New Haven is continuing its progression from crap hole (when I grew up in Morse tower I’d hear gun shots every night, the creepiest part was that there were no sirens after that) to an increasingly pleasant city.The latest move was the demolition of the New Haven Coliseum which was more of a blight on the city than Henry Hinds is on the U of C campus. Of course, the Coliseum had history, for example, it was the location that led to the arrest of Doors frontman Jim Morrison and his subsequent swipe at New Haven in the song “Peace Frog.” Also, it was the site of numerous monster truck shows that I attended as a small kid. Both could have been contributing factors in the numerous delays in the demolition (it stood vacant for five years), although I’m willing to guess the latter trumped the former in many New Havener’s minds.That is really all I have to say about it, oh, that and go check out the aerial view of the implosion. You might not care about New Haven, but everyone loves watching enormous structures getting demolished.Update: My parents have told me that my comments about crime in New Haven were not entirely accurate, here is what my Mom had to say:

We occasionally heard gun shots but not every night. And for you it was just the city noise. Equally annoying were the kids racing through the city on their ninja motorcycles (sans muffler) driving really fast on the sidewalks and the streets.

So, it wasn’t every night, but it also wasn’t infrequent. I’ll take it.