A bad title. A very bad title. Deep within this story lies a few paragraphs that are very important:
Welcome to Fishtown – deeply rooted in tradition, slow to change. There was once a time when there were a score of Philly neighborhoods exactly like this one – anchored by the Catholic Church, fraternal lodges, the corner bar, the local athletic club and a factory.
But the roots of Fishtown, a stone’s throw from the busy Delaware River, with Center City still in its rearview mirror, are planted more deeply than most. Anthony Palmer founded a plantation here in 1730, and the cemetery that bears his name is a local landmark, a green mark penned in by a wall of rowhouses. The place has been called Fishtown since the 1800s, when the smell of the day’s catch from the Delaware filled the narrow streets.
Maybe that history is part of why the great social upheavals of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s didn’t deliver a knockout punch the way they hit some nearby neighborhoods. Home to a number of cops and firefighters, Fishtown was mostly as solid as the red brick of its homes. There have been racial tensions here, but not as strongly as in some other sections of Philadelphia. Although Fishtown remains predominantly white, there are also substantial Latino and black communities, as well as a recent tide of immigrants from Armenia and elsewhere.
Read he rest in the Daily News.
The killing of Jason Sweeney should not be an indictment of the entire neighborhood. To judge Fishtown in it’s entirety based on this terrible story would be wrong and closed minded. I’ve lived all over Philly, and I gotta tell you – like all of its neighborhoods – Fishtown can’t be described in just a few words or be summarized by a single event, even one as horrific as this. As Elizabeth Murawski, neighbor to the Sweeney family says “If it could happen to Jason, it could happen to anyone.” And let me add – anywhere. Drugs are the true poison in all of this. It’s reach is far, and it’s effects are always terrible.
My prayers go out to him, his family and all those touched by this.
Like any Neighborhood we have had our ups and downs in Fishtown, but we pulled through and like we did when Freddy Adams was murdered we will continue to stick together as a neighborhood. Good will come from this, maybe not today or tomorrow but it will come. If there is one thing Fishtown has in plenty is hope. We also have neighbors and familar and in a strange way that helps us consol eachother without having to say the words. Hopefully more articles like this will help people to see that this is not indicitive of the people and the neighborhood here. We are changing and we are slowly adapting. As I continue to pray for God’s grace for and the families involved in this tradegy and his hand upon our neighborhood I can only hope that people will benefit from that Grace and find comfort there, and here in Fishtown. This is a place where many families have called home and where many sons and daughters have died from the demon of drugs in one way or another.
I am having a hard time accepting the notion that fishtown is any different than North Philly. I hate to say this but fishtown, k&a, port richmond – they are just as much like animals as they are in North Philly. It seems like there is a tinge of race involved here – I get the sense this is the “we are not like the black neighborhoods.” The problem is, they are exactly like the black neighborhoods. While you have your mix of good and bad, you still cannot not expect to safely walk down any street in any of the neighborhoods unles you are “of their kind.” Not from there? “What the fuck are you doing here?” You cannot stick your head outide your door down there without hearing a multitude of foul language. Not a very good place to bring up children, regardless of your roots there.
It really is ashame for the people who have good intentions down in these neighborhoods, but in hindsight, if they arent part of the solution, they must be part of the problem. Keeping a low profil and playing denial that the trouble is there does not fix the problems.
I am sorry, but I cannot see how fishtown is any better or different than north philly other than the color of peoples skin.
SO, Steve you are not only an expert in the field of Neighborhood Statistics, but you r also a racist pinhead. What a nice little add lib to have on your resume. Where are you from anyway, Pleasantville? Raising my children in Fishtown has been a benefit to them in many ways, They are learning work ethics, continuity and diversity, and might I add that diversity is something I could not put on that list 10 years ago. Unlike people with narrow minds and pre-conceived ideas, the people here are working towrads a better day in their neighborhood. So, people in North Philly are animals? Tell that to the CDC’s there in Logan and Mantua that are working to revitlize their communities. Stop by the thriving business distric in Port Richmond and visit Syrenka’s where you can get the best Homemande Polish food in the city and tell the hardworking people there, many who emigrated here from poland that it is ashame that their good intentions are wasted on this neighborhood. Are your limbs, blood, hearts and lungs so different from the people who live there that you feel you have the right to call the people who live in those neighborhoods animals? How exactly is it in a “Black Neighborhood” Have you ever been in one? How dare you feel the right to stereotype people on the basis of what? Did you read a book today?
If I were you I’d be afraid to walk through these areas also, offensive, racist, condensending and arrogant people might have reason to be scared.
Are you part of the solution, is this your help, chalk them off off as animals taking up space? If anyone is in denial here it is you, especially if you think you are somehow immune enough from the problems that plague many philadelphia neighborhoods. Crime, Drugs and Violence effect all neighborhoods maybe even yours? You are incapable of getting any sense of what could possibly going on in Fishtown, you are incapable of hearing anything over your inflated ego and bigotry. Have you ever worked hard at anything in your life that meant anything?
Why are you wasting time on this site, I am sure the Aryan Nation has a few opening for someone with your qualifications. Then you can move on down to dixie and leave all us animals alone!
Oh Rachel, you could not be farther from the truth. And your consistent personal attacks on me further prove my point about the “average” fishtown resident.
I do not want to waste much time going over how wrong you are about my “racial intent” but I will say I probably have closer friendships with blakcs ans latino’s then you ever will. Secondly, I grew up *in* Philly. My parents continue to reside there. My sister died because of the drugs anbd violence of the wonderful budding neighborhoods like K&A you seem to claim are so wonderful. I see my old neighborhood of Frankford-Wisanoming going to shit because of the wonderful “diversity” you speak of. I watch the entire city I grew to love becomig a ses pool of nastiness in outrageous animal like blacks, violent puerto ricans, and angry uneducated white people. Don’t beleive me? The statistcs show that the city is losing people every hour. Such a historic beautiful city with so much culture being taken over by scum balls.
Where I live now, on my street alone, I live a couple doors down from an indian family, an arab family, across the street from two black families. These are all educated, peace loving, hospitable folks who want the same things everyone else wants – to raise their children in a loving community – not one that harbours violence and rewards street toughness aka asshole syndrome. It seems each and every time I come back to visit, I see more and more how nasty and hateful people in Philly continue to evolve into.
My parents visited me a couiple of weeks ago and could not beleive how quiet my neighborhood was. How friendly the people are. We even ventured to a flea market at the state fiargorunds and my mother couldn’t beleive that the entire time she was there she did not hear one utterance of the words “mother fucker”
These are the points I am trying to make. Nowhere am I racist. A spade is a spade, and animal is an animal I don’t care what color their skin may be. Fishtown, North Philly, K&A, 9th and Cambria, Bridesburg, seem to all have more than their fill of animals.
What am I doing to help he situation? I took my fmaily as far away from that garbage as possible. I raise my son with love and peace. I took him away from the nastiness of the mean streets I grew up on. Hopefully, when he is my age, he will not have to go onto a forum and have to feel the same way I do. Thats what I am doing to help the situation.
Please, refrain from personal attacks. Both of you have points to make and they will get lost if you both just attack one another.
Instead of attacking the other person’s point of view – state your own point of view. It should be capable of standing on it’s own. That’s the civilized way of arguing. On the web it’s almost a requirement since it’s not a great way to communicate and everything seems personal.
Now….
Steve – question: Are you trying to get a point across or vent hatred? Guess what it reads like?
Let me say that as a poor kid I moved all over the city. As an adult I had a chance to experience a different side of it. You’d be surprised at how the character of each neighborhood can be so different. Try hanging around the Art Museum. Old City. South Philly. Germantown. Chinatown, Cheltenham, Center City. Philly is radically diverse. Yes there are good in bad in all neighborhoods, and some neighborhoods have been hit by blight and poverty far harder then others. Kensington comes immediately to mind. But some neighborhoods, like Norhthern Liberties, have recovered and grown.
Poverty, lack of jobs, blight, drugs, lack of education, lack of safety are the problems. Contrary to what you may think – you will have to keep moving farther and farther away until those problems are delt with in a manner that shrinks their spread. Because guess what – your precious new home will eventually be overtaken by those trends. Being a great parent is priority one. That’s great and that’s more then what many do. But hating the poor…. well *I* was poor. I don’t forget where I came from. There were plenty of surffering souls right there with me who didn’t get the opportunities I faught for.
Someday I gotta write a series of articles on how I escaped poverty. But that is for another day…
And Rachel, it would be good to admit how far Philly can go in being a better place to live. The city faces serious problems and much needs to be done. The “power of nice people” is great, and like Steve, I solute your commitment to your community as Steve is committed to his family. But crime must be fought. Blight must be removed, education must be improved, and job opportunities need to made available. Those are the things I would be stressing from your point of view. Calling Steve a racist pinhead didn’t help you get your point across at all.
I’ve lived in the burbs and Philly. Both have their pluses and minuses. To say that one is universally better then the other is missing out on the big picture.
If either of you can’t refrain from the personal attacks – or using tones that sound racist (they sound racist – I realize they aren’t, but I will not tolerate hatred) I will be forced to shut down the thread. Try having a conversation. A meeting of the minds. It’s possible. Ok?
Keep in mind, I did not start the name calling. I was merely stating an opinion that sounded harsh because it is harsh.
Until we can stop all of this political correctness and wet nursing-hand holding because we are too afraid to say things like they need to be said, we will continue to avoid the reality of issues. I don’t care how much you sugar coat and honey glaze a piece of shit, it still tastes like shit.
An asshole is an asshole, an animal is an animal, no matter what color their skin is or where they are from and as far as I am concerned, you can coral all of them together and let them rip each other to shreads. No matter what anyone with sense tries to do to help the situation, the only thing that can help the situation is if these fools help themselves. Youi cannot get a job if you don’t get an education. Jobs won’t come to your area if it is consistently ranking low in graduation rates and high in crime rates.
Where does it start? With the parents. Instead of molly coddling their kids when they are 1 and 2 and turing them into a fasion show and allowing them to get away with everything at 3 and 4, they need to read with them, spank their asses when they talk back at them, spend time with them explaining to them the wrongs in life, go to church with them and not just to repeat what the pastor is saying. But first, the parents need to stay together and stop getting high and wasted every weekend. IF they cannot do that, then they don’t need to be making babies.
Do you realize that if more thought the way you did, and the system was actually set up that way….
That I wouldn’t exist? That no one would have given me a chance?
Do you realize that?
Or are you saying that my so called “white trash” mother should have been neutered?
I’m all for personal responsibility. You end your message with what I believe in. But you wrap it around a great deal of hatred. Hatred of people like me.
After all – to some I was shit. Now I’m not. Am I glazed shit? Are you?
You are completely misreading what I am saying. Your sense is warped by passion for a very personal subject.
The difference with you, as your story within this blog says, is you did something about your situation. You beat the great odds that most of the people I talk about chose, yes CHOSE to do nothing about. Laziness is one of the mothers of ignorance. What I am trying to say in ym posting here is the fact that people chose to be lazy. They take the easy way out. You did not. You not only worked hard to get out of it, but you also took advantage of the system that is available. The same system that has resources our wonderful Bushwhacker administartion and the republican party, want to take away.
Do I have hatred? Damn right I do. hatred towards the stupid uninformed assholes that vote such muckheads like Bush into office. Hatred for the people who follow the mtv sex craze like sheep in a damn field. Hatred for the blind management of our corporations that continue to get fatter and richer of the sweat of the middle class american. Hatred for the lazy inner city scumballs (blacks, hispanics and whites) who cry and complain that it isn’t fair when they do nothing to try and better their situation.
You are damn fucking right I have a deep hatred for the things that continue to hold as back not just as a society, but as a human race.
As far as the “system” I want want set up is a system of fairness. Spread the wealth of resources evenly to everyone who wants it, but make them have to work for it. Make quality education available free to everyone who wants it. They want to act like morons, kick them out. When they can come back a year later and prove they are more mature to handle it, let them back in. No need to waste time on someone who doesn’t want to make something of their lives.
Is that so wrong to fel that way?
Well, I guess taking the morning off caused me to miss out on all the commentary. First off , I do apologize for calling you a Pinhead Steve, but when I feel I am being attacked, I attack back.
I also am thankful that Karl, as moderator here, has tried, albeit in vain, to be the voice of reason here. Truth is it is hard to change a person’s impression once they have formed it, especially if they are not open to it, unfortunately Steve, I think that is the place you are in right now. So, I won’t profess the good qualities of Fishtown to you as you aren’t going to hear me anyway. What I will say is that I am glad you lve in such a nice, diverse neighborhood, not like those unfortunate people in the “Black Neighborhoods” I also think it is good you are so sure on your theories on how and why neighborhoods fail. It will prove helpful I’m sure just in case your neighborhood falls prey to the blight that Fishtown and others like it have been battling for years. At least then you’ll have something or someone to blame for it as you put up your “For Sale” sign and head for that other diverse safe neighborhood. Its sad that can’t see how your way of thinking, your generalizations and attacks on people and neighborhoods, with the exception of those few “good people who live there that you feel sorry for”, and your attitude is what is holding back society and our race. When one person has a right to State how and when people are suppose to act, and how and when a society should just give up on one another that is how the seeds of desensitization are planted. Once we have this ability to turn our heads at others pain then we are truly no longer human. You think because a person lives in Kensington they don’t work? How do you know that?
See if you assert your opinions as the truth about people based simply on the area they live in then you can do that to people based on skin color, heritage, anything. And no man has a right to do that. That is why I called you a racist.If you don’t want to see it that way, then that is your perogative, but the really sad thing is that you might be raising children to accept that kind of intolerance. In my family, in my inperfect neighborhood, we pass down tolerance, faith, continuity and loyalty. It may not always work out that way, it may look bad at times and we might even have reason to be discouraged. In your household it seems you might teach intolerance, anger and superiority. I’m glad you don’t live in Fistown because the “Shit” you claim smells so bad here I am sure smells just as bad where you live maybe worse because if I see it lying on the ground I’d pick it up and throw it in the trash, since you can’t see it it just sits there and festers as you add more and more to the pile.
Even those who had the ability to see can still be blind.
Thanks Karl for this forum, Steve, I will not respond to anymore of your comments as I’m finished with this topic as I am sure we all are.
I am sure we are all misunderstanding one another as Rachel’s last post I think misunderstands yours. Truth be told Steve – you are right – I am passionate about this. I think we all are. And it is making us talk thru each other instead of to each other. The Web doesn’t help at all.
So lets chill for now.
I am done with this for now then.
I asked politely. I did not imply anything about anyone here. I just wanted good coversation. Now it’s overwith.
Oh yeah – never put words in other people’s mouths.
Never. It’s not a way to carry a conversation.
All it is is a way to carry an argument.