Today is officially jedimindfart day.

gunshots are definitely something to be concerned about, dude. I can't side with you there.

I live in South Philly and know that my life here will involve both fireworks and gunshots. No surprise.

Still, if it turns out that there was a shooting near me, I would like to know about it. What's wrong with wanting to know what is going on in your own neighborhood? What is wrong with being aware of your surroundings or simply being curious as to what is going on around you? What is wrong with coming on PhillyBlog and asking about it? So many times news about shootings and fires, muggings and military jet flyovers, etc are posted here in advance of many news outlets.

I appreciate hearing about what is going on. I try not to bitch about it and it damn well isn't going to make me move. But come on - why be so harsh about people asking questions.

__________________
Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us. -- T. L. Holdcroft

Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.-- S. R. Barr

this forum seems to be geared more towards bitching and moaning about the neighborhoods and the businesses within them while tossing in a healthy helping of gossipy chit-chat.

Asking questions is one thing-jumping to conclusions is another.

If you google anything about philadelphia, phillyblog usually comes up before anything else. From the headlines of most threads, you'd think we were the wild wild west when the reality is that we are merely a neighborhood of paranoid whackos.

A proper question would be "what was that noise", not "shooting at 12th and washington" when it was plainly obvious what was going on throughout the entire neighborhood that night.

If you look at our statistics, in 2007 there were more shootings in olde city than the area in question. Sorry, but I tend to rely on common sense rather than jumping the gun to the worst assumption.

Speaking of which, was their an indecent assault that occured last night in QV?!?!?! Oh, nevermind-that was just my wife and I doin' the nasty good touch.

While I'm not keen on the bitching and moaning, I do enjoy the gossipy chit chat.

I agree, but I will add that not everyone is aware of how their thread titles come off. Sometimes someone has a question and their focus is on the content of their post, not the title. Maybe you could start a thread about proper/non-misleading thread titles. Maybe it could be a sticky!

I'll say again, I agree, but possibly informing the OP that you think the title may have been misleading/reactionary might be more effective than people jumping all over the OP and being sarcastic and wise-assy. It might be common sense to think - ah, holiday weekend - fireworks! But I also think it should be common sense to not dogpile on someone asking a question instead of letting them know what you have a problem with.


I don't think it is about comparative shootings. I usually have no idea if we had more/less shootings than any other given area. Usually don't care. But if there are seven shootings in Old City and only one on my block, which do you think I'm more immediately interested in?

And for the record, I hear both shots and fireworks in my neighborhood. Especially since my neighbor has the habit of using his gun as a loud celebration tool. Sometimes, though, the shots in the neighborhood sound different and I wonder what is going on. I usually don't come to PB and ask, but sometimes I come and check if anyone else has asked.

__________________
Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us. -- T. L. Holdcroft

Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.-- S. R. Barr

i made the topic heading that way to attract views/replies to my inquiry. It really wasn't that obvious what was going on, otherwise I wouldn't have asked on this forum. It's not like there's low-flying helicopters flying all over the neighborhood on a daily basis that asking if a shooting occured would0 be a dumb question.

I didn't know there was a rule about how to make format topic titles. lolol

Shouldn't this be in the SP forum anyway since we've ascertained that it was at Ellsworth & 12th? Can this be moved? I know there's a bunch of folks in that area working hard to fix the neighborhood's residual uh..."issues." I'd also check with the 3rd if you want to know for sure what happened.

Exactly. Just as the nightly news exaggerates to get viewers, and a dramatic headline becomes nothing more than a comedy of itself. In the end, the boy-who-cried-wolf syndrome gets old very quickly.

Exactly. Just as the nightly news exaggerates to get viewers, and a dramatic headline becomes nothing more than a comedy of itself. In the end, the boy-who-cried-wolf syndrome gets old very quickly.