I was at the Satellite early this evening (probably between 5 and 6) when two people came in and stated that they heard a gunshot while biking past 49th and Baltimore. Did anyone else hear it? Does anyone know about it?

I'm sorry if that freaks anybody out, but I just want to know if anyone else heard it.

Wouldn't be surprised. My sister got held up at gunpoint there once.

Oh, c'mon. There's definitely a crime wave here, and in the city in general, but creating an entire new thread in order to post about "hearing a gun shot" is quite silly, especially when you didn't even hear it yourself.

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First off. No I definitely I did not here of anything like that at 49th and Baltimore in the time frame you mention. Second despite Ezra's comments - that would be a little noteworthy and is definitely not that normal for the corner. Fights from drunks coming out of the Third World Lounge - yes. Heated exchanges between the dudes who play poker on the chessboard table in the park there - yes. A few years back there was opportunistic mugging in the Peking Inn takeout there that turned into a shooting over a laptop computer early in the AM hours. Guns blazing at 49th and Baltimore at 5:00 in the evening is not that normal at all but gunshots ringing in the far off distance is not that rare in the wider neighborhood, particularly from around the vicinty of 52nd and Kingsessing and further SW. Not all the time but maybe once a month or so. I agree lets not go overboard here.

I would assume gunshots in the distance are probably fairly common for West Philadelphia. That in and of itself would probably not be worth its own thread. But if someone has a legitimate concern for gunshots that may have occurred on a specific corner, I can understand wanting to find out more information.

Syrinx, do you know anything else. Did you hear them yourself?

Its probably nothing to freak out about.

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You're right. Let's not. The two that walked into the coffee shop look concerned and I spent a lot of time debating on starting a thread before actually doing it. If nobody else heard it, then I don't think it's something we should get all worked up about.

That's about all I know. And I think you're right, we shouldn't freak about over this.

Yes, I heard the gunshot. In fact it seems like I was one of the original people to report it based on this thread. The gunshot noise came from the Peking Inn area. I didn't look, but just went west on Baltimore rather quickly. In addition to the "recording studio" I'm pretty sure the area around 49th and Catharine outside of Peking Inn is also a highly trafficked drug sales corner. I don't want to name names because I don't want to endanger innocent people. But according to them the corner of 49th and Baltimore has been a highly active crack and heroin distrubition area for at least 25 years. It makes sense, whenever I talk to older people from the neighborhood about houses being neglected and abandoned, it usually comes with a story about how someone's kids got on crack and dope and neglected taxes and property maintenance because they spent their money on drugs.

I would say "highly trafficed" might be slight exageration but yes there are drug sales that seem to ebb and flow periodically out of the 3rd World Lounge and in front of Peking Inn 2 doors down. It continues to be a vexation to the neighborhood generally and to some nieghborhood activist folks who live on the 4900 block of Catharine in particular.

In terms of back in the day, years ago (before my time) the 49th St. corner store was once a really notorious seedy beer deli called the Purple Fox. When the Purple Fox was in operation it had constant drug dealing and was a very serious, intimidating scene from what longer term residents have told me as compared to the level of drug activity that we see today. From what I understand, the owners of the current 49th Stop corner grocery (which is fine, repetable business currently) actually used to own the Purple Fox and it was a combination of pressure from neighbors on the owners to change the nature of their business, rescinding their beer sales license, and neighborhood anti-drug vigils directly across the street from the Purple Fox that got it turned around. As the story has been told to me by long term residents, newer residents owe a big debt to the earlier efforts by long term residents in turning around the Purple Fox.

People should realize that they do have the ability to impact their neighborhood. Its been done before and it can be done again but it takes constant effort.

The exact same thing happened in old kensington before I lived there. Residents definitely have the power to dictate what kind of 'hood they live in.

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• Write to your state and local elected officials
• Report suspicious activity to the police department