Philadelphia?

wtf @ clawhammer attack

a cheesesteak place called Gooey Louies?

SO I'm going to Making Time to see Soulwax on Sunday at 6th and Spring Garden (Transit). What do I do after 2 or 3 am until 7 am when the bus comes?

lol

Not laughing at you, just ain't shit to do in Philadelphia between 2 and 7am

i know :-( which is why I needed to ask someone. So far I just plan to open up a loooong tab at mid-town diner.

You're best bet is probably to latch on to some Philly kids and hang out with them. I get the impression Philly folk are on the whole more open to this sort of thing than NYC folk, but that might be my skewed impression from the people I know in Philly.

It's a shame that really awesome diner on Spring Garden closed. I can't remember the name now.

So how is Johnny Brenda's? I'm a recent transplant to the area, and checking out upcoming concerts noticed that well over half of them are there.

OK, no luck with that last question, but I WILL TRY AGAIN: where are the best places to buy vinyl in Philly?

Oh oh oh!! Philly Aids Thrift, on Bainbridge near 5th. It is pure magic; everything's a dollar. Repo on South is great, too, and it's a few doors down from the best bar in the city (Tattooed Mom)

Never been to Johnny Brenda's but hear it's good. I'm told the Khyber is the super hipster spot to go if you're into that kind of thing. Mom's is just fucking rad--punk rock dive bar with $1 PBR tallboys and an amazing jukebox

also: Philadelphia?

Johnny Brenda's is all right. I also like the Atlantis, which is a couple blocks up Frankford.

My favorite bar in the city, though, is Ray's Happy Birthday Bar, at 1200 Passyunk right near Geno's and Pat's.

When I lived in the city, I used to check this site out a lot: http://www.philebrity.com/ .

That said, I hardly ever return--

So glad to be out of this hell-hole:

http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&cf=all&ncl=dAfy5ZrayGtIUeMF4XPlOgOy3X76M

Asian students describe violence at South Philadelphia High

By Kristen A. Graham

Inquirer Staff Writer

In emotional testimony yesterday, Asian students described being victimized at South Philadelphia High for years, often as school staffers stood by, encouraged the attackers, or hurled racial slurs.

Duyngoc Truong, a South Philadelphia student who was beaten last week, told the School Reform Commission that being let down by those in charge "hurt our bodies, it also hurt our hearts. We have the right to go to school and we need to be treated fairly."

The meeting was a dramatic crescendo in a situation that began Dec. 2, school officials said, when a disabled African American student was beaten up by two Asian students outside school.

The next day, large groups of African American and Asian students attacked at least 30 Asian students, seven of whom required treatment at a hospital. Some of the attackers went from room to room, looking for students to target. District officials said the Thursday attacks were retaliatory, but Helen Gym, a board member of Asian American United, challenged that.

"By linking the two incidents, which involved two absolutely different sets of youth, the district seems to imply that there's an undercurrent of justification for what happened on Thursday," Gym said.

Officials announced last night that an outside investigator would probe what happened, beginning next week.

Six African American students and four Asian students have been suspended, and police and School District investigations are ongoing.

In her first remarks on the subject, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said the South Philadelphia violence "is only a symptom of a more serious problem which has its roots in racism - not only in our schools, but in the larger community. It is the proverbial elephant in the room."

She warned the audience not to blame one racial group for the violence.

Ackerman said that the district had beefed up security in and around the school and formed a Task Force for Racial and Cultural Harmony to recommend changes, both at South Philadelphia and districtwide. A U.S. Department of Justice program will work with students on racial and ethnic issues, she said.

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission will also address the situation at a previously scheduled Dec. 21 meeting in Philadelphia.

About 200 Asian students and community supporters packed the meeting, waving signs that read "Stop School Violence" and "Grown-ups Let Us Down." More than a dozen testified, some through translators.

Fifty Asian students are boycotting South Philadelphia this week, investigating the incident and possible changes on their own.

Ellen Somekawa, executive director of Asian Americans United, said the attacks against Asian students were disturbing, but more so was the district's reaction, which she characterized as slow and defensive. Almost a week later, some students involved have still not been interviewed, Somekawa said.

"We have seen a total lack of moral leadership," Somekawa said.

District spokeswoman Evelyn Sample-Oates said the situation was complex and the investigation would be thorough.

"We're trying to get names," Sample-Oates said. "Many kids don't want to give names, which we understand."

Somekawa described students at the school being mocked by staff: " 'Where are you from? Hey, Chinese. Yo, Dragon Ball. Are you Bruce Lee? Speak English,' " quoting what students had told her.

Troung, the South Philadelphia student, recited a litany of problems with school staff. She singled out the security officers, who she claimed forced Asian students to follow them into a lunchroom where they were attacked and who directed the frightened students to leave school after they were beaten.

Yan Zheng, another student, said that when students were fighting in the lunch room last Thursday, "the lunch lady did not do anything to stop them, and went around cheering happily. . . . The staff shouldn't just stand there and watch and say, 'Stopping fights is not my job.' "

Duong Thang Ly said the school's security officers "are the big problem," saying they looked the other way when a group of African American students interrupted a lunch line and heckled a group of Asian students. They ignored groups of students as they roamed during class time, Ly said.

It's not just Asian students who are suffering, Truong said.

"Most of the students at South Philadelphia High School - Asian, African American, Latino and white - are just like us. They are trying to get an education in a school where they do not feel safe or respected," said Truong.

Xu Lin, a community organizer for the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp. who works closely with South Philadelphia students, said immigrant students are often not provided with appropriate language assistance when they report incidents.

"When Asian students report incidents, the school officials in the building often do not respond professionally," Lin said. "Many incidents went neglected."

Lin said South Philadelphia's new principal, LaGreta Brown, had been unresponsive to the Asian community.

Brown did not attend yesterday's meeting and has not been available to comment on the allegations.

Sample-Oates, the district spokeswoman, said all staff will be held accountable and disciplined if found culpable.

A New York civil rights attorney drew parallels to a 2004 situation at a Brooklyn school where Chinese immigrant students were attacked.

"The severe, rampant and unchecked nature of the racially motivated attacks against Asian students at South Philadelphia far exceeds what I have seen" in Brooklyn, testified Cecilia Chen, an attorney with the Asian American Legal Defense Fund.

The four commissioners listened to more than three hours of sometimes painful testimony. After several speakers said they felt the district had not appropriately apologized, Chairman Robert Archie Jr. said that the SRC and district "want to say we're sorry for the injuries that you sustained as a result of the incidents which took place in South Philadelphia. . . . We're going to move with all deliberate speed to try to address this issue."

Commissioner David F. Girard-diCarlo said he welcomed the outside investigation. "Clearly, from the comments that we received, we do need to evaluate the conduct of our adults to make sure that we have balanced appropriately where the problems really lie," he said.

In an interview, another commissioner, Johnny Irizarry, said the district needs to enforce a diversity policy adopted 15 years ago.

"Either we continue to live in sustaining or almost approving violence by not intervening," Irizarry said, "or we say, 'OK, this is the time that we make radical change.' "

I grew up asian in south philly and can provide you with absolutely no perspective on that story at all

but if you want some great cheap pho go to 6th and washington

Excellent:

Federal complaint to be filed over S. Phila. High violence

By Jeff Gammage and Kristen A. Graham

INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund said today that it would file a complaint for civil rights violations with the federal justice department against the Philadelphia School District for failing to address violence against Asian immigrant students at South Philadelphia High School.

The complaint will charge that the school district violated the students' right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

The action was announced at an afternoon news conference by Cecilia Chen, a staff attorney with the defense fund.

Last week, as many as 30 Asian students were beaten by large groups of mainly African American students at the school. The students say they have long been targeted, often while school staff looked on.

Staff sometimes added taunts of their own, the students said.

Fifty Asian students have been boycotting South Philadelphia High since Monday.

Posted on Fri, Dec. 18, 2009
Police track roving gangs in Center City

By Sam Wood and Kia Gregory

Inquirer Staff Writers

Police made a show of force in Center City today after they were alerted that large groups of teens planned to gather in response to two earlier fights at the Gallery.

Throughout the afternoon, police monitored gangs of youths - sometimes numbering more than 100 - as they roved around Center City.

Some bystanders were assaulted by one of the gangs.

Police Lt. Michael Brady said there were fights yesterday and Wednesday at the Gallery's Food Court that resulted in four arrests.

Calls for a massive gathering then surfaced on Facebook, he said.

He said students from at least three high schools, including Overbrook and Kensington, were involved.

"They're from other sides of the city. We don't know why they're doing it, but they're gathering here," he said. "They're trying to create some sort of disruption."

"One of the groups is smacking people," he said. "When anybody confronts them they become combative."

Fernando Gallard, a spokesman for the Philadelphia School District, said officials there heard from city police "regarding possible altercations involving students in Center City, specifically at the Gallery."

Gallard said police informed them the students came from Audenreid and South Philadelphia High Schools and from Preparatory Charter School of Math, Science Technology and Careers, which is located in Point Breeze.

Security guards were posted at every entrance to the Gallery and did not permit juveniles without adults to enter the mall, said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.

Large groups collected outside the doors and blocked the entryways, Vanore said. Police arrested two teens when they refused to disburse.

Officers followed groups of teens on Market, Chestnut and Samson Streets from 9th to 16th Streets.

Jane Lessner, a Center City lawyer, said she just left Macy's after doing some holiday shopping when she saw a group of 70 to 100 youths approaching.

She was trying to make her way through the group when "they started pushing me."

"One pushed me into another, who pushed me into another, who pushed me into another until one girl hauled off with her fist and hit me in the face," Lessner said.

The punch knocked out a lens of her glasses and left here with a bloodshot eye.

Brendan Meehan, 44, of Media, who also was Christmas shopping, saw the attack and called 911.

"I saw a teenage girl hit her right in the face," he said. "The girl came back and taunted her as I called 911."

Lessner, he said, "was shaking and held onto me as I called."

Police took her to Hahnemann Hospital for treatment.

Another witness said he saw the same gang knock down a bicylist.

At one point, six police vehicles responded to a Wendy's on 15th and Chestnut when a call came that there were 100 teens inside. The officers dispersed the group.

In the midst of the confusion, a man robbed a bank at 18th and Market Streets about 2 p.m.

Gallard, the school district spokesman, said that the district was working closely with Philadelphia police and had dispatched extra school police to the involved schools.

"We had a very smooth closing in our schools," Gallard said.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20091218_Police_track_roving_gangs_in_Center_City.html

lol the Gallery has always been a hive of scum and villainy

there are also like 0 shops worth going to in that place

Speechless:

http://kdka.com/wireapnewsfnpa/Philly.audit.finds.2.1554750.html

Mar 11, 2010 4:50 pm US/Eastern
Philly Audit Finds $3.4M In Taxes Never Deposited
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ― Call it the case of the misplaced millions.

Philadelphia officials have recovered more than $3 million in wage taxes that should have been deposited in the city treasury in 2005 — but never were.

City Inspector General Amy Kurland said Thursday the wage tax payments were made five years ago by the Pentagon for Department of Defense employees who work in Philadelphia.

But the money never made it to the bank. Kurland says her office contacted Defense officials, who reissued the checks.

Kurland says the discrepancy was discovered as part of an ongoing corruption investigation into a former municipal employee.

Her office is still looking into how the funds were misplaced, and whether any crime was committed.

honestly not surprised

Kiss your city's tax base goodbye, kids:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20100320_Police_seek_to_control_thousands_of_teens_on_South_Street.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20100320_Two_attacked_in_Philadelphias_violent_playground_game.html

Two residents of Southwest Philadelphia were injured - one of them seriously - in separate, recent attacks by youth engaging in a violent game they have dubbed "Catch and Wreck," police said tonight.

Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives said tonight a 12-year-old girl has been charged with aggravated assault and related offenses in connection with an attack on a 42-year-old woman Friday night, and additional arrests are expected.

In the game, a group of children between the ages of nine and 15 congregating at the Finnegan Playground at 69th Street and Grovers Avenue beat, strike and stomp adults they believe may be homeless, Walker said. He said neither victim in the two attacks was homeless.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/11/philadelphia.cop.shot.self/index.html

A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, police officer who told authorities he was shot while on patrol last month has admitted he shot himself intentionally, the city's police commissioner said Tuesday.

...

Ralston reported that on April 5 he saw two African-American males arguing on a train track in West Philadelphia. He told investigators that when he stopped the two men for questioning one of them pulled out a gun and shot him in the left shoulder.

His claim sparked a search for a phantom suspect.

sometimes i dream that one day, i'll have to go back to this city. these are not pleasant dreams.

okay philly experts: never been and we only have a day to explore

starting very close to city hall, what's a good route to see as many inneresting things/neighborhoods as possible. like, what'd be a nice, diverse ~12 mile walk starting from city hall? cheap food along the way also good.

let mw get back to you on thos

haha yeah I thought about just fb msging you again

Check the Living in Philadelphia thread for some great tips. South St is fun, so are Chinatown and Old City. Gayborhood is nice if you are gay.

Walnut and Chestnut Sts is the "retail" part where you will find the things like h&m and Puma and Coach and BCBG and those types of chains, esp west of Broad St

13th St Pizza if it's past like 11 and you wanna grab a slice w some tranny hookers

I mean rough itinerary, I'd say go to Reading Terminal, walk down 13th and get a coffee at The last Drop and then go down to South, go thrifting at AIDS Thrift, grab a drink at Tattooed Mom, get cookies at Cookie Confidential (key lime will make you convulse w delight), shoot up 2nd or 3rd, maybe head up to NoLibs to the Piazza? then idk.

so uh looking at a map, looking at the area bounded by race street up north and south street down south and everything in between from front to the river is pretty uh 'downtown.' obv there are exceptions. idk, my experience in philly was limited to school and what I did with my parents - I've never lived there as a grown man, stevie d & dell are your man on the streets for that kind of stuff.

reading terminal - you probably have a lot of these in nyc but uh local farmers & other produce & other food products are found here
chinatown - pretty similar to nyc chinatown, nothing really special
italian market + southeast asian neighborhoods - this is the area down around washington ave, between 6th-12th. one of my favorite places in philly. my favorite restaurant in philly is the pho shop in the strip mall at 6th and washington, it's the first one in the row, next to 6th street (if that makes sense).

other than that, uh, the shopsy side of south street is from front to like 8th or 9th. there's society hill, which is in that general area, where all the million dollar rowhouses are. walking along the schuylkill is fun, if the weather's nice - and you could stop by the art museum too.

if you make it to the university side, you should visit the mutter museum. and marvel at how depressing drexel is.

so like, maybe take the el down to penns ladning, and make your way westward, crisscrossing north to south? that'd be 12 miles, probably.

you could also just stay home and do it all on streetview, same differnece

hmmm, yeah, if you're coming from nyc, you're really not going to find much terribly grand in philly that you can't find more exciting/interesting versions of back at home

to echo stevie d, walnut is the nicest retail-heavy st. in center city. you could start near city hall and work your way east all the way to penn's landing on the delaware river and along the way pass through the heart of center city, eventually making your way to the society hill, old city historic cobblestoney founding fathery neighborhoods...or alternatively spruce/locust/pine streets a few blocks south of walnut are less retail heavy but very pretty in parts

i would recommend going south as opposed to north and nolibs (but that's my personal prejudices at work)...if you cut down 9th st, you can walk through the italian market and pass by the southeast asian/mexican neighborhoods that dayo mentioned, and a few blocks past that you can veer onto passyunk ave. and eyeball the world-famous racist and non-racist cheesesteak places...if you continue along passyunk you'll hit a bunch of little shops, boutiques, etc. mixed with old-school south philly stuff

as for food, maybe a sandwich at di bruno bros or sarcone's deli or pizza slices from sarcone's bakery all on 9th st italian market-ish

thanks dudes, writing this all down! del I don't necessarily need philly to knock my socks off or be cooler than nyc, I just enjoy hardcore-wandering-around and seeing neighborhoods for the first time.

Q: if we were to wander to penn, what are the neighborhoods west of campus like? Are any parts of center city are particularly unwalkable? What are the safety boundaries for a clueless tourist and a white girl? I know philly's not quite NYC in that sense but I don't actually know the extent?

that's cool, you will definitely enjoy yourself then

no, center city is pretty much all very walkable

for the most part center city is completely safe within reason imo. the super rugged parts of the city are mostly in parts of west philly, north philly. for instance, if you go to nolibs there are a bunch of nice pubs and stuff on n. 2nd and n. 3rd btwn. girard and spring garden, but a couple of blocks outside of those boundaries can get very hairy quickly, especially at night. there are parts of s. philly that can get iffy below federal or so, esp. at night. w. philly, i don't spend a great deal of time there, but i'd say roughly btwn spruce, baltimore west to maybe 50th is pretty ok (the trees, houses get really pretty around there, too). further north can be just fine, also, and there is cool stuff around there, but i would also factor in what time of day it is, etc.

if we were to wander to penn, what are the neighborhoods west of campus like?

cedar park area, very pretty (see above-- tons of trees, lushness, big gorgeous houses) plus there is ethiopian, other good eats in the vicinity

So I have map in hand: city hall-> Penn's landing (via market?) -> back west down spruce or pine then down 9th, see markets cool stuff etc. possibly down passyunk tho the girl has already vetoed cheesesteaks :( -> is there a good street to eventually head west down if we want to see penn? And from there would cedar park or fairmount park be a better endpoint?

is there a good street to eventually head west down if we want to see penn?

they recently re-opened the south st. bridge, so i guess south st. is an option. market st. is very pedestrian friendly as well, as far as crossing over the schuylkill goes.

as you can see from a map, those parts of the city are mostly laid out in a grid, with numbered streets running north-south, so you can easily dart around wherever you want to and then cut over to market or south when you get near the river.

And from there would cedar park or fairmount park be a better endpoint?

the EAST side of fairmount park, near the art museum, could be nice, doable. it's definitely closer to city hall fwiw

cedar park is just a pretty neighborhood with houses and some small businesses nearby...

Is there an easy way to get from Penn to the east park? Seems very freeway-y

the only reasonable way on foot is to go back across the river via market, and then cut up a numbered st, i guess 22nd or 21st, and then you'll run into vine st/kelly dr. and see the big hubub of the parkland, museums, etc...it looks very freeway-y on the map but it's totally walkable. as you get closer to it, it will make sense.

great. thanks again for the help! I feel like this session + looking at the map for 15 minutes has given me decent orientation. usually I'm not this gabbneb about my trips and just wander around cities randomly and read about where I was the day after, but w/ only a day I gotta be efficient.

sure, good luck and have fun!

haha I've never actually eaten at geno's or pats. my favorite is tony lukes and jim's.

you'll love it, lots of history and stuff. (I'll be back there next week for a bit, too.)

It’s my kinda dump

(Seriously, I do love it here, tho hate it in about equal measure tbh)

We’re going to the nihonjin gardens Friday I think