It's when a million hoodrats from all over invaid south st, A few years ago it was a nightmear with looting and drunken fights.

Perhaps you're thinking of the suburbrats who caused looting and drunken fights during Mardi Gras several years ago.

The crowd is too cheap to drink and too dumb to loot after they break glass storefronts from leaning on them.

Replace "looting" with whirling, and "drunken" with "idiotic", and that may explain the Greek from many years ago.

Now, its just idiotic. The actual participants are very nice, and spend money. The people who come because they hear that something is going on are a complete waste of space that neither businesses nor residents desire.

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

That's more like it!

Umm...no. There have been plenty of crimes, and of a disturbing sexual nature associated with Greek weekend, and more consistently, than there have been with Mardi Gras. To my recollection, there was only one Mardi Gras with an "incident" with a near riot condition in the street, and that was nearly 10 years ago. But Greek weekend is toned down from 8-12 years ago as well. Still, I have already picked up trash and watched congregations.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x-fkSYDtUY

"Censorship is free advertising by the government"--Federico Fellini

"Do you mind if I smoke while you eat?"

Thanks

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http://www.rangers.premiumtv.co.uk/p...e/0,,5,00.html

hehe...you seem like a quick learner, so you'll be complaining about south street, dog poop, and me soon enough!

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

were here live at Greek 2k8 and pandemonium has begun!

Ok, not really.

The new south street lights blew out. Some came back on, then catfighys began in dark areas. The cops had enough, and began coercing the crowd to move. Within about 3minutes the crowd was gone. I had to show my business card just to walk down the street. A cool thing, but the crowd only went into the "neighborhood", which is a bad thing.

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

I have to give props to the Philadelphia Police as I write this. They were out in full force tonight, with paddy wagons, bike cops, beat patrol, and whistles in full force, stopping any crowd from congregating and making them keep moving down the sidewalks. But I really wanted to see some segways.. or those new 3-wheelie things that they were supposed to have .. but didn't see them in action.

I've only lived on the street for 3 weeks now, and this was the first I've ever heard of the "Greek" picnic. Sorry, I'm a "new" Philadelphian and still learning. Reading posts from years past, I was prepared for the worst, but was absolutely pleased with the results, at least so far.

Maybe down further on the street things are different, but right now, on the 200 block of South, things are almost surprisingly quiet.

Either way, thank you PPD for your help tonight, it means a lot to us that live here for you helping to keep things cool during "events" like this. I haven't lived here long enough to have a bitter view of the police department, but for tonight, and as a new Philadelphian, I have a great respect of the PPD as of today.

Thanks again ladies and gentlemen of the 3rd District (and probably some other dist's on overtime)!

So, as I headed to a late night Wawa run, I realized why the streets were so quiet. At least at the 200-300 block, there were about a dozen cops at each intersection saying that South St "was closed for the night". After explaining that I live here, they let me pass, but it finally made sense why the streets were so quiet this late on a Saturday night.

I wonder if this is Philly's, or maybe Mayor Nutter's, expression to the Greek Picnic that you are not welcome here any more.

Has this happened before in past years? I'm new so I don't know what most years have been like. All I can say, after the horror stories that I've read from this blog, is that I'm perfectly happy with the PPD closing the street down.

How does this year compare to the past, coming from a new South Street Philadelphian?