Tag Archives: #Philadelphia

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The Democrats say we need more affordable housing, but look what has happened when they were in charge of it As Ned Stark would say, "Winter is coming."

The First Street Journal reported, on December 5th, just how well the Democrats, whose current cause de jour is “affordable housing,” have done when they’ve actually been in charge of housing. We noted a story and an Editorial in The Philadelphia Inquirer[1]Sadly, both stories are now behind a “subscribers Only” paywall, so if you aren’t a subscriber, you’ll just have to take my word for it. showing how a liberally-oriented “affordable housing” landlord ignored conditions in a dilapidate apartment, and the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections, noting in the Editorial that:

(Essie) Campbell filed several complaints, but no city inspectors entered her home or issued violations for the appalling conditions inside.

Well, though no one has died due to it, it’s happening again!

The Embassy Apartments, 2100 Walnut Street. Photo via Google Maps.

Some tenants in a Walnut Street apartment building say they haven’t had heat this winter

Some tenants of the 15-story Embassy Apartments say the temperatures in their units were lower than legally allowable.

by Nate File | Thursday, December 12, 2024 | 5:56 AM EST

For some people, being carried in the arms of firefighters is a kind of fantasy.

But for 83-year-old Deborah Diamond, it was misery. On Friday evening, she and the other residents of Embassy Apartments at 2100 Walnut St. were told by their building’s management to evacuate because the city deemed it unsafe after a daylong power outage had disabled the fire alarm system. Firefighters strapped Diamond, who is on hospice care, to a chair and carried her down nine flights of stairs.

“This building is in tremendous disrepair,” she said of the 15-story property built in 1900.

This building isn’t some dump in North Philly, but is located between Rittenhouse and Logan Squares. In my Google Streetscape search, I noticed two very nice nearby townhouses, one with an historic preservation plaque on it, with “Harris/Walz” signs in the windows. 🙂

Even before the outage, some residents said their apartments had not received heat this winter, or weak heating at best. Two residents said they measured temperatures inside their apartments that were far below legal temperatures.

There’s more at the link. The newspaper’s story does not say that there had been previous complaints to L&I which were ignored, but here we have a 15-story apartment building, in a city which has been run by the Democrats since the latter days of Harry Truman’s presidency, just a couple of weeks shy of 73 years ago, and there are stories like this.

More will crop up as the depths of winter hit the City of Brotherly Love, and we hear of fires caused by electric space heaters, and toxic fumes from desperate people using kerosene heaters; this happens every winter.

According to a 2021 study by the Pew Charitable Trusts, roughly 30% of the city’s rental units lack a rental license entirely, and only 7% of the city’s rental units are inspected during a given year. This presents a troubling lack of clarity on how many households are renting units that fail to meet basic habitation standards.

There’s no surprise in this. Philly is both one of our oldest cities, so the existing housing stock is relatively old, and our nation’s poorest big city. But that also tells us that the Democrats and their policies for “affordable housing” are just words, not matched by deeds.

References

References
↑1 Sadly, both stories are now behind a “subscribers Only” paywall, so if you aren’t a subscriber, you’ll just have to take my word for it.
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Let’s hope he was locked up before he reproduced

Ameen Hurst, then 16. Click to enlarge.

Using Robert Stacy McCain’s formulation, say hello to Ameen Hurst, and while you’re at it, you can say goodbye as well.

However, unlike Mr McCain’s “say goodbye” bit, young Mr Hurst has not died due to his own stupidity. Rather, say goodbye because this teenaged killer was just sentenced to 55 to 110 years in prison.

Ameen Hurst sentenced to 55 to 110 years in prison for four murders, robberies as a teenager

Ameen Hurst was arrested at age 16 and charged with killing four people. He was sentenced to 55 to 110 years in prison on Thursday.

by Ellie Rushing | Thursday, November 14, 2024 | 4:00 PM EST

By the time Ameen Hurst becomes eligible for parole, he will be an elderly man — nearly three-quarters of the way to 100 years old, and nearly five times the age he was when he committed the crimes that landed him in prison.

For shooting and killing four people, robbing two convenience stores at gunpoint, and then escaping from prison while awaiting trial, Hurst was sentenced Thursday to 55 to 110 years in prison. The sentence surprised even veteran Philadelphia prosecutors — Hurst, after all, was just 16 when he committed the crimes.

Continue reading →

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Aspiring rapper update

The “aspiring rapper” headline of this article was inspired by my good friend Robert Stacy McCain’s series of the same name, which occurred to me when I saw the following article in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Two more YBC rappers are accused of murder. One said he was at the shooting but didn’t fire a gun.

Rappers and YBC affiliates Quamere Hall, a.k.a. Mere Pablo, and Mark Johnson, a.k.a. Yak Yola, are facing murder charges.
by Ellie Rushing | Wednesday, November 14, 2024 | 4:58 PM EST

Quamere Hall doesn’t deny that he was at the scene of the slaying of Sharif King, his attorney said Wednesday — he just didn’t fire the guns that killed him.

His friend and fellow rapper Mark Johnson, on the other hand, is another story, Hall told detectives.

So, “fellow rappers” have no real loyalty to each other? Bit shocker there! Perhaps young Mr Hall’s lawyer should have told him that it doesn’t matter which one of them actually fired the gun; if they were engaged in the commission of another felony, they can both be convicted of second-degree murder in the Keystone State. Continue reading →

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You in a heap o’ trouble, boy!

Spencer Majett, via the Daily Voice.

No, of course The Philadelphia Inquirer didn’t publish Spencer Majett’s photo, but it wasn’t difficult to find.

Man charged with murder of a bystander and shooting at cops, police say

Spencer Majett is a suspect in the killing of 23-year-old Felicity Vanatta, a bystander who was fatally shot after an argument outside a Kensington deli erupted into gunfire.

by Rodrigo Torrejón | Thursday, November 7, 2024 | 1:49 PM EST

A Philadelphia man who was shot by police after being on the run for allegedly killing a bystander in Kensington has been charged with murder, police said Thursday.

Here’s me wondering if the George Soros-sponsored, police hating and criminal loving District Attorney, Larry Krasner, will try to charge the police officers for shooting the distinguished Mr Majett.

Spencer Majett, 29, was shot twice by Philadelphia police officers on Oct. 29 after they tried to arrest him and he ran, setting off a brief foot chase, police said. After the shooting, police said, Majett was in critical but stable condition, and authorities had been waiting for his condition to stabilize to charge him with murder and related crimes in the Oct. 8 slaying of 23-year-old Felicity Vanatta.

Majett also faces two counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and related crimes for shooting at the two officers who chased after him, police said.

Officers were patrolling Kensington Avenue around 5:30 p.m. Oct. 29 when they spotted Majett. He was a suspect in the killing of Vanatta, who was shot outside the Steak N Beer deli on Kensington Avenue when an altercation erupted into gunfire, police said.

According to the Daily Voice, Mr Majett fired the bullet which killed Miss Vanatta from an unrelated fight half a block away.

So, Mr Majett is facing spending the rest of his miserable life in jail, for pulling a gun and shooting in a fight, because he’s just plain stupid. If he’s actually the killer, he deserves it.

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Killadelphia: Gang-banger killed, two more gang-bangers arrested for it Not the worst result in the world

Two months ago, we noted the murder of Abdul Vicks, 25, a rapper going by the stage name of YBC Dul. Mr Vicks was a ringleader in a Philly gang calling themselves Young Bag Chasers, and I called it a “public service homicide,” because this gang was particularly violent.

Part of that public service was that the punks who targeted and shot Mr Vicks would themselves wind up off the streets, once the Philadelphia Police identified and arrested them: both killers and killed would be removed from society. And so arrests have finally been made:

Second teen arrested for killing West Philly rapper, gang member YBC Dul

Rashawn Williams, 18, has been charged with killing Abdul Vicks, aka YBC Dul.

by Ellie Rushing | Wednesday, October 23, 2024 | 9:46 AM EDT

An 18-year-old has been charged with fatally shooting a local rapper and West Philadelphia gang leader — the second teen in two months to face charges in the high-profile killing.

Rashawn Williams, 18, was arrested Tuesday and charged with the murder of Abdul Vicks, the 25-year-old rapper affiliated with the West Philadelphia-based gang the Young Bag Chasers, or YBC.

Vicks, also known as YBC Dul or “Mr. Disrespectful,” was shot multiple times in a drive-by-style shooting in Olney on Aug. 23. Vicks had just picked up a friend, and was driving down the 100 block of West Olney Avenue when a white car pulled up alongside him at a stoplight. At least two people fired multiple shots into Vicks’ car, before speeding off, police said.

Vicks was struck multiple times in the chest and hand. In a panic, his friend drove back to his house on North Sixth Street, and then, with the help of his uncle, rushed Vicks to Einstein Medical Center, where he died just before 4 p.m.

16-year-old Aiden Waters had been arrested for the same crime in early September. Messrs Williams and Waters were both members of “Fastbreak, a previously little-known gang affiliated with the area around Fourth Street, Nedro Avenue, and Spencer Street in Olney.”

In our previous article on the subject, we noted the violence of Mr Vicks’ gang. The Philadelphia Inquirer described Mr Water’ (alleged) activities:

This dude is just 16! With any luck, the two (alleged) shooters hadn’t knocked up anyone, and will be locked up long enough that they will have Darwin Awarded themselves.

Gang-bangers killing other gang-bangers isn’t really that bad a thing. The biggest problem is that they are so often such rotten shots that they kill or wound innocent bystanders.

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Another killed in the Philadelphia Badlands Yet another hit-and-run homicide in the City of Brotherly Love

Am I the only one who wonders if Philadelphia’s “Driving While Black” ordinance has contributed to this? When the police cannot stop vehicles for obvious, if ‘minor’ violations, some people think that they can get away with anything.

Woman killed in hit-and-run crash in North Philly, the latest in string of incidents

The fatal crash is at least the third hit-and-run crash in a week, according to police.

by Rodrigo Torrejón | Monday, October 14, 2024 | 9:43 AM EDT

North Fifth Street and West Indiana Avenue, via Google Maps, April 2023.

A woman was killed in a hit-and-run crash in North Philadelphia Sunday night, the latest in a recent string of such incidents that have left several injured and others dead.

Police responded to a report of a fatal crash at the intersection of North Fifth Street and West Indiana Avenue shortly after 7:30 p.m.

Investigators learned a person driving a silver Hyundai Sonata northbound on North Fifth Street struck a 42-year-old pedestrian as the driver made a left turn onto West Indiana Avenue, police said. The woman, whom police did not identify, was taken to Temple University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 8:05 p.m.

The passengers in the Sonata fled the scene on foot, police said. No arrests have been made, and police continue to investigate.

Philadelphia Badlands. Photo via Philadelphia Inquirer Click to enlarge.

The intersection of North Fifth Street and West Indiana Avenue is in the Fairhill neighborhood, squarely in the Philadelphia Badlands, a name The Philadelphia Inquirer truly hates.

The story doesn’t tell us what most people would suspect: the “silver Hyundai Sonata” was possibly stolen and/or the driver was intoxicated, and/or the vehicle was involved in a crime, and that’s why the driver and passengers fled the scene.

WPVI-TV reported more than did the Inky, and did so earlier in the day, so reporter Rodrigo Torrejón knew the information, but chose not to include it, instead telling subscribers old news:

Police say the driver of a silver Hyundai Sonata was speeding and driving recklessly before hitting the 42-year-old woman. . . . .

Investigators believe the driver attempted to swerve around the victim but struck her instead. The driver then reportedly continued down the sidewalk, where the car hit a pillar and several parked cars. . . . .

Officers recovered the badly damaged Hyundai at the scene.

Police and several witnesses said two to three men jumped out of the car and fled the area on foot after the crash.

Officers did try to pursue the suspects but they got away, police said.

Authorities also said a gun and drugs were found inside the car, which is registered out of Lancaster County. Police also said the car has not been reported stolen.

Yup! Reckless driving, speeding, transporting drugs, and a possibly illegal gun and stolen car. Lancaster County is over sixty miles from Philly.

We don’t yet know who the driver and passengers are, but the odds are that, when we do find out, we’ll read that they have been in trouble with the law before.

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Killadelphia: Did Teryn Johnson ever have a chance?

Even though I no longer live in the Keystone State, The Philadelphia Inquirer is my favorite newspaper — the Lexington Herald-Leader is the closest thing I have to a local newspaper, but it’s absolutely pathetic — because the Inky has a lot more news coverage, but also reports on the culture of America’s poorest big city in a way that the editors might not realize that it does. I have reported, several times, on the newspaper deliberately concealing facts.

This story doesn’t conceal any facts of which I am aware, but when I read it, I saw the unreported on culture that underlies it.

Halim Evans, mugshot via Philly’s Most Wanted.

A teen wouldn’t get an abortion. So her boyfriend hired his cousin to kill her, prosecutors say.

It’s a case that even the accused killer’s defense attorney said was “just about as bad as we see in Philadelphia, and we see a lot of horrific things.”

by Ellie Rushing | Thursday, October 10, 2024 | 5:00 AM EDT

Halim Evans didn’t want any more children.

So when the then-20-year-old learned that his girlfriend was pregnant, he told her there was only one option.

“We gotta get the abortion jawn,” Evans texted Teryn Johnson, 17, in July 2022. “I ain’t ready for no more kids.”

Johnson made an appointment to terminate the pregnancy, and later told him she was no longer pregnant. But she didn’t go through with it, and when Evans found out, prosecutors say, he hired his cousin to kill her.

Qasim Pointer, mugshot via Philly’s Most Wanted.

There’s a lot more at the original, but no, of course the Inquirer didn’t include the mugshots of the alleged perpetrators, but it didn’t take much effort to find them.

When Mr Evans found out that Miss Johnson was out of the house, walking her dog, he allegedly called his cousin, Qasim Pointer, and told him where to find her. Mr Pointer and Mr Evans other cousin then — again allegedly — drove a stolen Dodge Challenger to Frankford, and spotted the victim. They trailed the victim, and Mr Pointer then jumped out and shot Miss Johnson twice in the back, killing her and her unborn child. I have omitted direct quotes of how the Philadelphia Police put together the evidence, but this part is important:

In a series of recorded conversations, Pointer and his brother, who is serving a 70-year sentence for murder in Maryland, laid out the motive for the crime, (Homicide Detective Robert)Daly said.

“Bro, our cuz … he been dropping babies like motherf— flies bro,” Pointer said on Sept. 7. “He dropping babies like flies but one of them he trying to trim up so I … I mean, I don’t condone this … but like, for that paper I would do it bro.”

“(P)aper” means cash in this instance.

Here is the underlying culture part: the distinguished Mr Evans had “been dropping babies like motherf— flies,” which means that he had been f(ornicating) and knocking up other women, women being plural, and that was part of the street culture in which he lived. Though the newspaper article does not specify it, he didn’t want Miss Johnson to have her baby, I assume because he didn’t want to pay child support. He had a cousin who was willing to commit murder for “paper,” and another who is a convicted murderer in Maryland.

Life meant nothing to these people!

Of course, these guys were all as dumb as a box of rocks, because they were making calls to a man in prison, and everyone knows that those calls can be recorded.

It took more than a year for Pointer’s preliminary hearing to go forward because he was in custody in Delaware for committing a separate shooting. He pleaded guilty to assault and illegal gun possession in that case, Pope said, and was sentenced to 12 years.

Yeah, these guys aren’t exactly models of classy citizenship! And here’s more of the cultural problem:

Johnson’s grandmother agonizes over a hope for justice for her baby, whom she raised from the age of 3. Johnson’s mother struggled with addiction before dying of a fentanyl overdose in October 2021, Waters said, and her father spent most of her childhood in prison.

Despite years of therapy, those traumas affected Johnson’s decisions and personal relationships, Waters said. She struggled with school, and often found herself surrounded by friends and boyfriends who weren’t always looking out for her best interests, her grandmother said.

Did young Miss Johnson ever have a chance in life? Her mother was a long-term junkie — I refuse to use reporter Ellie Rushing’s mealy-mouthed “struggled with addiction” — and her father is a criminal. At age 17, and possibly younger — the age of consent is 16 in Pennsylvania — she was running with a bad crowd; that’s what she “often found herself surrounded by friends and boyfriends who weren’t always looking out for her best interests” means.

The final paragraphs of Miss Rushing’s story tell readers that young Miss Johnson was a good, strong-willed, and independent girl. She was described in glowing terms by the grandmother who was responsible for rearing her. But she was also running with a bad crowd, and had been f(ornicating) a bad guy from a bad family. It would take an absolute [insert slang term for the anus here] to say that she was at least in part responsible for her own killing, but I can live with that epithet; sometimes you have to be an [insert slang term for the anus here] to tell the unvarnished truth, and the unvarnished truth here is that there is a terrible culture in some parts of the City of Brotherly Love, and Miss Johnson participated in it.

Would Miss Johnson be alive and happy today if she had grown up with two decent parents in Chestnut Hill or University City . . . or Jim Thorpe? That’s something only God can answer, and he didn’t tell me what that answer is. But the truth is that the rotten culture where she grew up, and which she at least partly embraced, greatly decreased the probabilities that she’d grow up healthy and happy and a credit to society. And that’s a truth which has to be told.

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Killadelphia Yes, homicide is significantly down, but still more than thrice that of the rest of the Commonwealth

It was March 16, 2022, when this poor site noted liberal Philadelphia magazine reporter Victor Fiorillo‘s story about how applications for concealed carry permits had skyrocketed. He had expected an increase, following the 562 officially reported murders in the City of Brotherly Love, but “wasn’t exactly ready for just how big this increase has been.”

Mr Fiorillo doesn’t like Fox 29 News reporter Steve Keeley’s reports on crime in the city, just as WHYY reporter Cherri Gregg, who said his reporting “definitely makes me cringe,” while Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Jenice Armstrong “wrote on Facebook: ‘His Twitter feed is also disturbing.'”

So, @phillyvictor, Mr Fiorillo’s Twitter handle, gleefully told us that homicides were down in the city, slamming Mr Keeley for not reporting on that:

Philadelphia Homicides on Pace for Historic Low. No, Really!

The news Steve Keeley won’t tell you.

By Victor Fiorillo | Tuesday, September 24, 202 | 3:29 PM EDT

If you’re addicted to local television news or Fox News or if you live your life based on 15-second blips on TikTok or whatever the awful Citizen crime app[1]Hyperlink not in Mr Fiorillo’s original, but added by me. I have assumed that this is the Twitter site to which he referred, but cannot say that I am certain. has to say, you are probably still convinced that Philadelphia is a desolate hellhole, the Wild Wild West of urban living, where anything goes and where crime is rampant and without consequence. The “car meetup” events from Saturday night into Sunday morning, which featured a ring of fire outside City Hall and at least one flamethrower, are probably all you can talk about. You’re living your best Steve Keeley life.

But here’s some news that Steve Keeley and his ilk can’t find the time to tell you: Philadelphia’s homicide count is on pace for a historic low. You read that right, and I’ll say it once again for those in the back: Philadelphia’s homicide count is on pace for a historic low.

Now, this isn’t fake news. This isn’t my opinion. This is real news based on, you know, facts. Data. Statistics.

According to the latest data provided by the Philadelphia Police Department, homicides in Philadelphia are down 40 percent in Philadelphia as of Tuesday morning compared to the same time period last year. If you think I’ve told you similar things in the not-too-distant past, you’re not wrong. Back in April, I cautiously reported that our homicide count was down 34 percent. I say cautiously because, well, anything can happen at any time, sending those numbers in the wrong direction. Also because we hadn’t yet hit summer, and generally speaking, summers are associated with more violent crime.

Well, friends, guess what? Summer is officially over. And we went from a 34 percent decrease in homicides as of April to a 40 percent decrease in homicides as of today. If we stay on that track, that would mean that we’d end the year with 246 homicides. And if we do that, 2024 would tie 2013 for the lowest number of homicides in Philadelphia for the last 56 years. To do better than that, we’d need to end the year with fewer than 234 homicides. That’s how many homicides the city saw in 1967. One can hope!

Perhaps so, but it comes back to the first story of Mr Fiorillo’s that I cited, concerning the surge in applications for concealed carry permits. And then this, from Thursday morning’s Philadelphia Inquirer:

One killed, one injured in gunfight during an attempted robbery that ended in SEPTA bus crash in West Philly

There were nine people — eight passengers and one driver — on the SEPTA bus, a SEPTA spokesperson said. Nobody was injured.

by Rodrigo Torrejón | Thursday, October 3, 2024 | 9:44 AM EDT

A 36-year-old man was killed and a 17-year-old was injured when gunfire broke out during an attempted armed robbery in Mantua on Wednesday night, police said. After the teen and his accomplice fled the scene in a getaway car, the car crashed into a SEPTA bus a block away.

The 17-year-old was identified as Sage Black-Rivera.

Police responded to a report of a shooting at a candy store on the 800 block of North 40th Street at 10:11 p.m., police said. When officers arrived, they found the 36-year-old man on the floor of the store with multiple gunshot wounds, police said.

The man, who police did not identify, was pronounced dead at the scene minutes later.

The victim had been in the store when a 17-year-old boy and another male tried to rob him at gunpoint, said Police Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore. The 36-year-old man then took out a gun and fired at the two men, striking the teen.

The teen then shot the 36-year-old manm, said Vanore.

The two assailants then fled the store in what police believe is a Mazda, but only got a block away before the car crashed into a SEPTA bus near 41st and Brown Streets, said Vanore.

Miss Gregg complained that “it is not good reporting to simply repeat police accounts/narratives,” but that’s what Inky reporter Rodrigo Torrejón just did, as shown my Mr Keeley’s tweet with the image file of the police report.

There were nine people on board the Route 31 SEPTA bus, eight passengers and the driver, a SEPTA spokesperson said. No injuries were reported to anyone on the bus.

The two alleged robbers then fled on foot. Police later found the teen on the 700 block of Preston Street with gunshot wounds to his arm and chest. He was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was placed in stable condition.

Homicide detectives are continuing to investigate. The 17-year-old boy has been arrested, and police are looking for his accomplice.

Mr Fiorillo noted, in the first cited story about concealed carry permits:

Of course, just because you’re denied doesn’t mean you’re not carrying, and carrying without a license is generally a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to five years in prison. But that charge can be upgraded to a felony depending on the circumstances.

It seems sadly appropriate that I’m writing about another Philly murder while drinking my coffee from a blood-red mug.

We have not yet been told whether the 36-year-old victim had a license to carry his weapon, but we do know that the unnamed 17-year-old did not have one, because such permits are not issued to minors. I am waiting on someone to whine that the 36-year-old victim would not be dead had he not been carrying a weapon and tried to defend himself, not that anyone can know that, but if he had been unarmed and simply handed over his wallet, both armed juveniles would have gotten away, and would still be out on the streets, waiting to rob at gunpoint someone else. At least now the 17-year-old will spend — hopefully — the rest of his miserable life behind bars, at least he will if the George Soros-sponsored, criminal loving District Attorney, Larry Krasner, charges him as an adult with second-degree murder, Pennsylvania Title 18 §2502(b). Under Pennsylvania Title 18 §1102(1)(c)(1), “A person who at the time of the commission of the offense was 15 years of age or older shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment the minimum of which shall be at least 30 years to life.”

Yes, homicides are down and crime is down in foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia, but there is still a culture in the city, and in most of our major cities, that allows crime to continue. Let’s use Mr Fiorillo’s statistics, estimating that Philly will finish with 246 homicides. With an estimated population of 1.55 million in 2023, that would still leave the city with a homicide rate of 15.87 per 100,000 population, significantly higher that the state’s 8.9 homicides per 100,000. Using the 2022 numbers — and the fact that the full 2023 numbers are not yet available is just plain sinful — Philly saw 514 homicides out of the Commonwealth’s total of 1,068, 48.13% of the total, when the city has only 11.96% of the state’s population. The rest of the Commonwealth had a homicide rate of 4.85 per 100,000 population, less than a third of Philly’s.

What will the numbers look like once full figures are available? Well, who knows, but even if they’re better than 2021, that won’t mean that they are good.

So, yes, things aren’t as bad as they once were, but if you live in Philly, you have slightly more than thrice the chance of being murdered than anyplace outside the city. It’s a shame that Mr Fiorillo didn’t mention that part.

References

References
↑1 Hyperlink not in Mr Fiorillo’s original, but added by me. I have assumed that this is the Twitter site to which he referred, but cannot say that I am certain.
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Democrats talk a good game, but when they have had the power, their policies have not worked! 3½ years of President Biden have produced record homelessness

Philadelphia’s last Republican Mayor, Bernard Samuel, left office on January 7, 1952, when Harry Truman was still President of the United States, and George VI was still King of England. In the 21½ years since January 3, 2003, Republicans have been Governors of Pennsylvania for just four years, with Tom Corbett leaving office on January 20, 2015. And since January 20, 2009, a Republican has held the White House for only four years. So, if homelessness is rising in the City of Brotherly Love, it isn’t exactly the GOP’s fault.

Homelessness in Philadelphia increases for third consecutive year

The number of homeless Philadelphians exceeded 5,000 for the first time since 2020.

by Layla A. Jones | Monday, September 23, 2024 | 3:09 PM EDT

The number of homeless Philadelphians increased for the third consecutive year, according to the annual point-in-time homelessness count conducted by the Office of Homeless Services.

The count was conducted in January and includes unsheltered people and those living in emergency shelters, safe haven and transitional housing. In 2024, the total number of homeless people reached 5,191, up from 4,725 the previous year — a 10% increase.

Mandated by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the annual point-in-time count is a snapshot of homelessness on one day in January.

Philadelphia’s count calls on volunteers, armed with clipboards, socks, and gloves, to spread across the city interviewing and cataloging people who are homeless.

How is it, if Democratic Party policies work, that homelessness is increasing in Philly? The Keystone State has had Democrats as Governors, and the city is a one-party, Democratic town. Mr Biden won Pennsylvania by 80,555 votes in 2020, 3,458,229 (50.01%) to 3,377674 (48.84%), but only because he carried Philadelphia 603,790 (81.44%) to 132,740 (17.90%), a margin of 471,050 votes. That’s how Democratic Philadelphia is![1]Without Philly, President Trump would have carried the Keystone State 3,244,935 (52.56%) to 2,854,439 (46.23%). Whatever the Democrats wanted to do in Philadelphia, they had the votes and the officeholders to do.

High – but declining – poverty, the opioid epidemic and a lack of affordable housing are to blame for the rising numbers of unsheltered people, according to a summary of the city’s winter count.

“Poverty remains a factor, irrespective of poverty trends/trajectories,” said Sherylle Linton Jones, spokesperson for the Office of Homeless Services.

More than 20% of homeless people had either been evicted or displaced for another reason in the preceding 90 days, showing how impactful an issue affordable housing is in Philadelphia.

If poverty is declining, why would homelessness increase?

The drug crisis is certainly a factor, as former Mayor Jim Kenney concentrated on hugely important things, like an additional tax on Big Gulps from Seven/Eleven, but, other than that, had pretty much checked out of doing his job, and the Kensington section of the city had become not just a local laughing stock, but a nationally and even internationally known drug wasteland.

Let’s tell the truth here: Democrats talk a good game, but when they have power, their policies have not worked!

Philadelphia’s rising homelessness comes after the office overspent its budget by almost $15 million, pressured by a mandate to keep people sheltered.

The Democrats tell you that they are going to do something, but even with having overspent their budgets, they don’t get the job done!

Philadelphia’s numbers are in lockstep with a nationwide trend of rising homelessness. In 2023, homelessness grew 12% to the highest level ever recorded. More than an estimated 650,000 people are homeless in the United States, the largest number since the country started tracking the annual point-in-time survey in 2007. The rising homelessness crisis led the conservative-leaning Supreme Court to rule that municipalities could ban sleeping in public places, effectively outlawing unsheltered homelessness.

It hasn’t been just Philly. Under President Joe Biden, and the Administration’s oh-so-sympathetic attitude, homelessness nationwide has still soared to record levels. Vice President Kamala Harris Emhoff has been telling us that she’s going to solve the problem by building 3,000,000 new, ‘affordable’ homes, but whatever her ideas to do that are, she never presented it or persuaded President Biden to do it. Once again, the Democrats are talking a big game, but they’ll fail miserably.

Mrs Emhoff is, as the Democrats always say they are, big on labor unions, but if her ‘plan’ includes pushing union labor on building those three million new homes, then she will have automatically made them more expensive, and less ‘affordable.’

Millions of people will vote Democratic this November, but those people will be voting for promises that cannot and will not be kept.

References

References
↑1 Without Philly, President Trump would have carried the Keystone State 3,244,935 (52.56%) to 2,854,439 (46.23%).