“The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.” - Thomas Sowell
By Jim Quinn of TheBurningPlatform.com - May 7, 2024
Over the last few weeks there have been a couple mornings where the Schuylkill Expressway was jammed and I had to take my alternative route through the 30 Blocks of Squalor. I hadn’t had this inspiring dystopian experience all summer. There is nothing like West Philly when the punks, punkettes, and future prison convicts finish a summer of not working, not reading, and not picking up the trash in their neighborhoods, go back to West Philly High and not learn again. The observations will be rehashed in a stream of consciousness format, as West Philly is a smorgasbord of squalor, sordidness, filth, apathy, crime and epic government incompetence.
As I inched my way down West Chester Pike in heavy traffic towards the 30 Blocks of Squalor I was seeking signs of the economic revival I keep hearing about from the mainstream media talking heads and our Make America Great Again president. Despite my efforts to see signs of an improving economic situation I witnessed a further deterioration of the suburban landscape.
More businesses have closed. More bars and restaurants are shuttered. More space available signs have sprung up on commercial properties. More unfilled potholes are proliferating on the highways. A once thriving Dairy Queen sits empty, slowly putrefying, just like the neighborhood surrounding it. The lights are mistimed at 69th Street, causing unnecessary traffic gridlock. Exasperated drivers trying to survive another commute to their soul crushing office jobs either fume silently or check the twitter feed on their iGadget. The people on the streets shuffling toward the ancient decrepit subway trains, smelling of urine and BO, look like they could be extras on The Walking Dead.
It is interesting the largest commercial footprint at 69th Street is occupied by our beloved Federal government. It seems putting Army, Navy, and Marine recruitment centers all next to each other in the heart of one of the poorest areas in Pennsylvania is good for business. Nothing like luring low IQ boys with no job prospects into the military as cannon fodder for the military industrial complex. They’ve reduced the mental and physical requirements for recruits to such an extent, any mouth breather can make the grade. It does make you wonder how well our military would really perform against the Russians and/or Chinese.
Once I made it through the Milbourne speed trap and crossed the county line into Filthadelphia, the low-lights began to proliferate at a breakneck pace. As you navigate the 30 Blocks of Squalor beneath the Market/Frankfort El you can’t help wondering whether this is actually America or some third world hell hole city in Iraq or Syria. Along this boulevard of broken dreams, decay, debris, dilapidation and delusion rule the day. You are more likely to see a cop car than you are a woman with a wedding ring or a kid being walked to school by his father.
Words can’t possibly describe the level of foulness you experience driving from Cobbs Creek Parkway to 40th Street along Market St. The filth and squalor is rampant on every block. The few businesses operating must barely scrape by or are subsidized by taxpayer dollars extracted by the government. The employees must fear for their lives on a daily basis, as gunfire rings out on these blocks regularly. You look at the collapsing boarded hovels along this stretch of squalor and are convinced no one could possibly live there, and then you see the Direct TV satellite dish on the roof.
At 7:15 am on a weekday morning every business has their roll down metal gates fully engaged. In a civilized community where citizens abide by social mores of behavior, there is no need for roll down gates, barbed wire on fences, bars on windows, or an overwhelming police presence. West Philly has descended into a lawless, disgusting shithole where young male thugs and gangbangers operate outside the law like savages. The people who live here don’t care about there community as garbage piles up on their sidewalks, bullet holes are common in plate glass windows, and they somehow manage to all have the latest iPhone and Lebron sneakers.
It’s hard to comprehend the degradation of this community without seeing it in person. The putrification of this community continues unabated. Obama campaigned under the Market Frankford El in 2008, promising revitalization. The Obama 2009 porkulus plan poured millions into building low income housing and unnecessary zoo parking garages in order to keep his union vote firmly in hand.
In 2014 he declared the Mantua section a “Promise Zone”, promising more of your tax dollars to people unwilling and incapable of pulling themselves out of squalor. I’ve driven through these mean streets every day during this entire timeframe. I can guarantee you there has been absolutely no revitalization. Phony promises from a phony president and he got 103% of the votes in Mantua.
The poverty rate and true unemployment rate in these West Philly neighborhoods exceed 50%. Over 80% of the children are born out of wedlock. The crime rate is off the charts. The residents are functionally illiterate and completely dependent on the state for their sustenance. Drug dealing is the main form of commerce. There are as many vacant boarded up, dilapidated, crumbling fleapits as there are occupied eyesores. I’ve witnessed some of these pigsties fall down after a heavy rain. The steady deterioration of West Philly continues unabated as Democrat welfare policies encourage dependency, ignorance, sloth, and depravity.
Sink holes appear and are ignored for months by the less than pro-active government drones. They dig holes to fix whatever sewer or water line has broken underground, but feel no obligation to refill the holes. Gaping chasms in the middle of streets remain for months, as incompetent, uncaring, union government workers and their bureaucrat paper pushing apparatchik bosses care more about their gold plated pension plans and retaining their bennies than serving the public. Exploding water mains flood entire neighborhoods on a regular basis as city taxes are funneled to corrupt politicians and their cronies, rather than basic infrastructure needs.
On a recent morning trek, as I approached 49th street, I started to see high school students shuffling towards the six year old 170,000 square foot West Philly High School. With a cost exceeding $20 million, high tech labs, two gyms, all of the latest teaching accouterments, and a low 15 to 1 student to teacher ratio, it surely must be a shining example of liberal educational excellence in action. Even that shining beacon of liberalism, Hillary Clinton, held a rally at this school last year. At least they made a good decision in making all the students wear a uniform – white shirts, tan pants, and ties. But, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it doesn’t make it a runway model . . .
[SNIP]
