What were the most dangerous/violent neighborhoods in Philadelphia during the crack epidemic of the 80s and 90s? (crime, townhomes)

[Lenses & Lights.]

Originally Posted by FKD19124

your point? it was notorious for drug dealings and shootings.
I lost a classmate back in august of 1990 because he rode his bike down there looking to score some drugs.

My point.... It was ONE corner that quickly stopped drug trafficing once the media took notice.Hunting Park IS the neighborhood that particular corner is located in, also it falls in line with the thread " What were the most violent dangerous NEIGHBORHOODS in Philadelphia during the crack epidemic during the 80's and 90's?" Not a street.

My condolences for your loss of a friend, but trust me "death" is always lurking where drugs are being sold and people who use them pursue their addiction. That would've been at least three or four hundred streets city wide back then.

[Christ O]

Fairhill, West Kensington to Hunting Park sections of The Badlands, rough...North Philly in general, West Philly from Mantua [the bottom] to Overbrook, Carrol Park to Belmont to Parkside...Southwest Philly from the Southwest Schuylkill section to Kingsessing to parts of Elmwood...South Philly from Pt. Breeze to King Village and Southwest Center City, Hawthorne and Southwark sections...Upper North from Nicetown to Logan and Olney, Northwest from Germantown to West Oak Lane and even Mt. Airy...lower Northeast from Kensington to Frankford...
...high rise projects? Raymond Rosen [r.i.p.], Cambridge Plaza [r.i.p.], Wilson Park, MLK Homes [r.i.p.], Southwark [r.i.p.], Mill Creek [r.i.p.], West Park highrises, Blumlberg Projects, Harrison Plaza, Mantua Hall [r.i.p.], Queen Lane [r.i.p.] etctera...Raymond Rosen was the largest and most notorious highrise projects, BUT Richard Allen Homes [north phila.] and Tasker Homes [south phila.] were the largest and most notorious housing projects in the city period.
Philly is mostly rowhouses..Germantown has Champlost and Morton Homes and had the Queen Lane highrise, but that doesn't account for the situation in the streets in general...things mostly happen within the confines of jam-packed and dilapidated rowhouse neighborhoods..and the crack epidemic was no joke whether in the projects or the rowhomes...

[Christ O]

Kensington was 'bout the worst white 'hood in the city besides Fishtown. heroin was the epidemic there, bodies from heroin o.d.'s on a regular basis if I can recall correctly.

[Christ O]

Originally Posted by Revis Island

During the crack epidemic, why was worse in the badlands glenwood or Fairhills? What was the worst high rise tenement out of those 2 areas?

one block alone in the Fairhill section of Badlands held title of most murderous in the city, let alone the Fairhill section itself. I believe it was 9th and Indiana Ave. and believe it or not, The Badlands ain't got anything to do with any housing projects. offa' Glenwood Ave. though might be one housing project,Harntraft maybe. I gotta' check that..it's just the streets is the streets...

[Christ O]

Originally Posted by sweendog024

That is an interesting take Huckleberry. I like it.

The only high rise projects I know of are the ones down in Grays Ferry south of Snyder and west of 25th. I've heard they are pretty damn rough...seen at least a few murders being reported as coming out of there..

they'd be Wilson Park projects. just so happens the highrises are for the old folks, low-rises are for the rest...they're the highrises you see along the schulkill expressway going through South Philly, Wilson Park and the new Tasker Homes aka Grays Ferry Estates run alongside the expressway..all the projects in South Philly though were notorious..
...also, the highrises still standing besides Wilson Park highrises are West Park Plaza in West Philly. you ride the el train to 46th st., you see 'em. there're several highrises [blumberg, harrison plaza, etcetera] left in North Philly. and they left one of the Southwark Plaza highrises standing in South Philly.

[PhilliesPhan2013]

All of this history is so interesting. I was born in 1995 and lived in Carroll Park from 2002-2007. It looks like the worst happened either before I was born or while I was too little to recognize crime. It's almost hard to believe that parts of the City used to look how people on here have described them.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by PhilliesPhan2013

All of this history is so interesting. I was born in 1995 and lived in Carroll Park from 2002-2007. It looks like the worst happened either before I was born or while I was too little to recognize crime. It's almost hard to believe that parts of the City used to look how people on here have described them.

Here's something that will fascinate you about Carroll Park. I have a transit history book that has a great photo of a trolley accident at the intersection of 60th/Haverford and Girard Aves in 1913. Tons of people looking at it or helping.... everyone is white.

But shortly after the demographics were starting to change ever so slightly because more blacks were living there. My paternal grandparents showed up in that neighborhood sometime in 1916 from Baltimore; my father was a baby. Why did they move to Philly? I really do not know why. But within a few years my grandfather opened his tailor/dress making shop in 5900 block of Haverford Ave.

There were a lot of Italians around then too. My grandparents live in the 5700 block of Vine St. All of their neighbors were Italians.

By the 1950s Carroll Park was mostly black.

[PhilliesPhan2013]

Originally Posted by kyb01

Here's something that will fascinate you about Carroll Park. I have a transit history book that has a great photo of a trolley accident at the intersection of 60th/Haverford and Girard Aves in 1913. Tons of people looking at it or helping.... everyone is white.

But shortly after the demographics were starting to change ever so slightly because more blacks were living there. My paternal grandparents showed up in that neighborhood sometime in 1916 from Baltimore; my father was a baby. Why did they move to Philly? I really do not know why. But within a few years my grandfather opened his tailor/dress making shop in 5900 block of Haverford Ave.

There were a lot of Italians around then too. My grandparents live in the 5700 block of Vine St. All of their neighbors were Italians.

By the 1950s Carroll Park was mostly black.

Thank you for all of the history you have been sharing! It has given me a new-found appreciation for the neighborhood I used to live in. I would have never guessed, nor would I have been old enough to care, that Carroll Park had such an interesting history to it back when I lived there.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by PhilliesPhan2013

Thank you for all of the history you have been sharing! It has given me a new-found appreciation for the neighborhood I used to live in. I would have never guessed, nor would I have been old enough to care, that Carroll Park had such an interesting history to it back when I lived there.

Something else somewhat related to that neighborhood. My one remaining aunt, younger sister of my father, was born, at home, during the 1918 flu pandemic.

Then there's this: members of my family have been living in W. Philly, continuously, since 1916.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by kyb01

Here's something that will fascinate you about Carroll Park. I have a transit history book that has a great photo of a trolley accident at the intersection of 60th/Haverford and Girard Aves in 1913. Tons of people looking at it or helping.... everyone is white.

But shortly after the demographics were starting to change ever so slightly because more blacks were living there. My paternal grandparents showed up in that neighborhood sometime in 1916 from Baltimore; my father was a baby. Why did they move to Philly? I really do not know why. But within a few years my grandfather opened his tailor/dress making shop in 5900 block of Haverford Ave.

There were a lot of Italians around then too. My grandparents live in the 5700 block of Vine St. All of their neighbors were Italians.

By the 1950s Carroll Park was mostly black.

In the late 19th & early 20th centuries darker skinned Italians weren't always quite considered white.

I've extensively researched something that happened in a branch of one of my families in North Philadelphia in the 1880s. One of the individuals involved was Italian. Newspaper articles were written much more descriptively & there were many more newspapers. Descriptions of the Italian individual would shock most people today.