where the rich live in Philly? (Philadelphia: neighborhoods, dangerous, shop)

[solibs]

Originally Posted by sbhubbell

I don't think we actually saw any black people...really anybody at all that I remember, walking around U of the Sciences. It was just the style of the neighborhood, old rowhomes...beautiful ones I might add! They just aren't used to that and where they're from any rowhomes are homes to the very poor...often projects.

Yeah, that's always funny to me. When people just see a housing style and equate it with poverty. They don't see the well manicured hedges or flowers, the fresh paint or the nice cars parked on the street.

It's also really funny to me when friends/relatives from the 'burbs who haven't been to my house before come over and the first thing they say is, "wow, this place is really big."

[JHG722]

Originally Posted by solibs

I don't know about any safety lady but I take a night class at the Center City campus . . . working on another degree.

Oh okay, because there's a lady who comes to orientation who gives safety tips, like not walking while on your cell phone, and backing up against a wall if you have to, so you can see all around you and no one can sneak up behind you. Not that you need that stuff on campus anyway.

[orrmobl]

Solibs, you should be a defense attorney. Nice try. I don't see how you can all but justify these crimes for the sake of making your point.

How dare that kid leave work at the same time alone! Didn't he know the streets belong not to the community but to the criminals?

Oh I guess in a roundabout way that was the point you were trying to make. Please try to be clearer next time.

[john_starks]

Originally Posted by solibs

I went to Rutgers-Camden.

so did i! transferred from uconn..finished my last 3 yrs there...

this was like 13 yrs ago...wow

[ajb842]

Originally Posted by solibs

I have relatives like that, they think that one of them, at any moment is going to think "oh, hey, there's a white person" and then start attacking. It's hilarious to watch the fear on their faces in certain situations. I've had frank discussions with them about it and they won't come out and say it in those words because they know how ridiculous it sounds but deep down that's the bast of their fear. It's this crazy, post-60s paranoia that's been passed down through a slew of movies starting with Taxi Driver and going through Falling Down, Escape from LA, Training Day, etc. and other avenues of pop culture.
But what's even more disturbing is some of my cousins are in their late teens, early 20's and weren't around in the 60s and haven't seen any of those movies. It's just really that pervasive.

Here's a funny story for you, which probably just goes to show some people's ignorance. My sister in law went to Widener, an area I am not familiar with I will say first. However, she told me a story that she was taking laundry she had done at home back to her dorm room and a "black man" that "looked homeless" was "walking behind her." I quote that because it was dark, and the rest is assumed. She started running! She just dropped her clothes and ran! Now, she is slightly neurotic and blamed her fear on not growing of around black people, and I did laugh, but seriously...Can we all agree this was an unfounded fear simply because there was another individual within 100ft of her that she thought was black? Would she have ran if the person was white? I will say, and I may be crucified for doing so, it SEEMS that much of the fear related to Philadelphia is very closely related to race....I live in on the Chestnut Hill/Mt Airy border and have had many friends ask me if I feel "safe" there. I take personal offense to some of these issues as a "biracial" American. Maybe I would not choose to live in certain sections in Philadelphia, but that's not to say "those areas" are filled with criminals. So many people in Philadelphia are just workin-class/trying to get by families that can't afford to live anywhere else. When I was in college, I did a nursing rotation at Episcopal Hospital at 2nd and Lehigh. Not too hot of an area. I had this irrational fear of being attacked at 6am walking into the hospital with other MDs and RNs.Was it possible? Sure.Likely? not really. I'll never forget getting lost driving home(at 3pm in warm sun)and feeling scared, and getting stuck behind a school bus. I was irritated I was(gasp)stuck behind a school bus in this terrible neighborhood! Imagine my surprise when the handicapped platform was lowered and a mother came out of a run down rowhome to greet her disabled child,smiling and hugging and kissing the little girl. Then, with a wave to the busdriver, she took her inside. What? You mean REAL people live in "those" neighborhoods??

[JHG722]

Originally Posted by ajb842

Here's a funny story for you, which probably just goes to show some people's ignorance. My sister in law went to Widener, an area I am not familiar with I will say first. However, she told me a story that she was taking laundry she had done at home back to her dorm room and a "black man" that "looked homeless" was "walking behind her." I quote that because it was dark, and the rest is assumed. She started running! She just dropped her clothes and ran! Now, she is slightly neurotic and blamed her fear on not growing of around black people, and I did laugh, but seriously...Can we all agree this was an unfounded fear simply because there was another individual within 100ft of her that she thought was black? Would she have ran if the person was white? I will say, and I may be crucified for doing so, it SEEMS that much of the fear related to Philadelphia is very closely related to race....I live in on the Chestnut Hill/Mt Airy border and have had many friends ask me if I feel "safe" there. I take personal offense to some of these issues as a "biracial" American. Maybe I would not choose to live in certain sections in Philadelphia, but that's not to say "those areas" are filled with criminals. So many people in Philadelphia are just workin-class/trying to get by families that can't afford to live anywhere else. When I was in college, I did a nursing rotation at Episcopal Hospital at 2nd and Lehigh. Not too hot of an area. I had this irrational fear of being attacked at 6am walking into the hospital with other MDs and RNs.Was it possible? Sure.Likely? not really. I'll never forget getting lost driving home(at 3pm in warm sun)and feeling scared, and getting stuck behind a school bus. I was irritated I was(gasp)stuck behind a school bus in this terrible neighborhood! Imagine my surprise when the handicapped platform was lowered and a mother came out of a run down rowhome to greet her disabled child,smiling and hugging and kissing the little girl. Then, with a wave to the busdriver, she took her inside. What? You mean REAL people live in "those" neighborhoods??

A lot of it is associating ghettos with black people. There are most definitely 'white ghettos' too.

[orrmobl]

Say what you will but a person of one color in a bad neighborhood of another color has a target on their back...

[JHG722]

Originally Posted by orrmobl

Say what you will but a person of one color in a bad neighborhood of another color has a target on their back...

Entirely depends.

[sbhubbell]

Yes, it does entirely depend. Poor neighborhoods do not automatically equate to dangerous neighborhoods. Now, when I volunteered as a tutor at the elementary school in the projects of Chester off Highland Ave, we were specifically told that we should not walk through the neighborhood unless we had a black child with us so people would know what we were doing there. A white person in that neighborhood was assumed to be up to no good.

[orrmobl]

When I wrote bad neighborhood I meant dangerous, not poor...