November 6-12, 2003

slant

Take a Stand, Already

A new Philadelphian asks about complacency.

by Amy L. Webb

A good friend was attacked at Eighth and Cecil B. Moore last week. He was walking back to his car when two kids jumped him from behind. They shoved him up against someone else’s car, smashing his face and shoulder into the closed window. His glasses shattered, cutting his forehead and the skin around his eye. The force of the blow cracked part of his tooth out. And luckily, someone happened to be driving by just at that instant. The man opened his door, grabbed him and pulled him into the car, helping him to escape.

I'm not delusional. I understand that Philly is a big city. This isn't my first urban living experience, and I know that every city has its bad spots.

I was once working on a story that forced me to shack up with a bunch of nuns for a month in the South Bronx. For another stretch of time I lived in the sketchy part of Hong Kong where there was a constant river of blood running down the street -- supposedly from the butchering of live animals. Even my old yoga studio in Tokyo was on the third floor of a building that shared space with Filipino prostitutes and the Yakuza.

I never minded the grit. I gravitate toward cities in part because of my job, but mostly because I love the convenience and diversity of big, urban areas. And until this, I've never had a problem.

This was my first experience -- secondhand though it was -- with Philly violence. I've told a few people about what happened, and no one is surprised. Everyone seems to have a story. One woman and her boyfriend were held at gunpoint at an ATM a few weeks back. Another guy was mugged right in front of his house.

What's disturbing to me is not my friend was attacked at sunset on a busy street -- one of the first corners cleaned up by the Safe Streets program.

What disturbs me is that random acts of violence are somehow accepted as the norm in Philly. Everyone seems so unaffected. Like it's a given that in Philly, you're going to be confronted with some sort of violence, and you may as well emotionally plan for it ahead of time.

I'm new to this city. People keep telling me about how bad it used to be. But I watch the local news every night, and it's hard to see what's changed. For fun, I started timing the violence-related segments during one broadcast. When the first commercial aired I looked down at my tally: The station had already run more than 14 minutes of stories about violent acts.

It's the violence that helped drive two million people to safe havens in the suburbs, I'm told.

But plenty of people are still left. They seem willing to live among this violence. I've been told more than once now that ìkids will be kidsî and that's just the way it goes.

Bullshit.

Why is everyone so complacent? If I had a nickel for every time I've heard about how piss-poor the city's public schools are I'd have my grad school loans paid off already. Every morning I stand on a platform waiting for the train and the conversation is the same: SEPTA is unreliable, infrequent and expensive. For how many years have people been moaning about parking rates downtown? And what about the city wage tax?

Most of this -- especially public safety -- has been discussed during the election. But the reality is that for as much as people complain, few ever show up to city meetings and voice their opinions when it counts.

In Chicago, which is where I'm from, it's a different story. Back home we protest, and we do it for just about everything. Police board meetings are crammed with people demanding change. If something bad happens on a city block, people call their aldermen and they call the papers. Students rally when they can, and their teachers sometimes join the fight.

How do Chicagoans deal with violence? We don't go to the bad neighborhoods looking for it. Then again, the bad stuff is contained. It's harder to do that in Philly, where the level of safety changes from street to street. Chicago has a gang problem like anywhere else. If kids beat the pulp out of someone back home, there's usually a reason like they want to take your money or punch you in the face for screwing with a ball game or something.

I guess the difference is that Chicagoans haven't sat around for three decades waiting for something like Safe Streets. And they don't just assume that with big municipal programs, the problems will go away.

As for me, I'm keeping a list of what section of which street I can walk down and which ones to avoid. But I'm sticking to my Midwestern ways. Even now.

You have a problem with complacency, Philly. When are you going to take a stand?

Amy L. Webb is a staff writer at City Paper. If you would like to respond to this Slant or have one of your own (850 words), contact Howard Altman, City Paper editor in chief, 123 Chestnut St., third floor, Phila., PA 19106 or e-mail altman@citypaper.net.