Negadelphians (Philadelphia, Reading, York: crime rate, high school, college)

[frankgn87]

absolutely.. I do not not pretend to speak for everyone.. I am just relaying my experiences..

Originally Posted by Marius Pontmercy

No, but you should understand your experiences don't speak for everyone, and you can't grossly generalize just based on your opinions.

Nobody here is denying the city has problems, nor are we trying to squelch anyone who is critical of the city. Indeed, some of us are the most critical about Philadelphia because we have a vested interest in whats going on here, because we live here. Regardless, when your rhetoric isn't grounded in reality and is really just vitriolic ranting, then I have a problem.

Listen, I had problems with my hometown, and I certainly won't be moving back there anytime soon. But that doesn't mean its not a good place to live for somebody else. Some of us value different qualities in the places we live.

[Hobokenkitchen]

Originally Posted by frankgn87

so answer my question please. If someone asked about Philly am I not supposed to tell me experience just because its negative?

Just honestly answer that question..

Everyone who says good things about Philly also recognizes that Philly has negative aspects and crap areas. I said clearly in my first post in this thread that I think one's experience of Philly can be very positive or very negative depending on where you live.
Your posts on the other hand mention none of the good, only the bad and you go on, and on, and on about it.

You can mention your bad experience, but when people suggest that the Philadelphia experience might be based on income levels and you say that you make 6 figures so that theory is blown, then you might also mention that despite being able to afford to live in a good area, you chose not to.

THAT would be being honest.

I'd say choosing to live in a shi**y neighborhood anywhere (including south Jersey for example) will negatively influence ones experience of a place. Don't go around spreading one sided, half baked fabrications.

Philly has great neighborhoods which are a pleasure and a privilege to live in, and it has crap neighborhoods where it would be miserable to live. THAT is the truth.

[frankgn87]

You refuse to drop this .. I am dropping this but you keep trying to defend your way of thinking.. soooo

wrong again., I knew you were gonna dance around my honest question.. Like usual.. What don't you understand that we did move.. This is not the first time someone asked why we did not move if we could afford too. WE DID MOVE.. When we moved into the Philly hood some 25 years ago it was a wonderful place. It since turned into a near ghetto area.. so we did the best thing like all good families are doing.. we moved away from this city to a delightful, CLEAN, SAFE, FRIENDLY(everything the city was not) area where we have peace and quiet and if we forget to lock our back door its no big deal.. We lived in the city and now the burbs. No contest..

Originally Posted by Hobokenkitchen

Everyone who says good things about Philly also recognizes that Philly has negative aspects and crap areas. I said clearly in my first post in this thread that I think one's experience of Philly can be very positive or very negative depending on where you live.
Your posts on the other hand mention none of the good, only the bad and you go on, and on, and on about it.

You can mention your bad experience, but when people suggest that the Philadelphia experience might be based on income levels and you say that you make 6 figures so that theory is blown, then you might also mention that despite being able to afford to live in a good area, you chose not to.

THAT would be being honest.

I'd say choosing to live in a shi**y neighborhood anywhere (including south Jersey for example) will negatively influence ones experience of a place. Don't go around spreading one sided, half baked fabrications.

Philly has great neighborhoods which are a pleasure and a privilege to live in, and it has crap neighborhoods where it would be miserable to live. THAT is the truth.

[rotodome]

Originally Posted by frankgn87

You refuse to drop this .. I am dropping this but you keep trying to defend your way of thinking.. soooo

wrong again., I knew you were gonna dance around my honest question.. Like usual.. What don't you understand that we did move.. This is not the first time someone asked why we did not move if we could afford too. WE DID MOVE.. When we moved into the Philly hood some 25 years ago it was a wonderful place. It since turned into a near ghetto area.. so we did the best thing like all good families are doing.. we moved away from this city to a delightful, CLEAN, SAFE, FRIENDLY(everything the city was not) area where we have peace and quiet and if we forget to lock our back door its no big deal.. We lived in the city and now the burbs. No contest..

See, I think that the kind of thing that people are reacting to is you saying things like "all good families" are moving away from the city to the suburbs. That's not at all true, and you can see how that's pretty insulting to people whose families choose to stay in the city, or are moving back to the city. Maybe that's not exactly what you meant, but that is how it comes across.

It's also not true that every part of the city has turned "from a nice place to a near ghetto" in the last 25 years, which also could easily be inferred from your posting. Much (though definitely not all) of the city has actually improved a lot in that time period, and especially in the past 10 years.

I grew up in the city, lived there for 32 years, and have been witness to its up and downs. It's my hometown, and I am acutely aware of it's faults, as well as its great aspects. These days I look at it as slightly more of an outsider, perhaps more objectively, and to me it seems to me that it's definitely on an upswing these days - bad economy notwithstanding. I don't think the current trend in the city is downward, and I think most would agree.

[frankgn87]

ok fair enough.. Maybe I over reacted. But in all seriousness, there are very good families in the city, they just left my old blcok, sad to say..

[Hobokenkitchen]

Frank, how was my response 'dancing around the question'? I could not have been any clearer or more direct.

Multiple people are trying to tell you how you come off on this topic but you just refuse to listen. Your posts contain sweeping generalizations which in many cases are simply not true... or are true only for the block where you lived, yet you don't clarify this important point. You just come back again with more sweeping generalizations.

There really doesn't seem to be much point in discussing this further. You are adament in your view that the whole of Philadelphia sucks and refuse to see reason despite multiple people trying to get through to you.

You are the one doing potential new residents harm by effectively lying about the state of the city. If I was a new resident and read your posts I would be thoroughly put off Philadelphia and could have missed out on living here which would have been a great shame. You are not doing anyone any favors by commenting on one area as though it is the whole city.

[frankgn87]

Lies? No lies.. Just my experiences.. Sorry if you don't agree with them but they are MY experiences. Not yours. You are free to post your positive experiences just as I am free to post my 'not so positive' experiences, correct? Lets leave it at that.

Originally Posted by Hobokenkitchen

You are the one doing potential new residents harm by effectively lying about the state of the city. If I was a new resident and read your posts I would be thoroughly put off Philadelphia and could have missed out on living here which would have been a great shame. You are not doing anyone any favors by commenting on one area as though it is the whole city.

[FindingZen]

While the primarily constructive debate in this thread has been appreciated, the idea that one could be more specific about where and when they live(d) when sharing their city experiences is quite duly noted. Let's move on, please.

[Christ O]

alright, I'm a' tell you where I come from...
...it was cool when I was a youngster, picnics in the park across from my block, in south philly, the point breeze section...not knowing about the legacy of my area, the gangwar, the black mafia's war on the s.p. italian mafia, and all of this "negativity" people's family maimed and murdered and imprisoned on a regular basis...throughout the '70s [and earlier] into the '80s, the '90s...which can surely do much to create the general makeup of what constitutes the philly that I am from...
...I mean, what makes me happy about my city, is seeing people make it, like bill cosby, kevin hart, uh, jill scott, the roots...I mean, people who came out of these depths, outta' richard allen projects, outta' hunting park and badlands, strawberry mansion, outta' point breeze, south philly or west philly and such.
I mean, I call it realadelphia. the negadelphia slant would come outta' mouths of uh, say, maybe those who didn't come up in the middle of the urgent conditions, that have been downplayed a lot at the convenience of trying to pitch a brighter image of philadelphia. to gain more outside interest maybe.
philadelphia, which is brotherly love, how I seen it, is more the cain & abel love. bloodshed. negative as it is, it's real, not trivial. but, the negative attitudes do feed back into the reality of its history [legacy] of violence, therefor perpetuating more of the same..I mean, this where I'm coming from though...

[Marius Pontmercy]

Originally Posted by Christ O

alright, I'm a' tell you where I come from...
...it was cool when I was a youngster, picnics in the park across from my block, in south philly, the point breeze section...not knowing about the legacy of my area, the gangwar, the black mafia's war on the s.p. italian mafia, and all of this "negativity" people's family maimed and murdered and imprisoned on a regular basis...throughout the '70s [and earlier] into the '80s, the '90s...which can surely do much to create the general makeup of what constitutes the philly that I am from...
...I mean, what makes me happy about my city, is seeing people make it, like bill cosby, kevin hart, uh, jill scott, the roots...I mean, people who came out of these depths, outta' richard allen projects, outta' hunting park and badlands, strawberry mansion, outta' point breeze, south philly or west philly and such.
I mean, I call it realadelphia. the negadelphia slant would come outta' mouths of uh, say, maybe those who didn't come up in the middle of the urgent conditions, that have been downplayed a lot at the convenience of trying to pitch a brighter image of philadelphia. to gain more outside interest maybe.
philadelphia, which is brotherly love, how I seen it, is more the cain & abel love. bloodshed. negative as it is, it's real, not trivial. but, the negative attitudes do feed back into the reality of its history [legacy] of violence, therefor perpetuating more of the same..I mean, this where I'm coming from though...

lol ok