Crime Spiking in Stroudsburg (Philadelphia, Allentown: crime rate, neighborhoods, tenant)

[SteelCityRising]

This message is intended to humble those who slammed me during my short-lived Stroudsburg Photo Tour who were very vindictive towards me because I expressed concern over being approached by aggressive vagrants before leaving town. To them I was simply "making things up." According to this recent WNEP news story, which I have put into my own words to adhere to copyright infringement laws, my claims are supported by the Stroud Regional Police Force and the region's top television news station.

In the past month, several people have been robbed on the streets of Stroudsburg. There have been almost three times as many armed robberies in this tiny borough as there were last year at this time. According to police, a 16-year-old boy was the latest victim, having been robbed at gunpoint in front of a convenience store.

According to Lieutenant Brian Kimmins of the Stroud Regional Police Force "We noticed it at the end of November that we had a spike in robberies that has actually carried on into December. In 2006 during November and December we had a grand total of five robberies. This year we've had 13." Another spike they've seen this year is car break-ins.

Now, I don't want to pat myself on the back, but hopefully those who attacked me in my Stroudsburg Photo Tour can now eat crow to realize that a town with only 6,500 residents should NOT be having 13 armed robberies on its streets in just two months! For all I know one of those aggressive vagrants on Main Street could have been one of these suspects, so I suppose I did the right thing by booking it out of town when I saw the gang-related graffiti and smashed windows along one of the side streets.

Say what you will about Scranton, but for a city of 72,000 to have only as much, if not even less violent crime than a borough of just 6,500, and I don't think things in the Electric City are all that bad. This is not meant to bash Stroudsburg; it is meant to liberate me from those who fought me tooth and nail trying to pass off the borough of Stroudsburg as being the Mayberry that it hasn't been in a number of years now.

[karen_s]

You know I agreed with you all along about this! I'm just glad that it is being properly reported so residents can be aware. It stinks that Stroudsburg is coming to this, it really does. Used to be such a wonderful place.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by karen_s

You know I agreed with you all along about this! I'm just glad that it is being properly reported so residents can be aware. It stinks that Stroudsburg is coming to this, it really does. Used to be such a wonderful place.

Oh I agree wholeheartedly. The facades along Main Street give it such an inviting atmosphere to stroll and winow-shop, but if you venture just one too many too blocks off the main drag it seems you become an easy target for would-be muggers. I'd personally like to know why the Stroud Regional Police Department hasn't expanded itself to keep pace with the growth. After all, if the tax base is increasing as rapidly as it is, then surely there are enough revenues pouring in to increase patrols. When you have teenagers in your town being robbed at gunpoint while going to the convenience store, then you know there are problems that need to be addressed.

As I said I don't hate Stroudsburg because I see it as a town with much potential to bounce back to where it once was. I just resented the fact that when I felt threatened during my photo tour of that town and left prematurely for that reason I had two other members chastising me for it as if I was "exaggerating." A town of 6,500 should NOT have such big-city crime as muggings and gang-related graffiti tagging, and I don't care what excuses any folks would like to give me. East Stroudsburg is nearly twice the size of Stroudsburg, yet it seems to have less crime. Why?

[Chefkey]

I tried to detour through Stroudsburg once when I hit a backup on 80. I will never try this again after seeing the town. It reminded me of West Philly past 50th street, if you have been there you know how you don't want to get out of the car in the dark?

[hopbottomhal]

My uncle has lived in Stroudsburg (Stroud Township) since 1953. It was a nice town during the 70's when as a kid I'd go to visit them. The demographics have changed so far as population. That's why crime is rampant. I'll leave it at that.

[1ejp]

Would you say stroudsburg is far worse then wilkes-barre?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by 1ejp

Would you say stroudsburg is far worse then wilkes-barre?

It's really hard to measure. Both communities have issues with crime. One would immediately assume that Wilkes-Barre, a city of 41,000 would have much more crime than a tiny borough like Stroudsburg, with around 6,500 residents, but then again Stroudsburg has a relatively-high crime rate amongst other similarly-sized towns.

In Wilkes-Barre there are many different neighborhoods with much of the crime being confined to certain pockets. I've also noticed in Wilkes-Barre that very little of the violent crime is random. In Stroudsburg the town is more compact, so much of the community feels the effects when a crime occurs. Furthermore, I hear about more "random" acts of crime in Stroudsburg than in Wilkes-Barre---that 16-year-old boy who was mugged at gunpoint being a perfect example. In Wilkes-Barre it's mostly lowlives targeting other lowlives, so I couldn't care less.

[vitodave]

WBGA,I previously lived in Tobyhanna in a community close to A Pocono Country Place,I know the Guardians Angels visited there and was wondering what happened?
The area is in need of great help with the gang violence and crime and was looking forward to seeing your assistance there.
We now live near scranton and my wife has experience working with troubled teens and has often said she would like to help with getting the kids get off the street.We welcome your help and look forward to seeing what we can all do as a community to keep our neighborhoods safe and a good place for our children to grow up

[BLUEDIAMOND64]

I saw a news article that the Guardian Angels are coming to Easton.

[SteelCityRising]

Eastern Pennsylvania as a whole is in for a rough ride in the coming years. As Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg have successfully cleared much of the rifraff out of New York City, those lowlives are moving westward to medium-sized cities in NJ and PA. Newly-sworn-in Mayor Nutter in Philadelphia has pledged to seriously tackle his city's crime problems. Just like NYC those lowlives too will be pushed out of Philadelphia and into the same medium-sized cities in NJ and PA to which the NYC scumbags moved to. In this sense as NYC and Philly become gentrified and restored (as they should) they dump their problems onto someone else (Stroudsburg, Allentown, Reading, Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport, etc.) and then wash their hands of them. If and when these medium-sized PA communities fight back and boot out the lowlives, they'll simply infest other smaller towns where local police departments are perceived to be ill-equipped to handle the crime influx. We've already seen this locally in how Wilkes-Barre's crime issues have spread across the river to infest Edwardsville, where I believe there were two homicides in 2007 in that tiny borough on account of the scum moving in from Wilkes-Barre who moved THERE originally from Philly, Camden, Newark, NYC, etc. I'll be starting work soon in Edwardsville myself, and I'll be carrying pepper spray with me for the evening shifts.

We have a MAJOR problem with crime nationwide. We can't just keep on sweeping one city's problems onto other cities by gentrifying them to the point where their rifraff infects smaller communities. For example, what will happen if and when Edwardsville's borough council steps up to the plate to try to take THEIR streets back? Will the lowlives move to Pittston (they already have). What's left? The Back Mountain? The yuppies there balk at any notion that they live anywhere else besides Stepford. On a city scale we can use Scranton as an example where the Hill Section has begun gentrification and has pushed its lowlives into South Side, where both of the city's two murders in 2007 occurred. As the city's attention turns towards revitalizing South Side, folks in West Side/Hyde Park should be vigilant about those lowlives being pushed into THEIR neighborhood.

Instead of just redirecting the criminals, why can't we take 'em down?!!