bus and parks it in her driveway. It’s just a matter of time, just a matter of time… I’ll ping you guys when it goes down.
I’ll forgive the Gothamist categorizing it as NYC news – you have to put it somewhere. But the NY Times is another story. It’s just crazy what it’s considering the “New York Region.” There’s a long history of NYC and Philly treating South Jersey as a colony and the imperiousness of the Times claiming a dinky farm town two hours from Manhattan as part of its region is enough to choke up a local.