And, to top it all off, some sociopath piece of garbage stole the safety railing off the Poplar Ave. bridge over the railroad tracks. For about 75% of the length of the bridge, it is a straight 20 foot drop with no railing at all.

I hope but do not remotely expect that the scrap dealer they sell it to reports them to the cops, and they are forced to pay for a new railing to be installed. There is no way they stole it without a fairly big truck, so the city could seize the truck and sell it if necessary.

How about this: At least we are not the suburbs...

btw, trust me, there is very little chance this was arson or related to the shooting...

It didn't have to do with the rash of buglaries with four different sets of burglers, including a group of 12 year olds either.

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Peace Out, Philly!

Yeah, I see what you are saying and what you are trying to get me to say.

I'm going to stay here, and I know that if something bad happens to me, I'll have a supportive group of neighbors nearby. If you saw everyone outside in the middle of the night, all asking what they could do to help, you'd understand.

Whether it started there or not, the firemen had to knock out all the front windows and had the hoses snaking in the front door as well as in the back, and smoke was coming out pretty good, so the whole house was compromised. The house is diagonally across the intersection from my house, one house in from the corner. We had a pretty good view from the roof.

It was a really friendly night --had nice chats with all my neighbors during the police presence after the guy was shot, and later during the time when we had seven or eight fire engines in front. My neighbor down the street was the one who saw the fire start and who started yelling to the occupants to get out, and my husband was out there like a flash doing the same thing. I love the neighborhood.

Oh, and by the way, whoever the SOB is who decided it was a good night to park within two feet of the fire hydrant at the corner of 30th and Poplar, be thankful your car is still in one piece! I mean, jeebers, a night like last night is precisely the reason that you're supposed to leave space around the hydrant. Luckily, the firefighters were able to work around it.

I hope an elephant comes along and sits on your hood!

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"Everything that guy just said is bull$h!t! Thank you."

-- Vincent LaGuardia Gambini

Didn't they move all of our elephants to Baltimore?

Anyway, main the house that burned was a rental property (owned by a Cambridge resident) and everyone there had a place to stay as of last night. The bookending homes were also damaged but one was able to be occupied after a few hours and the other had damage mostly on one floor.

I have less info on the shooting, other than it was a nonfatal leg shot and the name of the victim, which I will not share.

What they should have done:

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Cheers,
Jayfar
--
“I am indeed well aware of the history of Conventional (sic) Hall, both globally and locally, and can assure you that we are carefully exploring avenues for its future.” -- Penn President Amy Gutmann 5 days before demolition began.

Maps: Can you at least share whether the victim was a Cambridge Street resident? I was curious as to whether the shooting was related to the riff-raff that hangs out on the SW corner of 29th and Cambridge. A number of 29th Street residents have noticed curious behavior at this corner.

BTW, I watched the last half of the shooting from my window on 29th Street.

I live on 29th Street and after talking to a local resident, heard that the wounded kid is a resident of the block. Last night was the pits. I mean, it's all well and good to point to the silver lining of nice, helpful neighbors but that immediate area of 29th and Cambridge/Harper is experiencing a real spike in violence right now. This is the 3rd shooting in 4 months, that I know of. And about 3 weeks ago or so I had the pleasure of looking out my window to see what looked like a 13 year old kid brandishing a gun (holding it all sideways, movie-style) over the roof of a car at a middle aged woman right outside of Lee's Kitchen. I think a band of young kids had just ran off with her purse.

And meanwhile, a 2hr permit parking zone was just established on the 2900 block of Harper. I just shake my head in disbelief at the fact that I have to pay for the priviledge of parking on a block in an area that all of this sort of cr** is happening. AND I can't sleep at night with all of the sirens going all night with all of the buildings burning. WTF? I'm sorry, but something's got to give. And it should not be the residents, who have already given so much to each other and given up so much of their confidence that they can walk to their car without being held up, shot, be the recipient of racially charged insults, or have to watch some human male animal with his di** out pissing on my apartment. Yes, I'm fed up.