Welcome to Hell

[chasingtides]

Welcome to Hell: Philadelphia Has a Serious Case of Post-Traumatic Stress DisorderNorris Square is both lovely and out of place-a park interrupting trash-strewn streets and dirty concrete with a sudden surprising burst of green. Elegant decaying townhomes surround the square and convey the neighborhood’s history-its prosperous origins and decades

Comments

[ennifer_jay]

Anyone who's interested in this type of stuff should read Third and Indiana by Steve Lopez.

This is a sad article but really true. I never thought about the possibility of PTSD but it makes sense.

[the_physicist]

i've seen variations on this theme posted before, they didn't normally focus on the PTSD though, but that really does make sense, i agree. mostly what i read focused on the "planning for future" aspect. as in, if you don't believe you are going to have a future, why the hell plan for it? i've also seen such issues brought up when discussing how to prevent teenage pregnancies. people are just talking completely in a foreign language to their target audience.

[chasingtides]

I've been talking this article with other Philadelphians all morning and it's - I think this article points out that this has become the culture of the city. I remember being out on July Fourth and knowing a cop had been shot a few blocks over and someone tried to bomb the park we were trying to get to and it was so strange that the out of towners had the reaction of, "No, that can't be true. If there were shootings and bombings, then people wouldn't be here." And the Philadelphians were basically saying, "If we left because someone shot someone else, no one would be in the city. None of us could go home, ever. This is how it works."

And it's a dangerous culture for the city to have - the idea of a city of ghosts, of a city falling apart at the seams from the institutionalized violence that is just out of control and we can't even see it anymore.

[the_physicist]

i can understand it of course. you just get used to that kind of thing. i have heard the story for a lot of people who grew up in a war zone: after a while you just have to get used to it, so you say fuck it when the sirens go off and stay in bed. you can't let the war disrupt your life. you find a new norm, because it all seems completely out of your control.

i think that's the issue really, and why you say that it's a dangerous culture to have - which of course it is - the idea that it's so out of all control that there is nothing that can be done. that stops the impetus to actually do anything about it in a real way. and in this kind of case some things can be done, even if the effort is enormous.

eta: in case it wasn't clear, because reading now, i'm not sure it is... with my last paragraph i was meaning to address 'all the people in the city', as in those who have the power to do something, not those with PTSD in those bad situations.

[the_physicist]

“People will ask, ‘Where’s their common sense?’” says Drexel researcher Sandra Bloom. “And that’s a good question. People should ask it. And they should listen to the answer. Because what you and I consider common sense, the ability to plan for the future, to put problems in perspective and respond accordingly-these are some of the functions trauma destroys. And what you get from this is a breakdown of civil society and all its institutions: families, schools, children, everything.”

i agree that the whole article was definitely worth reading, although this in particular is what i see as the core message here.

Urban Planner Here (Part 1)

[brother_dour]

"And by all the principles of urban development, it should be-the homes restored, the park filled with WHITE families slurping ice cream, young couples picnicking, musicians strumming guitars. But something is wrong

Re: Urban Planner Here (Part 2)

[brother_dour]

Dirty Little Secret #3: illegal drug sales in the U.S. are powered at least as much by middle- and upper-class buyers as lower-class buyers. However, since middle- and upper-class neighborhoods are better-maintained, better watched by police, and tend to have more of those pesky, nosy HOAs and neighborhood watches, drug dealers tend to avoid them. Recall DLS #1: criminals don't like brightly-lit places, regular police patrols, open lines of sight, and no good places to hide. But those things are easy to find in blighted neighborhoods due to DLS #1

Re: Urban Planner Here (Part 2)

[chasingtides]

I'm having a lot of trouble getting past your victim blaming in here and I can only think that we're reading very different articles.

Re: Urban Planner Here (Part 2)

[brother_dour]

I'm referencing Elijah Anderson, yes. And one of the biggest criticisms of his work is exactly that

[babysinclair]

This is literally down the street from my house. Honestly it's worse 10 blocks north.

[brother_dour]

I think it is probably difficult to really understand what things are like in the really poverty-stricken inner-city neighborhoods if you haven't not just visited there, but spent a lot of time there. I've seen some really poor areas, but I cannot honestly say I have ever been in the worst of them in the U.S.

Referring back to Reynosa: as poor as those areas are, they were a lot safer than a bad inner-city area in the U.S. for a couple of reasons. One, most people were literally too poor to have anything worth stealing or even to afford drugs themselves (although there was some drug use). Two, there was little gang activity in the colonias we worked in, and those few gangs there were didn't mess with the mission works. We even met some of the local branches of the Gulf Cartel who knew the pastor: they were actually very respectful toward and grateful for mission work.

But yeah. I admit I haven't ever seen the really bad areas like the article mentions, and that probably affects how perfect my understanding of them is.

[babysinclair]

I lived in Point Breeze in South Philly, a homeless shelter in North Philly, and this park is across the street from my house and it's not as pearl clutchy as this article is making it out to be.

I've heard less gunshots up here in 9 months than the 2 years I lived in Point Breeze.

But you won't catch me walking around that side of Front Street as a precaution because I don't know what to expect some nights but at the same time you couldn't pay me enough to live at Kensington and Allegheny area or Frankford by Margret-Orthodox Station.

Philly is a hot mess but it comes down to the failing of the government not the people who live there. Because no matter how shitty or scary a neighborhood is, it comes down to what your block is like. My block captain scared away all the hookers and corner boys and has a camera installed in his window to look down the block.

[brother_dour]

Why Philly is a hot mess is an entirely different urban planning discussion!

[archanglrobriel]

WOW. Thank you so much for posting this here. I'm a psych grad student and one of my areas of focus/specialization is PTSD. I've been focusing on veterans and trauma survivors (in a sort of general way) but I hadn't thought to widen my focus to encompass the kinds of trauma survivors whose circumstances place them in a culture of trauma and traumatized people in the way that this article describes. I'm keeping this article for future research purposes and I'm going through the EXCELLENT comments to gather all the other article recommendations and book recommendations for further exploration.

[that_therapist]

I literally just started as a Psychology undergraduate this week, and I think this is a really good area of study to look into. Best of luck to you! :D