Crime in Philadelphia discussion (Bethlehem, Parker: small businesses, permits, windows)

[Redddog]

Originally Posted by jazzy jeff

From your link "six males kicked, punched and swung a hammer at a victim before stealing his shoes".
I am hearing from a few friends from the PD that shoe, sneaker theft right off of one's feet are becoming a trend as of late.

Seems like they know an awful lot about these punks.

It would be great to catch these bastages.

[Hermit12]

This is sad:

https://6abc.com/homicide-missing-ch...eath/14286511/

R.I.P., little guy.

[selhars]

Yet some people don't want murderers called animals.

[BOORGONG]

Originally Posted by selhars

Yet some people don't want murderers called animals.

It’s just not nice to the animals, that’s why.

[Hermit12]

Originally Posted by selhars

Yet some people don't want murderers called animals.

SOME murderers ... but I use it anyway.

[Hermit12]

https://6abc.com/mac-mart-center-cit...lism/14298465/

She'll be pulling out.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Hermit12

https://6abc.com/mac-mart-center-cit...lism/14298465/

She'll be pulling out.

She may reach that breaking point someday, but from her statements in that article, she's not there yet. She appears willing to put up with the repeated break-in attempts in order to do business on a prime Rittenhouse Square street corner and makes her space as defensible as possible in order to do so.

What's more likely is: If she expands, she opens in the suburbs and lets the city store languish or hold steady. All of the businesspeople I spoke for in connection with an article I wrote early last year on iconic city businesses establishing suburban outposts reiterated their commitment to the city, none more emphatically than the Wayne resident who owns Boyds. The least positive comment came from the Mignuccis, who own DiBruno Bros. (I know Emilio); Emilio's brother Billy said that while their city locations weren't going anywhere, they were simply not going to invest in more locations in the city going forward.

Edited to add: But you get a Negadelphian demerit for this. This is a particularly large blind spot the get-tough-on-crime/we-left-the-city-because-of-crime crowd has. After that article ran, I got email and comments from readers who insisted that, what the sources actually said notwithstanding, all of the stores in question were going to flee the city. None have either done so or announced plans to do so yet.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

She may reach that breaking point someday, but from her statements in that article, she's not there yet. She appears willing to put up with the repeated break-in attempts in order to do business on a prime Rittenhouse Square street corner and makes her space as defensible as possible in order to do so.

What's more likely is: If she expands, she opens in the suburbs and lets the city store languish or hold steady. All of the businesspeople I spoke for in connection with an article I wrote early last year on iconic city businesses establishing suburban outposts reiterated their commitment to the city, none more emphatically than the Wayne resident who owns Boyds. The least positive comment came from the Mignuccis, who own DiBruno Bros. (I know Emilio); Emilio's brother Billy said that while their city locations weren't going anywhere, they were simply not going to invest in more locations in the city going forward.

Edited to add: But you get a Negadelphian demerit for this. This is a particularly large blind spot the get-tough-on-crime/we-left-the-city-because-of-crime crowd has. After that article ran, I got email and comments from readers who insisted that, what the sources actually said notwithstanding, all of the stores in question were going to flee the city. None have either done so or announced plans to do so yet.

Bingo (and hold steady not languish).

Coincidence... My good friend in NYC is actually a longtime friend of the Mac Mart owner (Marti).

She does not plan to close the Rittenhouse store, and is a huge advocate for Philadelphia, but her expansion plans are now suburban focused due to the ongoing issues with her city location.

So, true that these issues have unfortunately changed her expansion plans, but the Negadelphian "she will flee the city" is not true.

[MarketStEl]

Expanding the point cpomp and I both made:

There's a book in political science/sociology/behavioral economics called Exit, Voice and Loyalty that examines the ways people (consumers, citizens, employees...) respond to what they perceive as deteriorating conditions (increasing disorder, deteriorating product quality, worsening work environment...).

The two basic choices are exit (leave the community/quit the job/stop buying the product...) and voice (protest the policies one sees as contributing to the decline/recommend to manufacturers or higher-ups ways to halt or reverse the deterioration/vote the incumbent elected officials out of office...). The value that usually determines which action wins out is loyalty, that is, the feelings or sentiments one may have towards the thing in question (their community, their employer, the product or the company making it).

Those who feel some loyalty to whatever it is they see as getting worse will first try to reverse the decline or at least try to halt it by raising their voices. Those lacking in such loyalty or who have become completely dissatsified/disillusioned will exit unless the costs of exiting are too high (exiting the political entity requires migrating to another country, replacement jobs may not materialize, comparable products cost too much or are harder to come by...). Those who choose voice and see some positive change coming from it will become even more loyal.

So in this instance, all of the business owners feel loyalty to the city to a greater or lesser degree. So rather than exit, they will perservere in the face of strong headwinds. They may not double down on their investment, but neither will they abandon it.

Meanwhile, those who flee have no loyalty (left). But their error is assuming that everyone witnessing the same phenomena will also lose all their loyalty and exit as well. Regarding Philadelphia, even though there remain a sizable number of area residents who (appear to) believe that this city is in the exact same boat as Detroit, this city actually has a long way to go before it reaches that state. It still has many more assets it can draw on — and even Detroit has some of those. There's still plenty of room to volce our concerns rather than head for the exits.

[JamesJay64]

Originally Posted by Hermit12

https://6abc.com/mac-mart-center-cit...lism/14298465/

She'll be pulling out.

"Investigators believe it was the same person behind both incidents.

Shikoku Brunson, 51, was taken into custody nearby, according to Philadelphia police.

Brunson faces charges of burglary, criminal trespass, and related offenses."

This is when prosecution matters. I'm pretty sure there's a relatively small amount of people doing things as blatant as this.... keep them off the streets and things will return to normal.