An angry reader wrote to take issue with my writing of Boone Street as desolate in a newspaper column earlier this week.

I do know there are viable, hard-working homeowners on the block. I saw a few homes that showed obvious signs of that -- well-attended flower pots outside, clean windows and doors, houses that were well-maintained.

I also noted a beautiful garden occupying what otherwise would've been a vacant lot. But half of the west side of Boone Street and 20th Street is a vacant swath of weeds. Many people wouldn't talk to reporters, understandable because we were there right after a shooting, and police were still about. It is true that too often reporters show up in neighborhoods like this only after something bad has happened.

I'll make a promise to you and come back in a few weeks. Here's the e-mail I got (the author never responded to several e-mails from me asking if it was ok to publish her name. So for now I'll leave it off):

"Let me tell you that I was livid when I read your article.  20th and Boone are not desolate areas.  There are homeowners who are trying to make the neighborhood a safe place.  I have lived in the area for 2 years and nothing close to this has ever happened. 

You made it seem and feel like the shooting is an everyday occurrence and that people get robbed, raped and murdered there everyday. There are many issues in that neighborhood and none of them include any of the aformentioned. 

What happened the other night is in fact an anomaly.  What happened the other night does not make the neighborhood unsafe. What happened the other night is what people like you fail to understand, and that is the crime is everywhere and it is only a matter of time before it will take place in your neighborhood.

Whenever there is a continuous gathering of black men, I hate to say this, but eventually there will be violence. This violence is usually directed toward one individual in the group, but then other members of the group are affected as well.

The police stopping the three youths does not make anyone want to give them any information because their basic rights to illegal search and seizure are being violated. When a person does deem the media fit to discuss anything about any topic they have a tendency to not tell the "whole" story for the sake of space and time.

But what you all don't realize is that when the "whole" story isn't told, you and people miss the "big" picture. You have completely missed the big picture on this one."