If you had a budget of $650,000...where would you live? (Philadelphia: middle-class, crime rate)

[DXBtoFL]

Originally Posted by 1ondoner

There's nothing special about being a Philadelphian. It's just another meaningless -ism label, it does not confer you any special privilages.

Perhaps the advantage of not being a Philadelphian is that I don't look at things through rosy lens. I see things from an outsider perspective. And this includes Mount Airy.

I'm sure plenty of people cherish and welcome the neighborhood, warts (and crime and muggings and thefts and terrible schools galore). But from this outsider's perspective, it's not that special, even if under the right circumstances I could see myself happily living there (some gorgeous blocks and great old housing).

You can throw all the cries of racism but at the end of the day it's not going to make a difference to the folks who specifically want "good public schools." And that is what I'm saying over and over again by this point. People looking for "good public schools" are not going to be interested in Mount Airy, full stop. Especially out of towners relocating to Philadelphia.

I'm glad some of you love and cherish your part of NW Philadelphia, but it reminds me of an observation I heard regarding a similar "lovely, diverse but problematic" neighborhood in another city, that these folks have to try harder. And that's great. Love your community. It's who you are.

But next time you're tempted to be a booster in the next "we want good public schools" thread, remember, most people don't want to try harder. They just want a straightforward and uncomplicated life in a low-maintenance house (check against Mount Airy) in tidy communities of well-kept houses (check against Mount Airy) with great public schools (major check against Mount Airy) and minimal petty crime (check against Mount Airy). That's why suburbs like Malvern exist.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Pennsport

Well, you're not exactly making your adopted neighborhood sound very enticing. Multiple murders, muggings, and porch theft in a neighborhood extremely removed from the city proper (but still levied wage tax) with poor schools and high levels of poverty. Sign me up. LOL...

If you've been following my comments about public schools, you should have figured out by now that I'm something of a contrarian in my own way.

And that includes the subject of crime and safety.

Let me preface what follows by saying that sure, if we can choose to live in a neighborhood with less crime rather than one with more, that's what we should do.

But I also maintain (as does kyb01, using different language) that we let fear govern our lives and actions too much, and I use my own experience in this neighborhood as Exhibit A.

I can give you one more anecdote about crime, from the fellow who fixed up the vacant house next door to my own and moved into it three years ago.

He told me one morning about four months after he moved in, as I was firing up the smoker for a barbecue session, that he had moved to this forlorn corner of East Germantown from a safer neighborhood closer to Center City.

"My car kept getting broken into all the time down there," he said. "It hasn't been broken into once since I moved here."

As for the murders: One thing I think most of us forget is that in the overwhelming majority of murders, the victim and the perp know each other. Many in neighborhoods like mine arise from disputes over drug sales and turf. It's one of the reasons I support legalization of marijuana (and I would add cocaine to the list too): the current situation is like Prohibition, and if you will recall, when we made alcohol legal again, the shooting stopped. Chances are we won't become victims of some random act of violence or senseless cruelty if we keep our wits about us (and I don't always when walking around my neighborhood - which should tell you something about everyday safety there; I've lived here six and a half years and have yet to personally experience crime, save for that porch theft. I also have yet to have a package left on my doorstep swiped; can you say that, you who live in better-off neighborhoods?).

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by DXBtoFL

Perhaps the advantage of not being a Philadelphian is that I don't look at things through rosy lens. I see things from an outsider perspective. And this includes Mount Airy.

I'm sure plenty of people cherish and welcome the neighborhood, warts (and crime and muggings and thefts and terrible schools galore). But from this outsider's perspective, it's not that special, even if under the right circumstances I could see myself happily living there (some gorgeous blocks and great old housing).

You can throw all the cries of racism but at the end of the day it's not going to make a difference to the folks who specifically want "good public schools." And that is what I'm saying over and over again by this point. People looking for "good public schools" are not going to be interested in Mount Airy, full stop. Especially out of towners relocating to Philadelphia.

I'm glad some of you love and cherish your part of NW Philadelphia, but it reminds me of an observation I heard regarding a similar "lovely, diverse but problematic" neighborhood in another city, that these folks have to try harder. And that's great. Love your community. It's who you are.

But next time you're tempted to be a booster in the next "we want good public schools" thread, remember, most people don't want to try harder. They just want a straightforward and uncomplicated life in a low-maintenance house (check against Mount Airy) in tidy communities of well-kept houses (check against Mount Airy) with great public schools (major check against Mount Airy) and minimal petty crime (check against Mount Airy). That's why suburbs like Malvern exist.

The thread kinda got derailed wrt the schools issue. Some of us don't care directly about schools anywhere since we don't have kids.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

If you've been following my comments about public schools, you should have figured out by now that I'm something of a contrarian in my own way.

And that includes the subject of crime and safety.

Let me preface what follows by saying that sure, if we can choose to live in a neighborhood with less crime rather than one with more, that's what we should do.

But I also maintain (as does kyb01, using different language) that we let fear govern our lives and actions too much, and I use my own experience in this neighborhood as Exhibit A.

I can give you one more anecdote about crime, from the fellow who fixed up the vacant house next door to my own and moved into it three years ago.

He told me one morning about four months after he moved in, as I was firing up the smoker for a barbecue session, that he had moved to this forlorn corner of East Germantown from a safer neighborhood closer to Center City.

"My car kept getting broken into all the time down there," he said. "It hasn't been broken into once since I moved here."

As for the murders: One thing I think most of us forget is that in the overwhelming majority of murders, the victim and the perp know each other. Many in neighborhoods like mine arise from disputes over drug sales and turf. It's one of the reasons I support legalization of marijuana (and I would add cocaine to the list too): the current situation is like Prohibition, and if you will recall, when we made alcohol legal again, the shooting stopped. Chances are we won't become victims of some random act of violence or senseless cruelty if we keep our wits about us (and I don't always when walking around my neighborhood - which should tell you something about everyday safety there; I've lived here six and a half years and have yet to personally experience crime, save for that porch theft. I also have yet to have a package left on my doorstep swiped; can you say that, you who live in better-off neighborhoods?).

Our crime free lives( yours, mine( rest of my family's), PhilliesPhan's ( who shows up sometimes) means nothing to anyone else posting here. That's my conclusion.

[1ondoner]

Are you saying others should ignore the crime statistics and go by what you tell us.

Originally Posted by kyb01

Our crime free lives( yours, mine( rest of my family's), PhilliesPhan's ( who shows up sometimes) means nothing to anyone else posting here. That's my conclusion.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by 1ondoner

Are you saying others should ignore the crime statistics and go by what you tell us.

Well, all three of us are saying that the crime stats don't seem to affect how we go about our day-to-day lives in these less safe neighborhoods - and we strongly suspect they wouldn't affect the way others, including you, would go about theirs were they to live in one.

Remember what Mark Twain said about the three kinds of lies? Even true stats may deceive, conceal, or gaslight. I point that out wrt the median household income stats for Germantown as a whole and Mt. Airy as a whole all the time.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by 1ondoner

Are you saying others should ignore the crime statistics and go by what you tell us.

Yes, actually. You know posters with REAL, every single day, experience in places you won't step a toe in because you're just too scared to.

Driving is more dangerous, imo. Want stats? Here's one. Close to 40, 000 died people in car crashes last year and it was the third year in a row in which at least that many people died in vehicle crashes yet you probably feel perfectly safe every time you drive.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by kyb01

The thread kinda got derailed wrt the schools issue. Some of us don't care directly about schools anywhere since we don't have kids.

I have no kids and no plans to have any either, but I do pay attention to school issues thanks to what I do for a living.

They will eventually be relevant for PhilliesPhan2013 too. But if his attitude towards education resembles his attitudes towards neighborhood choice, living in the city and safety, he might also be willing to go against the conventional wisdom here too and use his own eyes, ears and brain rather than just "paint by numbers."

[DXBtoFL]

Originally Posted by kyb01

The thread kinda got derailed wrt the schools issue. Some of us don't care directly about schools anywhere since we don't have kids.

Well, unfortunately, that was the point of the thread to start with. Look at the OP's first few posts. Here's the first one for a reminder:

Hey Philly Friends,

We are relocating to the Philadelphia area. My husband will be commuting to Suburban Station daily and we have 3 children under 6 who will be entering the public school system.

My question to you is:

Q. Of all the towns, townships and school districts in and around the Greater Philadelphia Area, where would YOU choose to live if you had $650,000 to spend on a house? Why?

Thanks!

Her second post mentioned Wayne and Berwyn at the top of her list.

End of thread /

At least that should have been the end of the thread, but it got derailed because a bunch of people started promoting Mount Airy, which is about as much use to the OP as a chocolate teapot.

I'm sure OP by now is happily living in her Wayne/Berwyn/Paoli/Malvern colonial on a cul de sac and no amount of judging or encouraging her to "think" differently is going to make a single iota of a difference.

[Pennsport]

Originally Posted by kyb01

Our crime free lives( yours, mine( rest of my family's), PhilliesPhan's ( who shows up sometimes) means nothing to anyone else posting here. That's my conclusion.

Well of course they don't. Do you honestly think we should take anecdotal evidence from an N of 3 when there are robust and factual statistics about the same topic? That doesn't make any sense at all.