[PRCo] Re: Location?

[Fred Schneider]

Harold's point is well taken.  I agree with it.  And also saddening because it
isn't like all cities.  But it is like many cities in the United States.  But
why do I feel so much more comfortable in Canadian or European cities?  I can
walk around Calgary or London at night in a suit without any fear at all.
People tell me that East London or the Jamaican sections to the southwest of
central London, England, are bad.  Maybe bad by their standards, but perhaps no
worse than the better sections of our cities.  I've not felt uncomfortable
anywhere in London in coat and tie, and with three cameras.  They still have
cities where you can buy things, see shows, eat dinner.  Just look at the
difference between Toronto and Buffalo ... day and night.

I worked as an program auditor for the state employment service back in the
1980s.  I normally dressed in a suit or sports coat.  Even in Pittsburgh then.
But when I went to Philadelphia, I took the oldest car in the fleet and dressed
down ... way down ... sort of like I was working in my garden.  And the staff in
our offices in Philly dressed down too.  Dressing up was simply saying, "Here's
my wallet."  We had one office in West Philly with three armed guards ... one in
the parking lot and two inside.  The two inside were unable or unwilling to
stave off two muggings of employees in one year.

No Harold, I don't want to move to the city.  Not here.  I used to love the
cities.  I would walk around Brooklyn or Homewood or North Philly in my youth
with wreckless abandon.  Times have changed.  I'll still wander around Bern,
Zurich, Paris, Lisbon, Milano, Munich, London, Toronto and I could enjoy living
in those or similar cities.  But the United States has abandoned the concept of
urban viability.   Americans spend a disproportionate amount of their income and
energy trying to move away from people they feel are inferior.  I don't like it
but I recognize it.

Harold Geissenheimer wrote:

> Fred
> Is it really that bad?   In daylight?  While schools are in class?
>
> I drove along the East Busway last October on Sunday AM.
>
> Fred..you should move to the city.  Too much fear
>
> Like any city, dont carry visible cameras or dress high.
>
> Harold Geissenheimer
>
> Fred Schneider wrote:
>
> >Remember now, Mark, there are some neighborhoods that you really don't want
> >to enter without the 82nd Airborne Division in your car for protection.  A
> >lot of places that I used to be taken as a boy that were quite OK then but
> >are not today ... Braddock, Rankin, North Braddock, Wilkinsburg, Homewood,
> >Brushton, parts of East Liberty, even parts of the North Side.  Basically,
> >follow the Pennsylvania Railroad to the east ... those were the older and
> >now decaying neighborhoods.
> >
> >Mark McGuire wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >> Gee, Fred! I'd love to tour the North Side and East End with you
> >>sometime. I never ventured into these areas very much when I lived
> >>in Pittsburgh. Had the streetcars still been running when I was a teen,
> >>I'd have been all over the system I'm sure. I was relegated to just
> >>42/38, 35, 36, and 49Arlington-Warrington. My mother went to Perry
> >>High on the North Side. My brother, who is a city cop, lives on Ivory
> >>Ave.(isn't this near Evergreen?). I'd love to see where the streetcars
> >>once ran.
> >>  I plan on being at PTM for the rollout of Red Arrow 14 June 26th.
> >>
> >>                        Mark Mc
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >