The PPD came banging on the door tonight at 11:30 telling me that some crackhead broke into my upstair neighbor's car, trying to steal the faceplate.
This is the second time in a month someone has smashed a window to get into their car, the first time they stole a bike.

This **** pisses me off, and always shines light onto the fact that I live 3 blocks from the projects...

Makes me want to go vigilante.

That sucks for sure.

But can I ask why the cops do this ? It happened to me once, I had no idea what was going on. I had talked to that neighbor maybe two times, not to mention i was drunk out of my gord and it was midnight when the cops rang my bell about his car being broken into. What was I going to do with that information?

Joe:

I think if I owned a row there I'd be obliged to install video surveillance covering the front. Neighborhood Watch can go a long way. Does QVNA push for this?

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WHYY pays their CEO $750,000 a year. So WHYY should I renew my membership? Seems they have no problems finding money and spending it unwisely.


And this is why you should donate to PACCA, not PETA:

In September, PETA made headlines in Vermont and across the nation for asking Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use human breast milk in their ice cream, instead of cow milk

They seem to be more in an uproar about casinos and people trying to build condos on the decaying fabric row. Little do they know the neighborhood is already approaching ****.

Seriously, 4th street sucks down here, and the latest communication we get from QVNA is about someone trying to build condos at 4th and Monroe where that closed down pet shop has been for a year. Give me a break.

My wife and I are moving down to Catharine/Leithgow. Thankfully we'll be on the 2nd and third floor of our building, but this traffic of human waste that shuffles up and down 4th street at night is a shame. I hear its better than it used to be, but it's still there, and it doesn't make sense to pretend it isnt.

The Force Is Strong With This One....hehe

I think the cops usually start banging on doors to see if anyone else had their property messed with to rack up charges on the guy. When they caught a group a week or two ago they found out that many more homes were burglarized by knocking on neighbors' doors.

__________________
Peter Cetera:
Sometimes I just forget
Say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying

I don't know that you can assume that people in the projects are to blame. When we lived in Society Hill, more than half a mile from said projects, our car was broken into repeatedly. Hasn't happened in four years in QV, although I don't want to jinx it. We speculated that most of our frustrating Society Hill car break-ins were perpetrated by a drug addict trolling for money, or anything.

We lived in an apartment in a very nice part of Society Hill (not sure there's not a nice part). Our building was burglarized, another tenant's car was stolen, our planter was vandalized, and if I remember these major incidents correctly, the cops shot and killed someone on the steps of what is now the PSC gym and a security guard killed someone at Super Fresh. More recently, since we moved, there have been various assaults in that neighborhood. And no projects in sight.

In Queen Villager's reports of society hill murders it was the authorities utilizing deadly force-not random violence; the violent crime originating from our friendly neighborhood projects is a bit different.

There are "projects" in society hill-you just can't see them. One of them houses a local drug dealer who previously lived on 5th and kater in a section 8 apartment that was torn down for new homes. Maybe the "speculated" drug addicted thieves were saving up to go to him-since were speculatin' an' all.

Here's a newsflash-street hustlers can walk-and they walk alot further than a self described "half-mile from said projects".

Vandalised planter? Oh my-I hope the cops called in Detectives to investigate.

There's always people who wish to stick their heads in rainbows for some bizarre Mother Theresian campaign when it concerns relational crime originating from the projects. These same people probably believe that the nixon tapes don't prove squat about watergate, memos don't prove anything about the iran contra affair, and the receipt in my pocket doesn't prove that I ate at philadeli this morning.

Maybe we can't assume that people in the projects are to blame-just as Queen Villager can't assume drug addicts are breaking into society hill cars. After all, maybe it was a society hill resident who noticed a bonus coupon on the dashboard, and just had to have it before shopping at Superfresh.

Here's some southphilly review quotes again...while reading these articles, ask yourself how many of your neighbors (other than our less fortunate residents who happen to own fairly decent cars and alot of 42" and over flatscreen tv's from the looks of their overflowing trash)were ever involved in such criminal behavior. Don't remember my next door neighbor cappin' no homie, and I certainly don't remember anyone on my block admitting to a dozen burglaries, crack dealing, beating up neighbors, wearing gang related gear inscribed "5th street ballaz", etc.

-A man who was ambushed by bullets on the 900 block of South Fourth Street had two prior drug arrests on the same block, police said.
Officers patrolling the area shortly before 1 a.m. Nov. 2 found Lavan Patterson, 27, from the 900 block of South Fifth Street, with a gunshot wound to his abdomen, Lt. Joe Dougherty of South Detectives said.
The victim went to Jefferson Hospital in stable condition.
Bullets damaged several parked cars on the block and detectives recovered 14 9mm casings at the scene, the lieutenant said.

-Center City assault follows gang arrests
By Ira Porter INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
...Police arrested a 16-year-old Dec. 12 at his home in the 900 block of South Fifth Street, where, they said, they recovered two pairs of red boxing gloves.
Early yesterday, police arrested two brothers, 15 and 16, at a home in the 400 block of Christian Street; a 17-year-old in the 300 block of Christian; and another 16-year-old in the 900 block of South Fifth. Police said they were looking for three more youths who had been identified.
Sgt. Stephen Biello of South Detectives said that five to 15 members of the group had been reported in some beatings. "We're still trying to put together the pieces on this one," he said.
In one of the arrests, detectives confiscated a white T-shirt bearing various names for the group, including 5th Street Ballaz and 5th Street Cannons. The shirt also bore a list of several names under R.I.P., a drawing of a gun, and the slogan "If you can't beat us then join us."

-Third District officers hit the jackpot when they nabbed a man shortly after he allegedly burglarized a home on Sept. 6.

Turns out the suspect had a packet of crack cocaine on him and later admitted to almost a dozen Queen Village and Bella Vista burglaries over the past couple of months, officials said.

Richard Moore, 29, from the 900 block of South Fifth Street, was charged with burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and related offenses, as well as a narcotics charge, said Sgt. Steve Biello of South Detectives.

Around 3:15 p.m. on Sept. 6, officers responded to a burglary in progress on the 500 block of Montrose Street, the sergeant said. Police stopped a man in the area, whom the victim positively identified, Biello said.

Detectives say Moore is responsible for burglaries on the 900 block of South Fifth Street, 200 block of Christian, 800 block of South Hancock, 600 block of Catharine, 600 block of Fulton, 900 block of East Passyunk Avenue, 700 block of South Sixth Street, 800 block of South Howard and the unit block of Christian.

__________________
Peter Cetera:
Sometimes I just forget
Say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying

Seriously. If there were no projects, there would be no super-wide socio-economic gaps in play in the neighborhood, and hence, less drug and crime activity.
Of course the projects were there long before I was, I just wish the city would bring a sledgehammer down on the whole thing, since the experiment if obviously not working. This is the exact thing that the QVNA should be focussed on, not some stupid casinos on the other side of a major highway.

JoePSU: There is a wide socioeconomic gap between the higher-income Center City neighborhoods and most of the rest of Philadelphia. There aren't enough sledgehammers to flatten most of the city -- as if all the problems emanate from the poor -- while sparing the wealthy enclaves. Perhaps longer term, more constructive ideas are in order, not that I have the answers.

Alesis - I should have known I could count on you to take my remarks out of context, play up and mock the vandalized planter, disregard the reference to relatively recent assaults in Society Hill and misconstrue my point in mentioning the police/security guard actions.

QueenVillager, a little disingenuous of you to about Center City neighborhoods and their wealth and the disparity of ALL of the rest of the City, no? The problem really isn't MOST of the City as you state, but pockets of it, increasingly spread through what were once nice, and highly livable areas. All the wealth is not in CC, and you clearly do not know your Philadelphia geography (Chestnut Hill). Queen Village is an area that was beset by its problems for years, and apparently some are returning, if they were truly ever away.

Joe is correct. QVNA should spend more of its time worrying about QOL issues right in its own backyard rather than the casinos.

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