It's time for the first installment in our series of brief on-the-street interviews and snapshots taken around Polk Street near the Tenderloin by our friend Dijon of Souls of Society.

His most recent neighborhood posts for Hoodline covered Lower Haight, Inner Sunset, Divisadero and the Castro.

“I’ve lived here 20 years. The neighborhood is much better. Has a lot of parties, young peoples, I love the young people because I have four boys. My oldest one is 54. On Saturday before Christmas everybody dress like Santa Claus, party here, music, lotta young people dancing. I enjoy by my window. Because I’m a Brazilian and I like music, parties, happy. I’m a 37 years old. Do you believe it?”

“37! That’s crazy. I actually thought you were 27.”

“Haha yes. Ok…I 73."

“What’s your secret to being so healthy and happy?”

“Everyday I happy because I believe in God, I believe we are spiritual. I lost my baby son last year in April, I no cry. God is good, world is good, no have any problems, people make the problems. Everybody in my family happy.”

“Y’all have good genes huh?”

“Yes, and I no drink sodas, no alcohol, no cigarette. I try eat good. I no eat nothing fried. I have a good health.”

“The world is fucked up. It’s always been that way.”

“What’s fucked up about it?”

“Everyone that’s in it. The world is fucked up, and it’s making us fucked up. Everything is about money in this world. You ain’t got money this world ain’t gon run no type of way. Us that ain’t got nothin, we still ain’t got nothin. Everybody in the mayors office go home in a Lexus and Cadillacs. The homeless out here ain’t got nothin to eat, ain’t washed themself, ain’t cleaned themself. The city talking bout ‘we broke’ but they just put up million dollar lights on the bridge that you can’t even see if you driving across it! What’s the use? You can use that money to feed these people on the street. Why you think the crime rate is so high? Cause you not givin’ no jobs to these people. They say, ‘This man here can’t have a job because he smoke weed, but I done seen this lady at the mayor’s office take 8 vicodin pills because her back is hurting’. How is that right? You can get away with anything in this world if you got money. I could shoot 9 people right here on the street and you seen me do it. 9 motherfuckers laid out. I go in the judges chambers, hand him a blank check and say ‘I wanna get out tonight’, that judge gonna take that check, and I’ma be walking out the door. The world gon’ do like it did last time with Noah, too much evil shit happening. Let’s flood it and start over again.”

“If you turn on the news any day it’s depressing, because everybody dying. It’s because you’re not giving people something to do. I told the mayor if you were to go out to these neighborhoods where everybody acting crazy like Hunter’s Point, and give those kids a job to keep these neighborhoods clean, you not gon’ have no crime. Because these youngsters know they makin’ money. Then they not gon’ let anyone else tear up their neighborhood because they’re cleaning it up! You gotta give these youngsters somethin’ to do so they won’t be shootin’ up everything.”

“I drew a sketch of a bus, because I draw, 2 years ago when I was working in the mayors office that had washing machines in it, all those things in it. Damned if I didn’t see he made the bus that’s called a Bubble Bus that goes around washing people. He didn’t give me a dime. He stole my idea and kept on going.”

“Who saw the sketch and took the idea?”

“Lee!”

“Ed Lee? That’s fucked up!”

“And when I seen him he said ‘I put your idea to use’. That was my idea though.”

“What makes you happy?”

“I love to travel and love to take picture around the city. At good place, like Golden Gate Bridge. And music.”

“What about traveling do you love?”

“I love natural. When you see the sky…and it sunny…I love that!”

“What do you want to change in your life for 2015?”

“I actually came here to improve my English. I came from Thailand. So try speak more English, and travel more. I think I need to meet more people, some people good, some people bad. For me, if they like to enjoy, nothin too much…”

“Easy going?”

“Easy going, yes. Because for me before I’m a person who think a lot and not too happy.”

“My partner and I have a shop called ‘The Magazine’, we sell old magazines. We’ve been in the neighborhood 41 years with our business.”

“What do you feel like the biggest issues facing this neighborhood are?”

“I’d say the two biggest issues are the homeless and housing. Housing for the homeless and affordable housing in general. I know people that want to move here and can’t because it’s too expensive. But the dot com stuff is helping the economy so…the Tenderloin is becoming very popular with young people. There’s art galleries opening, restaurants opening. The dot coms bought up some buildings on Market Street so that’s going to change too.”

“The world is so digital these days, what is it about magazines that you love?”

“My partner and I have collected magazines since we were kids, but our business has really gone down because of the internet. But, ya know, we’re getting older and we still enjoy it so we keep doing it. I’m nearing 70, my partner is over 70 and we’re just analog kinda people.”

For more of Dijon's profiles, visit the Souls of Society Facebook page. And stay tuned for future neighborhood installments here on Hoodline.