When asked if the rivers of blood flowing down neighborhood streets would reverse the progress the city has made — booms in development, retail and restaurants — the mayor said, "I think people understand that, in an urban environment, you're going to have a level of violence."

According to the reporter, Larry Eichel [full disclosure: Larry's daughter Molly is currently an intern at CP], the mayor stressed that gun violence needed to be "curtailed." Which is kind of like stressing that sidewalks need to be "swept."

Anyway, Street continued: "I think when people come to Philadelphia, when they experience our city and they take it all into account, I just don't think it's going to be a deterrent."

Well, that all depends. How do people come to Philadelphia?

If you imagine Center City as a safe home base, making it there is not as easy as you think.

I'm looking at the helpful map the Inquirer prepared: "Homicides in Philadelphia and Center City." Little hollow circles mark every spot where someone was killed with a handgun since New Year's Day. It looks a bit like someone taped a city map to the wall, picked up an Uzi, took a few steps back, then suddenly had a grand mal seizure with his finger squeezing the trigger. There are multiple holes everywhere — except Center City, the far Northeast and Chestnut Hill, which must have had invisible force fields surrounding them or something.

That's a lot of bullets whizzing over a lot of the city.

But as I said, the trick in "experiencing" the good stuff in our city is making it to Center City without catching stray lead. Being shot is widely considered by many tourists to be a deterrent.

So how do you do it?

If you fly in, you can hop in a cab which, if the driver really hits the gas and takes I-95, probably won't be nicked by any bullets on the way to Center City. You'll just have to deal with the stink down below the stadiums.

The R1 is an iffier proposition; it winds its way through Southwest Philly and then West Philly, where people clearly aren't shy about discharging their firearms. You think the steel frame of a SEPTA train can stop a bullet? Half the time, I'm surprised the trains even stop.

You could take a shuttle bus — one of those van-limo things you rent — but who knows? You might have to share seat space with someone who lives outside of Center City, and then you'll find yourself in serious trouble. What if the first drop-off is in Grays Ferry? Or God help you, Nicetown?

Some tourists may take a train. Amtrak's probably the best bet, since a bullet is unlikely to just so happen to puncture your passenger window as you speed through the icky neighborhoods at 125 miles per hour. Regional rails, though, are problematic: They actually stop in places like North Philadelphia and Frankford and Olney. Stay in one place too long, and you're just asking to get your head blown off.

Drive in? Walk? What — do you have a devil-may-care attitude toward life? What if you make a wrong turn and end up in Feltonville?

Even if you do make it to Center City, where you can enjoy all manner of fine dining, shopping and historical experiences (check out the new, wicked cool carousel!), there's no guarantee that your Philadelphia experience won't be marred by violence.

According to the Center City District, only 4 percent of the city's population lives downtown. But 57 percent of all wages paid in Philadelphia are generated in Center City. Which means that someone you may encounter — a waitress, a sales clerk, a cabdriver — may actually live in one of those gun-violence-scarred neighborhoods. And what if they get shot before they report to work? You'll wait forever for a cab ...

This is what it feels like when we talk about Center City and then the rest of the city as two separate entities.

One can't survive without the other.

One's doing great!

And the other is being shot, beaten, burned, stabbed and screwed.

The mayor's statement pisses me off because it makes it sound like what's been happening in our city is somehow business as usual. No level of violence — especially violence that seems to pick off citizens as indiscriminately as a rooftop sniper — should be "understood" or acceptable, no matter where it happens.