There was an accident on the Schuykill Expressway yesterday morning, so I was forced to detour through the 30 blocks of squalor from 69th Street to 39th Street in West Phila. As most of the old timers on this site know, I have commented about this stretch of paradise on numerous occasions. If you are new to the site, you can take a refresher course:
http://theburningplatform.com/blog/2010/03/17/30-blocks-of-squalor-pothole-update/
http://theburningplatform.com/blog/2010/04/12/spring-has-sprung-on-the-30-blocks-of-squalor/
http://theburningplatform.com/blog/2010/07/15/30-blocks-of-squalor-summer-edition/
Our good friend David Pierre likes to use these posts as proof that I’m a racist. I challenge anyone to drive this same stretch of squalor and disagree with my observations. At the end of this post I have included the actual US Census data for this neighborhood, so that you can see that I’m not exaggerating. Key takeaways from the Census data:
- It is 93.7% black and 2.8% white. So much for integration.
- There are 17,000 housing units (if you can call them that), with 48% rented and 17% vacant.
- The median home value is $37,000. The housing boom seems to have side stepped West Philly.
- Only 65% have graduated from HS and the median income is $21,000. I wonder it there is a correlation?
- Only 8% have gotten a college degree versus 24% of the country.
- Only 23% of females are married versus 52% in the US
- Almost 30% are disabled versus 19% of the US
- Individuals below the poverty line is 31% versus 12% in the US
The unemployment rate for the city of Phila is 11.2%. The unemployment rate for black people far exceeds that of white people. The national unemployment rate for black people is 15.6% versus 8.6% for white people and 7.3% for Asians. There are 28.7 million black people of working age in the US. Only 15.1 million of these people are employed. This means that a full 49% of all black people of working age are not working. They are members of the FREE SHIT ARMY that relentlessly marches forward and demands more free shit from those of us who are employed.
The truth is, that as I observe the shiftless dregs lurking on the street corners along the 30 Blocks of Squalor, the vast majority are completely unemployable. This “community” of Obamanista gangstas (surely voted 99.8% Obama in 2008) has no intentions of working harder in school, marrying the women they knock up, opening a business, or looking for a job. They demand that Obama spread our wealth around to them. I’m positive that millions in welfare checks, food stamps, and SS disability payments flow into this neighborhood every month. They live in relative squalor, but they have no incentive to better their conditions. It’s good enough and they don’t have to do shit on a daily basis. Plus, you can make some nice money dealing drugs to 12 year olds.
You can pave the streets, but it does nothing to change the people. Their houses are falling apart. There are weeds growing from every crevice of their cracked broken sidewalks. The schools look like prison deathcamps, with bars on every window. Murals depict black glory, but the streets look like every day is trash day. After years of observation, I’ve yet to see a famished poor person in West Philly. Crackheads yes, starving children no. The good news is that despite having homes worth $37,000 and annual incomes of $21,000, the FREE SHIT ARMY are able to drive Cadillac Escalades, BMW 350s, Jaguars, and Mercedes. What a great country we have.
The only difference between the 30 Blocks of Squalor during the winter versus yesterday, when the temperature was 95 degrees, was the smell.
GLORIOUS DEPICTIONS OF WEST PHILLY
| General Characteristics – show more >> | Number | Percent | U.S. | ||
| Total population | 43,866 | map | brief | ||
| Male | 19,204 | 43.8 | 49.1% | map | brief |
| Female | 24,662 | 56.2 | 50.9% | map | brief |
| Median age (years) | 35.0 | (NYSE:X) | 35.3 | map | brief |
| Under 5 years | 3,076 | 7.0 | 6.8% | map | |
| 18 years and over | 31,272 | 71.3 | 74.3% | ||
| 65 years and over | 7,035 | 16.0 | 12.4% | map | brief |
| One race | 43,161 | 98.4 | 97.6% | ||
| White | 1,215 | 2.8 | 75.1% | map | brief |
| Black or African American | 41,110 | 93.7 | 12.3% | map | brief |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 130 | 0.3 | 0.9% | map | brief |
| Asian | 477 | 1.1 | 3.6% | map | brief |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander | 12 | 0.0 | 0.1% | map | brief |
| Some other race | 217 | 0.5 | 5.5% | map | |
| Two or more races | 705 | 1.6 | 2.4% | map | brief |
| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) | 522 | 1.2 | 12.5% | map | brief |
| Household population | 43,048 | 98.1 | 97.2% | map | brief |
| Group quarters population | 818 | 1.9 | 2.8% | map | |
| Average household size | 2.47 | (X) | 2.59 | map | brief |
| Average family size | 3.23 | (X) | 3.14 | map | |
| Total housing units | 21,119 | map | |||
| Occupied housing units | 17,443 | 82.6 | 91.0% | brief | |
| Owner-occupied housing units | 9,128 | 52.3 | 66.2% | map | |
| Renter-occupied housing units | 8,315 | 47.7 | 33.8% | map | brief |
| Vacant housing units | 3,676 | 17.4 | 9.0% | map | |
| Population 25 years and over | 27,231 | ||||
| High school graduate or higher | 17,606 | 64.7 | 80.4% | map | brief |
| Bachelor’s degree or higher | 2,125 | 7.8 | 24.4% | map | |
| Civilian veterans (civilian population 18 years and over) | 3,812 | 12.2 | 12.7% | map | brief |
| Disability status (population 5 years and over) | 11,942 | 29.6 | 19.3% | map | brief |
| Foreign born | 1,849 | 4.2 | 11.1% | map | brief |
| Male, Now married, except separated (population 15 years and over) | 4,240 | 31.0 | 56.7% | brief | |
| Female, Now married, except separated (population 15 years and over) | 4,474 | 22.7 | 52.1% | brief | |
| Speak a language other than English at home (population 5 years and over) | 2,465 | 6.0 | 17.9% | map | brief |
| In labor force (population 16 years and over) | 16,144 | 49.4 | 63.9% | brief | |
| Mean travel time to work in minutes (workers 16 years and older) | 38.8 | (X) | 25.5 | map | brief |
| Median household income in 1999 (dollars) | 21,329 | (X) | 41,994 | map | |
| Median family income in 1999 (dollars) | 26,572 | (X) | 50,046 | map | |
| Per capita income in 1999 (dollars) | 12,195 | (X) | 21,587 | map | |
| Families below poverty level | 2,868 | 27.3 | 9.2% | map | brief |
| Individuals below poverty level | 13,650 | 31.5 | 12.4% | map | |
| Single-family owner-occupied homes | 8,177 | brief | |||
| Median value (dollars) | 36,600 | (X) | 119,600 | map | brief |
| Median of selected monthly owner costs | (X) | (X) | brief | ||
| With a mortgage (dollars) | 645 | (X) | 1,088 | map | |
| Not mortgaged (dollars) | 275 | (X) |
