Category: Life in the Big City

Broken windows and crime

~ susie

before and after

Seems to make a lot more sense than the “broken windows” policing philosophy, where cops hassle the crap out of everyone for minor violations:

Low-cost fixes to abandoned properties, such as a fresh coat of paint and replacing boarded entryways with doors and windows, can do more than eliminate eyesores.

They can also significantly reduce crime in the area, according to a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine.

The study, published this week, looked at crime percentages in sections of Philadelphia where abandoned properties were rehabbed between January 2011 and April 2013, in comparison to areas where boarded-upproperties remained.

It found the simple fixes significantly decreased the amount of serious and nuisance crimes surrounding remediated buildings, including the number of gun assaults, robberies and nuisance crimes like vandalism and illegal dumping.

According to lead author Michelle Kondo, Ph.D., a former research fellow at the Perelman School of Medicine, the most significant reduction – down by 39 percent – was found for gun assaults around remediated buildings within the year following improvements.

Abandoned properties “send a signal to would-be offenders that committing crimes is acceptable and will likely go unchallenged or unseen,” the report states.

This is the first study to demonstrate the direct impact of building remediation efforts on crime, the authors said.

Slice o’life

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

citizens bank

I was standing in line, waiting to use a cash machine. (I was already a few minutes late for a doctor’s appointment.) The woman at one of them started cursing loudly at the screen: “What the hell is this, they want to know if I want Spanish, German… This is what’s wrong with this country, everything’s PC. All these damn Spanish people!”

The lady at the other cash machine looked over at me, alarmed. “Immigrants make this country stronger,” she said in a soothing voice.

“It’s for the tourists,” I said. “They come from all over the world.” (We were in the historic area.)

“The fuck they do,” the woman said. “They ruin it for everybody. That’s what these goddamned liberals do, they make them take down the flag, it’s just not right…” She seemed to sob, then went on for a few minutes, muttering. She might have been a bag lady; she seemed mentally ill. Either that, or a very disgruntled conservative.

Jeebus

~ susie

This just makes me sick:

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Authorities have arrested a teenager who they say assaulted a boy by dousing him in hand sanitizer and then lighting him on fire.

Officers were flagged down around 7:40 p.m. Wednesday in the area of 60th Street and Hazel Avenue in West Philadelphia.

An 11-year-old boy told police that a 17-year-old male that he knew threw hand sanitizer on him then placed a cigarette lighter to him causing him to catch fire.

The 11-year-old boy sustained second degree burns to his left side as a result of the aggravated assault incident.

The child was transported to Mercy Hospital for treatment.

26 Philly cops attack one guy

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

I wish I was surprised:

A new video out of Philadelphia shows a young Black man being severely beaten and tased by Philadelphia officers in what can only remind you of Rodney King who was beaten by the LAPD and Marlene Pinnock who was beaten by the CHP.

On April 3 at approximately 7:30 p.m. Tyree Carroll, 22, was riding his bike on Locust Avenue in Germantown–near his home where he lives with his grandmother Nancy Carroll. According to family members, Tyree was stopped by a police officer for going the wrong way on a one-way street.

When he was stopped by the police officer, Tyree obeyed and got off of his bike and spoke with the officer. The officer then proceeded to put Tyree’s hands behind his back before four policemen were suddenly on top of him. One police officer put Tyree in a chokehold and wrestled him to the ground.

Officers repeatedly struck him with their fists. They kicked him and hit him with a nightstick.

The cops can be heard yelling “tase the motherfucker” and called Tyree a “piece of shit.”

Before long the video shows that there were more cops participating in the beating, tasing, kicking and punching of a screaming Tyree. Tyree was screaming and yelling for his grandmother Nancy to come to the door and can be heard saying that he was sorry.

Witnesses counted 24 white and 2 Black police officers and 11 police cars at the scene. They say Tyree was tased 4 to 5 times before being placed in a police car and taken to Einstein Medical Center. Tyree’s medical records have not been obtained by his family yet.

Two neighbors videotaped the vicious beating on their cell phones. One video was too dark to be useful, but the other captured the incident quite graphically and included a narration by the witness.

Tyree was initially charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, resisting arrest and several drug charges stemming from a small amount of crack cocaine allegedly found on him.

‘Scalia is a douche’ breakfast special sells out in record time

~ susie

Morning Glory Diner in South Philadelphia comes up with innovative names for their specials on the weekend. The “Antonin Scalia is a Douche” special brought eggs scrambled or in a frittata with andouille sausage, tomato, scallions and monterey jack cheese. There was enough sausage to make around 150 of the dish, and it was so popular… Continue reading “‘Scalia is a douche’ breakfast special sells out in record time” →

Wasn’t that a mighty storm

~ susie

It was quite a storm last night: commuter trains still not up, more than a half-million homes without power, hundreds of downed trees and damaged houses, a collapsed house in Fishtown, and at least eight reported funnel clouds in the area.

The sky was the eerie green you see in tornado weather, but the tornadoes hit to the east and west of me. One area mall was hit, it ripped off part of their facade and turned a car on its head.

And I am such an awful person that when I watched the news last night, and saw how much of the damage was in the suburbs, I thought to myself, “Yep. Just keep voting Republican and we’ll never fix this.”

UPDATE: Storm photo was not local. It was from Texas.

Huh

~ susie

Hope everything’s okay (my cousin works at the support center):

NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — U.S. Naval facilities in both Northeast and South Philadelphia have been evacuated due to an unspecified threat.

The evacuation was ordered around 11 a.m. at the Naval Support Activity Center in Northeast Philadelphia, located at 700 Robbins Street in the Lawndale section of the city.

At the same time, the Naval Shipyard in South Philadelphia was also being evacuated.

The Philadelphia Ordinance Disposal responded to the Northeast Philadelphia facility.

The all-clear has since been given at the Naval Support Activity Center.

The Naval Shipyard is still being evacuated.

[…]The threat level has been raised to the highest level at this time.

I go to the laundromat

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn9P7h9hkN0

It’s Day 10 of a dead washer, and I finally had to give in and go to the laundromat. Unless you’re living in one of the hip areas, laundromats are mostly for poor people. I went to one of the few remaining places that doesn’t screw people excessively (like requiring you to load $20 onto a membership card). But I was shocked to see that it’s $2.50 a load now. Also, the giant thrift store (one of my favorites) was empty. Again. It bothers me, how many empty stores I see around the area.

Anyway, I put everything into two machines and go out to the car to eat my lunch, sitting in the rain. I don’t know why I love reading in my car during bad weather so much — it’s kind of like being in a bathysphere. And I don’t go anywhere without a book or reading device.

A big hipster dude comes in. (He’s got the telltale Amish beard, I figure he must be from Fishtown.) He opens a package of new sheets, and now I’m impressed: Either he’s got a wealthy girlfriend, or very expensive taste. The sheets are white with an interesting deep purple medallion pattern, and they’re the kind of high-quality cotton that make that whoosh sound when they rustle. “Someone’s going to get laid,” I think to myself.

And then I start thinking about this song:

Some people really have a lot of nerve
Everywhere they go they think they should get served
Everybody in the laundromat is equal
Suzzy Roche.

My city was gone

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

At the cafe inside the Jewish Museum 👌 #visit_berlin

The thing I used to love about Philly was how affordable it was. Not now! The rents are going much, much higher and my nightmare is that I’ll have to move back to the suburbs. Nice to see at least one major city doing something about it:

Berlin has become the first city in Germany in which rent-control legislation has come into force in a bid to put the breaks on some of the fastest rising rents in Europe.

From Monday, landlords in the capital will be barred from increasing rents by more than 10% above the local average. Such controls were already in place for existing tenants but have now been extended to new contracts.

“The rent ceiling is very important for Berlin because the difference between the rent paid in existing contracts and new contracts is so high,” said Reiner Wild, managing director of the Berlin Tenants’ Association. “The other problem is that we have 40,000 more inhabitants per year. Because of this situation the housing market is very strong.”

Berlin is pioneering the rent cap after the national parliament approved the law, targeted at areas with housing shortages, in March. Berliners say flat-hunting is becoming increasingly competitive.

“We were looking for the best part of a year,” said Vlasis Tritakis, a student. He, his partner Sofia and their 18-month-old son moved out of a flat-share into a one-bedroomed apartment in the district of Kreuzberg in April.

But sooner or later they will have to find a place big enough for his son to have a room of his own. They say they don’t stand much of a chance against competition from potential tenants with better finances. “I don’t know how we will do it,” said Tritakis.

Although rents are still low compared with other European capitals, Wild says it is vital to keep the city affordable for lower-income residents. “We don’t want a situation like in London or Paris,” said Wild. “The reality in Paris or London is that people with low income have to live in the further-out districts of the city.”