Hostility and thugishness in Philadelphia (eat, trailer, cars)

[Boompa]

Originally Posted by Radrook

I lived in Philly for three years. Once was approached by a group of thugs who didn't like the way I made a U-turn. Came up to the driver's side and demanded to know why I had driven that way. Since I knew they were looking for an excuse to shoot me I profusely apologized although I had done nothing wrong. In fact, I had stopped at the green light because I knew that if I accelerated they would interpret it as fleeing. Well, they didn't shoot me but I remained stationary waiting for them to leave. They cut across in front of my car me from the left side to the right and toward a street since the green light was stiil on when BAM! this car slammed right into them and plastered their car against a brick wall across the street.

I didn't stay around to see if anyone was alive or dead since I knew they might blame me for the whole thing. So I put pedal to metal was doing about 70 MPH until I got home. Do I miss that kind of thing. Hell no! Not saying it happens only in Phily. But it happens more in the type of neighborhood I was living in when I lived in there. Which proves nothing about Phily except that it has bad neigborhoods just like every other large city of course.

BTW
I learned to drive inj Phily and noticed that other dirvers loved to play the game of chicken when driving below the two-way traffic narrow confines of the elevated trains. Had to stop my car repeatedly or swerve in order to avoid head-on collisions. Some streets are so narrow people living in the adjacent row houses have to park their cars half on the sidewalk half on the street.

Also, what you posted that he said isn't what I criticized.

Stay in the burbs where you're """safe """

[Marius Pontmercy]

Why is this always a Philly v burbs thing? It's not and never was. The social problems Philly (and basically all other cities) has were created through national policies and universal demographic and social changes over the last fifty or so years. We have an underclass in this country that we conveniently walled off into our decaying inner cities. It's not a "Philadelphia" thing, its a poor American underclass thing, and the more the city is hurt and the more all of us have to waste on propping up and fixing a broken city, the worse off we'll all be. I'm here because I think this city was a beautiful achievement of mankind, a testament to the many lives that were lived here and built this place (and college), and all that has a value to me that is worth fighting for and trying to keep alive. I'm more idealistic than most, I know, but the problems I have dealing with the cretins in this city are part of a much larger structural problem this country has. Urban poverty is such a drag on the local economy simply because it holds the rest of the city down, and the more we whine and puss out and leave, the more we cede to the kind of people who are going to run a poverty industry in this city causing us all to lose more in the end, and causing the city to decay further. Let's quit the burbs v city bull and realize we all need to voice support for whatever measures, state or local, that are going to address those problems, because they're all our problems like it or not.

[frankgn87]

well said, Marius..

[Boompa]

Originally Posted by Marius Pontmercy

Why is this always a Philly v burbs thing? It's not and never was. The social problems Philly (and basically all other cities) has were created through national policies and universal demographic and social changes over the last fifty or so years. We have an underclass in this country that we conveniently walled off into our decaying inner cities. It's not a "Philadelphia" thing, its a poor American underclass thing, and the more the city is hurt and the more all of us have to waste on propping up and fixing a broken city, the worse off we'll all be. I'm here because I think this city was a beautiful achievement of mankind, a testament to the many lives that were lived here and built this place (and college), and all that has a value to me that is worth fighting for and trying to keep alive. I'm more idealistic than most, I know, but the problems I have dealing with the cretins in this city are part of a much larger structural problem this country has. Urban poverty is such a drag on the local economy simply because it holds the rest of the city down, and the more we whine and puss out and leave, the more we cede to the kind of people who are going to run a poverty industry in this city causing us all to lose more in the end, and causing the city to decay further. Let's quit the burbs v city bull and realize we all need to voice support for whatever measures, state or local, that are going to address those problems, because they're all our problems like it or not.

I grew up in North Philly where my father drove the Trolley on Allegheny Ave. By the time I was 6 I could get anywhere in the city with my free pass. I have always felt comfortable living that way and can't help but wonder if people realize what they are doing to the earth commuting every day.
I don't think any houses should be built outside the existing footprint. We need to move society back into the cities and be able to walk or take the trolley anywhere we need to go. Cars should be for recreation

[Icy Tea]

If I read about one more flash mob robbing people, attacking people or looting stores I'm going to be sick. Where's Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson or Bernard Goetz when you need them? A would be victim needs to empty their revolver into a half dozen of these thugs and do the city a favor.
We had two white twenty somethings get drunk at a party, fight and murder one and the same thing happened not long before. Its everywhere, not just the city. The flash mob is an urban phenomemena, I guess. We have a lost generation of lsoers thanks to a complete parenting breakdown.

[WestPhillyDude75]

Originally Posted by Icy Tea

If I read about one more flash mob robbing people, attacking people or looting stores I'm going to be sick. Where's Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson or Bernard Goetz when you need them? A would be victim needs to empty their revolver into a half dozen of these thugs and do the city a favor.
We had two white twenty somethings get drunk at a party, fight and murder one and the same thing happened not long before. Its everywhere, not just the city. The flash mob is an urban phenomemena, I guess. We have a lost generation of lsoers thanks to a complete parenting breakdown.

I found out this flash mob mess is happening all over the country. New York, Chicago, Washington, Las Vegas, and other parts. It's a trend that teens all over the country. I don't know what's going on

[Marius Pontmercy]

Originally Posted by Icy Tea

If I read about one more flash mob robbing people, attacking people or looting stores I'm going to be sick. Where's Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson or Bernard Goetz when you need them? A would be victim needs to empty their revolver into a half dozen of these thugs and do the city a favor.
We had two white twenty somethings get drunk at a party, fight and murder one and the same thing happened not long before. Its everywhere, not just the city. The flash mob is an urban phenomemena, I guess. We have a lost generation of lsoers thanks to a complete parenting breakdown.

One of the mobs targeted stores in Darby, so the phenomena is not specific to Philadelphia County. A lot of kids were raised by parents with no real prospects of having any kind of future among the mainstream of American society. Those parents raised kids that will in turn never think of themselves as having, or needing, a future in mainstream society. Education, work, raising a family, these are all things they're eschewing now and you're seeing total societal breakdowns in many communities where poverty has become generational. If we want to break that cycle, we'll need to restart what our nation used to have as its great facilitator of upwards mobility, and that will be robust domestic production of goods.

That's another conversation though.

Just don't short change the cities because they're the ones given the burden of carrying America's greatest political, social, and economic mistakes of the last century. Instead look at the greatness they embody and the good they contain and try and preserve that so future generations can inherit some of our nation's greatest historical and cultural treasures. I feel as though our nation has done more to harm itself, and those places embodying itself, during this last century, than any of our enemies ever could have together during our entire history.

[Icy Tea]

With these ignorant flash mobs running around, the 4th of July Holiday might get out of control in Philly. I hope they have every cop on duty those days, they'll need them.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by Boompa

After living around the country I'm sick of people who sit at the green light too timid to let the idiot in front of them know it's green.

You have to sit at the green light for a few seconds, because at least three or four cars driving the opposite direction will run the red light. I'd rather risk the ire of the impatient moron behind me than get T-boned by another impatient moron who doesn't feel like stopping for a red light.

Horn Blowing and Finger Gestures need to be on the Driving Test.

If they are, everyone around here has passed. I've used my horn more in one year in Philadelphia than I have in all the other years I've been driving in other cities.

[rotodome]

I really wish they would stop calling these things "flash mobs" in the media, since for the most part they're not.