[quote=UCGal][quote=briansd1]But you’re right about Philly. There are entrenched ethnic enclaves in Philly where new comers are definitely not welcomed. I was driving through Fishtown on a street of white people. There were people sitting around on patio chairs, shooting the breeze with their buddies in front of an auto shop. That neighborhood was littered with shell houses.
As I drove by, they yelled “what the fuck are you looking at!”
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My husband lived in Frankford – just up from Kensington and Fishtown. He used to joke that what the neighborhood needed was better looking hookers.
We still have friends in Mayfair and family in N.E. Philly and Oxford Circle.
If you want to see scary neighborhoods – just go a few blocks east of Kelly Drive into North Philly (north of the Art Museum neighborhood and Girard, east of Strawberry Mansion neighborhood.) I got lost there once and my paranoia kicked in and I locked all my car doors. (And I’m not a paranoid type.)
The lawn chairs on the sidewalk is a weird Philly phenomena… Clusters of folks wearing shorts and tanks sitting on the stoop and sidewalk in front of their houses.[/quote]
UCGal, your “paranoia” was well-placed. The area you speak of is so bad that they have trouble getting the cops to patrol there. About 15 years ago, a classmate of mine who worked for Fedex took a shift on Christmas Eve for one of his co-workers. He was standing at the back of his delivery truck, pulling out parcels, when someone came up behind him and shot him in the head at point blank range. No robbery, no reason. Just some local resident’s way of celebrating the birth of Christ.
I, myself, got lost in that neighborhood when I was about 19. I had been visiting friends up in Roxborough and took a wrong turn off Henry Avenue as I was heading for Ridge. I grew up right outside Philly, and was very familiar with the city and its neighborhoods, but this was like I had turned into one of the seven circles of hell. This was the late 70s and, believe it or not, I think the area has improved a bit since then (everything’s relative). But there were no GPSs back then, no cell phones, and I had no map of the area with me. It was 1:30 in the morning, and my car was so low on gas that I was running on fumes. Even if I had been able to find an open gas station, I’m not sure I would have stopped. The sight was really bizarre, though: late as it was, the neighborhood was teeming with people (stoopsitters, as it were), and a lot of them were kids. Little kids, like 3 and 5 and 7 years old. It was extremely hot and humid, as only Philly can get in the summer, and I think it was simply that no one could sleep. I didn’t turn on my air conditioner because I was so critically low on gas, but I didn’t dare open my windows either. It took me about 45 minutes to find my way out. But, over thirty years later, I can still remember how scared I felt.
