Okay. Let's clarify the geography: Running south to north (generally) you have Roxborough Ave., Cotton Street, Grape Street, Monastery Ave. and Lyceum Ave., in that order. Crossing these, going east to west (which means from the Ridge Avenue side headed towards Main Street) are Manayunk Ave., Dexter St., Fleming St., Terrace St. and Boone St. Then the hill, and down to 19127. In other words, we're talking just a handful of square blocks. Concerning drugs and trouble, it's like a stone dropped in a pool of water: Fleming at Cotton is where the stone hits, and the ripples go outward, diminishing as they go.

ok so what are the official boundaries of manayunk?

There are no "official" boundaries of Manayunk that I know of.

Some people consider the boundaries the zip code 19127. 19127 goes from Main Street to Silverwood and east of Shurs Lane to just past Fountain Street.

On a lot of maps however, the dot for Manayunk is on Manayunk Avenue at Shurs Lane.

Gates Street is a nice area in Roxborough.

the official zip code boundaries of Manayunk would have it stopping at Silverwood St. in most places, but if you went by the "Miss Manayunk" contest held before Canal Day, they extend it up to Manayunk Ave. straight up through... then when you go further out towards middle/upper Roxborough, Umbria St up to almost Pechin St. may be considered Manayunk as well. Umbria and the next few streets up are usually considered Manayunk by old-timers.

As for that area near Cotton St and Fleming, that area was considered sketchy even when I was growing up in the 70s & 80s. Manayunk was kind of a dividing line, as were the steps, for that area. I grew up at Lauriston & Monastery, so a lot of kids would walk past my house to go to school at Levering School. Well, back in those days, the neighborhood above Manayunk Ave. was almost all white, and then past Manayunk down to the stairs, it was mostly black... some people called that area "the Hill." In the 80s there was a store called Cannon's on Manayunk by Monastery where you'd go and get hoagies, beer, milk, cheesesteaks, etc. but they eventually closed because every three weeks some new kid would come and rob the place. Also there were some tensions, kids from that neighborhood might steal your halloween bag to prove they were badass or something. But in general all of Rox & Manayunk was a lot tougher than I would peg the neighborhood for being now.

Some of the realtors back then wouldn't let you put signs up on houses in some neighborhoods, discriminatory housing was more common. But despite all that there were plenty of people (younger generations) who had friends of different colors and ethnicities. The neighborhood was not all bad, and even though my folks said, "don't walk through there on your way to school" we did it anyway, and everything was fine and nothing bad happened. That area had some problems but there were lots of really good people back there as well, lots of caring mothers, grandmas, grandpas etc. who would give their kids a whoopin' if they got caught doing anything they shouldn't.

As for the kids doing drugs in Rox. this happened all the time in my day, I would be getting ready for school and watch my neighbors walk out of their house, but instead of a bookbag they'd have a fishing box. Lots of Roxborough High kids would cut school and go fishing back the crick and smoke weed. It was pretty standard. Most of them were good kids, really, never got into trouble other than that... never hurt a fly. I could see why cops don't do anything. It is like a rite of passage there.

Hey, does anyone remember the Manayunk club which used to be really fine, and then was the hub of underage drinking?

We, Manayunk Neighborhood Council, just made an 8 minute documentary on the Manayunk Club. It's showing Sunday, April 10 at the Philadelphia Film Festival at International House at 5:00 pm. It's part of Scibe Video's Precious Places project.

op: I know a lot of you don't like "senior citizens" but how about those of us who are approaching but not doddering. Is that ok? Seriously, we are living in a Maryland suburb right now (soooo boring) and I want city life again. We've thought a lot about South Phila. Love it there. However, I know my husband wants a yard. We can probably go to somewhere around $200,000. Can someone give me some zip codes so I can do a search on realtor.com? I appreciate it.

Roxborough is 19128.

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And Manayunk is 19127.

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East Falls is primarily 19129, with some in 19144. 19144 is primarily Germantown, but also covers some of East Falls and Mt. Airy. Mt. Airy is predominantly 19119.

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