Noah Auston

Prof. Moulder

ENG1000C

2/23/14

Community In Crisis Narrative: City Of Brotherly Love?

As I indulge in earlier stages of my childhood, I stop to consider the negative effects on my early life having grown up in a crime-ridden neighborhood in Philadelphia. Luckily, for my city’s sake, the look and feel of the neighborhoods have changed substantially and the crime rate has improved remarkably. Philadelphia wasn’t a very positive place to live about 10 years ago, during the years 2004-2008; there was a dramatic spike in gun related crimes. I experienced this firsthand, along with a lot of my friends. I remember hearing plenty members of the community talk about it with my parents and being concerned because I had to walk through the toughest parts of South Philadelphia each day on my way to and from school. But what really scared me were the summer nights when I couldn’t stay out too late for fear of being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A casual stroll to the neighborhood drug store could turn deadly if you didn’t walk with a quick pace, or if you felt the need to linger around a crowded corner too long. “Please try not to take too long heading to the store Noah”, my dad would say, almost begging me, out of fear of what could happen. I became all too familiar with the thick smell of gun smoke in the air while walking to school, and I was actually pretty excited when I would find bullet casings when walking home. Growing up in that kind of neighborhood, it was pretty easy for kids my age to view gangs as a kind of family and look up to them. Gangs would have you believe that they loved the neighborhood, and they were there for you. A lot of older kids in the neighborhood who were then, about the same age I am now, would join gangs because their real family situation was dysfunctional. There were also other