We Can Go Either Way

 

I bristle when people I know from other parts of the country ask me if I feel safe in Philadelphia. When grisly criminal activity makes the national news, it creates a skewed perception of the day-to-day in our fair town. While I respect the concern, I need to squelch the assumption that is borne of an anti-urban bias or something even worse. I have to remember that people have different preferences, and the things I like vs. the things that don't bother me as much mean that I am going to like and be more comfortable in an urban setting than many of my friends and family members.

But that does not mean that my tie to my adopted city is sacrosanct. I owe this great city so much, have given and gained so much, and ride hard for the place in every facet of my life. But it doesn't mean I'm not still a consumer who has choices, and is more than willing to choose differently for myself and for my family. 

I recognize that my privileged state does not apply to many. But that is the point about cities in this present pregnant moment. Many people do have choices, and places need to be destinations of choice in order to thrive. Because once people leave it becomes a slippery slope to more depopulation. We can go either way right now in Philadelphia, as with many other cities on the razor's edge of booming economic opportunity and equitable participation in it on the one hand, and a return to the death spiral of the 70's and 80's and early 90's on the other hand.

Nuisance crimes and more severe ones hit a little bit close to home, and all of a sudden families with choices start to exercise those choices. A two-year-long pandemic has robbed our downtown of the steady flow of commuters whose aggregate numbers make possible mass transit, a vibrant set of retail and restaurant choices, and the sense of safety and vitality that come when city streets are full of people. I still predict and hope for recovery, but I am sobered at the possibility - which is right in front of my face at times as I walk about - of blight and abandonment and decline.

We can go either way. I could be excited or I could be devastated. So I'm rolling up my sleeves. But I'm also worried.