380
by ChrisJanuary 3rd, 2006 5:58 pm
The last year represents something of a tipping point for the city of Philadelphia. It was a year in which reforms and attitude adjustments which began with the Goode administration, took off under the Rendell administration and have continued under the Street administration, bore fruit so large that even the most skeptical were forced to acknowledge their presence. The change is most evident in Center City, where a residential housing boom and a commercial revival are as easy to see as the construction cranes that litter the sky.
Even those of us who have been lifelong Philadelphia boosters sit in stunned, slack-jawed silence when listening to the increasingly frequent tales of people who moved here because they actually like it. I honestly never thought I would see the day. Having watched most of my childhood friends and all of my siblings leave town for sunnier climbs, I have to admit to feeling a bit vindicated in my decision to stay
Not good enough. Not even close,
Forgive me for stealing from John Edwards, but Philadelphia is two cities. One - mine - is well off, safe and well served by municipal government. The other is anything but well off, safe or well served. One Philadelphia is bleeding while the other is noshing at the latest BYOB and watching its property values skyrocket. One is featured in style sections and Sunday magazines, while the residents of the other worry that the contents of another sort of magazine might wind up lodged in their child’s head. There is little middle ground and there is little in the way of a middle class. This is unsustainable.
Due to a series of events in my own life, none of which I will discuss in any detail here, I have an interest in public policy regarding the prevention of homicide. Indeed, this is what spurred my initial interest in politics. Victims of homicide are likely to be a certain age, a certain sex, in a certain economic class, with certain level and quality of education among other factors. You can look it up. What you will find is that most murderers fall into the same demographic. While we as a society can do little or nothing about the tendency of young men to be full of impulse and rage, we can do something about poverty and bad schools. That may seem a quaint idea, but if this city is to really succeed, quality of education and economic opportunity will need to be addressed in a way we have never seen.
380. That’s the number of people murdered in Philadelphia in 2005. A number beyond even a fantastic attempt at comprehension. A disaster. When one is too many - three hundred plus eighty. A disaster.
To conclude this disjointed mess I’m going to reprint something I wrote in last year’s edition of the same post. It’s a bit out of date, but it still reflects my feelings.
It amazes me to hear that news commentators have compared the level of violence in Iraq to domestic crime and homicide rates. The fact that they can even make a comparison between America’s cities and a war, however ugly and misguided that comparison may be, tells me that we are seriously deranged, and have been for so long, that we can’t even see it. Can you imagine getting on TV and saying that the casualties of major war really aren’t so bad because they compare quite favorably with the death and destruction occurring in our own cities and towns? Good lord!
When we discuss murder in the United States, we to often focus solely on the issues of law enforcement and gun policy, to little avail. While these are both issues that do need to be addressed, they scratch at the surface of the problem. If we are to have any hope of ever crawling our way out of this disaster, fundamental problems with our education policy, narcotics policy and mental health policy will all need to be addressed seriously.
In a country that wasn’t half off its nut, the blood bath would matter.
