I recently relocated from Temple University area to Manayunk, Philadelphia. There were a few reasons for this move, not one of them being how much "North Philly sucks," etc. I actually enjoyed my time at Temple, and while I have a year left before graduation, I never thought I was unhappy living in a nice apartment off Broad Street. We had plenty of space, I had two great roommates, and the walk to campus was convenient and nice. I did have some qualms with parking, not wanting to go out after dark (ha), and occassionally worrying about safety issues... but I was always reassured by the vicinity of our Temple police and the neighborhood watch guy, Tom. We had a drunk driver plough into our street once, but nothing really bad ever happened on our block. So when people would call it the "ghetto" and be hesitant to visit me, I would just shake my head and reply, "It's really not that bad."
HOWEVER, just a few weeks before I was set to leave the area for good, with mixed emotions of sadness and excitement, our apartment was robbed. My one roommate had moved out, the other at work, and I was in New Jersey for a graduation party. I'm just glad no one was there when they cut the screens on our windows, broke through the safety bars, and took any and all valuable electronic equipment from our home. Ashley and I lost three laptops, two mp3 players, a digital camera, a graphics tablet, and an internet router that evening. It's creepy to think that they may have been watching us.
Seriously? We are college students, so it's not like we have a lot to begin with, and these things that make up our lives were hard-earned and PERSONAL items. The value I assign to my own laptop far exceeded its $600 resale value, because of photos (thank goodness all my abroad photos are online already), music, programs, and personalization I had in place over the year I had owned it. My mp3 player was not only a music-playing device, but my inspiration to work out, with a fully-loaded exercise playlist. I had started on a workout binge as weather was getting nicer, and ran the track two blocks from our apartment regularly before the break-in. For the two weeks after that I did not even want to be around North Philly. So I lost and mp3 player but also my MO to go out and get exercise. My digital camera was not only a few-hundred-dollar-picture-capturing device, but weeks worth of memories, including some great shots of my new boyfriend and I and a picture with a friend who had come up from Virginia for the Penn relays. Money just can't replace that kind of thing.
So as much as I enjoyed my few years in North Philly, it came to a sour end because of the ill-will of some little hoodlums who fit through a back kitchen window and never learned to respect other people's personal property. Cowards. You just counteract any good that people like Tom and Temple police and university professionals and MYSELF try to bring to this town. I won't be coming back any time soon, and I hope you make lots of money reselling my digital camera that I have the charger for, and the graphics tablet that you forgot the graphic pen for. Good luck in life suckers.
On a happy note, I started my internship full-time, and am now enjoying the scenery of a much friendlier Manayunk. I hope everyone is having a great summer, especially the FUNemployed. Take care!
