Quote:
Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown
I agree with you, however, I will point out that for the most part, and lets be honest. The city isn't doing this for ANYONE. My frustration is building to the point of near disgust.
The difference between poor areas and rich (and gentrifying) areas is that difference between the good conditions you see in those neighborhoods and the truly awful neighborhoods is not because the city is investing more in good neighborhoods, it's because locals have the means (money, time) to figure it out on their own. Then they get excoriated for caring about how their neighborhood looks and fortunately (or unfortunately) blamed for the disparity in neighborhood conditions even though they're literally just doing what the city cannot seem to figure out.
The security detail article was mind blowing. It's framed as an us-versus-them article when in reality it should have been framed as a "when the police department tells you it can't afford to pull 3 officer out of a patrol car at the Wawa and have them walk Frankford Avenue, don't believe them". Then, two days later, we get an article talking about how 500 qualified cops are literally pushing mail around headquarters and another 600 are on fake disability, it's like BLOW.THE.ENTIRE.THING UP.
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I agree 1000% with you 3rd&Brown. I could write a book to you about how I believe it got the way it did, but all it really comes down to is this: The city of Philadelphia has been fucked up for a very very long time. Long enough that the bare minimum level of service in a first-world community is not met and the so-called "leaders" who have been in charge for so long are so rotted to their core, that they can't figure out which way is up.
That's why I personally have got a lot more critical and angry in the last few years. The city has been flush with money because of an unexpected (and frankly undeserved) increase in tax revenues due to the city reviving by itself. Where has these hundreds of millions of dollars been going? According to the city controller, NO ONE FUCKING KNOWS and there are no controls in place to even get a handle on it.
This is probably one of the more controversial things I will say: but all those articles about "how making Washington Ave. safe will ruin the neighborhood" or the "Fishtown Security" article you mention exposes the fact that a lot of the left's "culture" at it's core is nearly as rotten as the rights. Or maybe not "rotten" in the way the GOP is vindictively evil, but in an anti-intellectual way that people can't diagnose the problems in front of their nose because their so poisoned by outside forces blinding reality of what's important or what it even means to be a good citizen.
Philly never had it's 'Rudy G'-mayor. As much of a scumbag he turned out to be, he forced real change to clean the city and make it more business friendly and successful again. We almost had our moment with Sam Katz. But instead we got the great shame of John Street.
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