I live just up from you on Umbria, to me we don't have the same noise as Main St. except at 2:30 AM Sat. & Sun. morning. That's when I hear people outside. Mostly just being loud, yelling or just loud talking. We don't seem to have as much fighting as we used to. I think the owners at Spanky's got a little more serious about this a few years ago. It seems they don't just tell the people to "take it outside" any more.

But during the school year I know exact when it's 2:30 AM.

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*Apathy rules

*unless apathy doesn't rule

I think with Manayunk & Roxborough it really is a street by street situation. Some blocks are great for families with a real neighborhood feel and others are mainly renters with no sense of community. Not that thats bad, I used to be one of those renters. After buying 5 years ago, we now have a two year old and the next one on the way, so for us, its time to go soon. We simply need more living space, a yard for the kids to play and want a good school system. I guess its all a matter of what you are used to. I grew up in the burbs so I think I am trying to recreate that for my kids in a way. If I had more of a neighborhood feel on my street, I may not be so quick to jump ship, but oh well.

Renters vs. owners is not the problem. I've seen owners that don't care about their property and I seen renters that don't care. However, when owners were leaving MYK in the 1980's and left buildings abandoned or worse, renters moved in and made MYK, for better or worse, what it is now. In the early 1990's owners got 3 or 4 times what they paid for their homes because of renters who wanted to live in Manayunk. Of course there were losers in this version of the American Dream, sons and daughters of people who lived here for generations that couldn't afford a house in MYK but that is our economic system. People's demands out stripped supply and the cost of housing went up. Then again some houses around here sold at $250,000 to $300,000 and Yunkers were able to move to Plymouth Mtg, Lafayette Hill, Florida, etc.

As to is this a good place to raise a family, I think you really need to be from MYK to be familiar with what will face your children as they grow up.

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*unless apathy doesn't rule

As long as people continue to believe the mantra that the schools in the suburbs are great and the schools in the city are terrible, the city will continue to have a hard time maintaining middle class family-oriented neighborhoods. We were just at some friends' house in Penn Valley. We all met when we lived in the neighborhood together, and we stayed, but they moved out 'because of the schools'. We discussed while we were there how they are putting their oldest child into Quaker schools because that child needs more individualized attention than their present public school can provide. This is supposedly the best school system in the Pennsylvania suburbs. While we were there, their really good friends walked over. They happen to live in the same neighborhood, although they go way back. They have four kids, and, although they also live in what is supposedly the best public school system in the Pennsylvania suburbs, I noted (silently) that all four kids are in private schools. These parents are no dummies, also - they met at Wharton.

Meanwhile other friends who have held on here in the neighborhood just bought a house in Moorestown 'for the schools'. I noted sadly the passing this week of the third senior from Moorestown High this year. All three died violently as a result of three separate automobile 'accidents'. I should note that Moorestown is supposedly the best public school system in the suburbs of New Jersey. We're going to go to their new home as a housewarming and I for one am scared to death. 1% of their senior class has been wiped out in three separate incidents because of the idiotic way that the society is built there and people are lining up to move there? Count me out.

Yeah I hear ya on that. I work over in that school system and have friends that graduated from there. There seems to be a whole different set of problems for kids over there. Some can be neglected by overworked parents and pushed to hard. I grew up in the heart of kensington, played in the streets, went to public schools and I feel like I had a good childhood. Fortunately for me, I guess my parents didn't get the memo that all kids have to be coddled to succeed. I almost feel like I am better off for not having the world revolve around me.

I don't see me going anywhere soon......I love my 1.4 mile commute. I do like Belmont Hills and that community pool and park they have over there. I kind of wish the city would let neighborhoods have a little more autonomy. I'd like to see the Venice Island rec center developed into something that caters more to the people here.

It would be nice of the Venice Island rec was more like that Belmont Hills pool/park area.

In Philly it's not kids from your neighborhood in the neighborhood school.

It's kids from other neighborhoods in your neighborhood school.

and those parents, not from your neighborhood.

is the problem.

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The city's public school system is going back to a neighborhood school model. Interestingly, the neighborhood schools will be at the bottom of the totem pole, because the magnet schools will be for the elite. My understanding is that even neighborhood teachers will get priority for assignment to neighborhood schools, as well as neighborhood students.

Children from outside the neighborhood can only go to a school if there is space. Space is created when neighborhood parents do not send their children to their neighborhood school. So if parents truly want a neighborhood school, they need to send their kids there. But, frankly, my experience with non-neighborhood children in the elementary schools (as both a parent and as an educator) has been overwhelmingly positive. Their parents are looking for a good education for their kids and are willing and able to participate in the educational process. Many of these kids thrive and excel in their new school.

I don't quite understand how the magnet schools will be for the elite. Is it because you will have to live near it to get in it? And all the magnet schools are in elite neighborhoods?
I grew up in Kensington, neighborhood shool would have been Edison...but I went to Masterman. So I was in a magnet school and I wasn't an elite.

I imagine that sending kids to their neighborhood schools rather than bussing them accross the city to other neighborhood schools wouldn't stop kids from getting into a gifted track and into a magnet school.

In our neighborhood, we recently held a meeting for interested parents to discuss what our local school (Cook Wiss) had to offer. There was overwhelming support and interest.

For the past two years, I have sent my daughter to a private Friends school. I am excited to say that next year, she will be a student at Cook.

One of the parents at the meeting made a fabulous point - he realized that if he invested a fraction of the tuition he was paying and the time he was spending at his child's private school to make the public school better, there would be a different result. And he is right.

A great group of concerned parents at Cook have already moved mountains - there are fresh snacks in the school now and small gardens. Bussing is down and walking is up - the neighborhood is moving in! There is a full time art teacher with a dedicated classroom, a small orchestra and great partnerships at the school A Green Committee is working on design improvements to the outside (look for announcements coming soon!) and a subcommittee is looking for ways to make walking and biking to school a more viable option.

If you look at the test scores, they are really competitive. PSSA scores for the 3rd grade in 2007 were 87% reading (state was 73%) and 95% math (state was 79%).

Shawmont and Dobson have similar success stories - and now that a group of parents is interested in Levering, I have faith that it will improve, too.

Neighborhood schools in the City have awesome potential. There's a lot to be said about the social impact of walking to school together, playing together and learning together.

When I was a kid, I grew up in the woods. I had to be driven to school. It was my dream to be able to walk to my school - my kids get to do that. How cool is that?

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