City Life

Try St. Joseph's University Gallery on the Lower Merion side of City Line Avenue near the new pedestrian bridge overpass. Blaise Tobia's photographs star there in his first solo show in our region. These pictures are mostly about our basic experiences of city life with its rational enough buildings and artifacts and its unreasonable emotions. Pictures based on emotionally loaded memories often have an oddly insistent intimacy that underscores their natural poignance. Tobia, who is in his sixth year teaching photography at Drexel University, travels back and forth between his Old City residence and his home in Brooklyn.

Used to be that any Philadelphian worth his pretzel salt wouldn't let nobody get away with nothin'. Not anymore. As more and more innocent bystanders are being used as target practice by thugs, drug fiends and crazies, the assertiveness that came with a Philadelphia ZIP Code is quickly wilting. Bravado and bluster are turning to blubber. Ask just about any native, from the Northeast to South Philadelphia, and they'll tell you their new life's motto: Proud to be a patsy. Much of this new caution stems from the growing sense that anyone can be attacked at any time for any reason.

There's a twinkle in her eye when Sarah Maxwell explains that she "upsized" her living space recently. After a July move, the place she calls home went from 700 square feet to an expansive 800 square feet. She insists she really doesn't need all the extra space. Maxwell, a retired Fordham University professor, earnestly believes small is beautiful. And she is living out that credo as an urban pioneer at Philadelphia's Riverfront condominiums on South Front Street. She was the first person to occupy one of 20 units set aside for seniors in the complex, which also has 20 units for non-seniors, bringing together older and younger generations under one roof and creating a mixed-age "community" within the downtown area.

Anyone running for mayor should read this. I consider myself a Philadelphian-in-exile. I was born and raised in Philadelphia, and although I love the city very much I haven't lived in Philly for many years. Why? Because of the astronomical wage tax. Recently, I was considering a return to city life, but I decided not to. Instead of succumbing to the outrageous tax, I remain exiled in the outskirts. My current wage tax is $302 per annum as opposed to Philadelphia's $1,479. This was the sole basis of my decision.

ANYONE WHO wants to understand Aristotle's "Politics" (and that's everyone who cares about living the good life) need only spend some time at the Palumbo Recreation Center. Aristotle offers a theory of human nature that few people believe anymore. He claims that people have a basic instinct to associate, creating cities in the process. Indeed, his famous summary definition of a human being is "the political animal. " The challenging part of Aristotle's argument is that the city creates the individual.

Exactly who is this Kansas company that does yearly rankings on what cities are the most dangerous and the safest in the United States? I was appalled to wake up and see the ticker tape on "Good Morning America" and to read again in the Daily News (Nov. 22) that the very city where Walt Whitman's final resting place stands leads the nation as the most dangerous city. I really don't know what's going on concerning crime in Atlanta, St. Louis or Gary, Ind. Cities where large populations of minorities live need more than just survival surveys from an organization that probably hadn't visited them.

Camden residents are being urged to attend the city's first-ever summit on public safety tomorrow on the campus of Rutgers University. Representatives from city law enforcement and government, educators, and business and religious leaders are expected to attend, said Bill Shralow, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. "We see this as an opportunity for the community - people from all different segments of city life - to define their roles in a comprehensive effort to fight crime in Camden," he said.

If you've ever been kept awake RUFF! by a RUFF!RUFF! dog serenading the moon RUFF! RUFF! while you're trying to saw logs, you can understand how insanely annoyRUFF!RUFF! RUFF!RUFF!ing the steady yap of RUFF!RUFF!RUFF! barking can be. (Almost RUFF! as RUFF! annoying as RUFF!RUFF! reading this sentence.) So, two paws up for Councilman Jim Kenney's bill to curb dogs and other pets' ability to infringe on their human neighbors' peace and quality of life. The bill would extend current animal health and noise codes to include private property.

EXACTLY who is that Kansas company that does yearly rankings on what cities are the most dangerous and which are the safest in the U.S.? I was appalled to see the ticker on "Good Morning America" and read in the City/Region section of the Daily News that the very city where Walt Whitman's final resting place stands is the nation's most dangerous. I really don't know what's going on concerning crime in Atlanta, St. Louis or Gary, Ind. But because I'm so courteous, I won't bring up the topic of crime and danger as it relates to danger in the City of Brotherly Love.

Most Philadelphians wish they weren't. Nearly 60 percent of the Philadelphia residents polled in a recent survey say they would not want to be living in the city in the next year or two. And more than half of the 900 people surveyed said city living in 10 to 15 years would be worse than or about the same as it is now. Philadelphians do have an addytude. And it's not very upbeat, says Temple University pollster Michael Hooper, who conducted the survey in March. "Feelings about Philadelphia are negative and pessimistic," said Hooper, a political science professor who has conducted several citywide surveys over the years, most different from this one. "These answers reflect some serious problems.

A partnership aimed at removing some of the ocean of pavement that surrounds too many of the living and work spaces in Philadelphia is a welcome sign of environmental progress for the city. A groundbreaking ceremony planned for Thursday will officially kick off the second phase of the Green 2015 Action Plan, whose goal is to add 500 acres of parkland to city neighborhoods by "depaving" them. The partnership, which includes the Philadelphia Water Department, the city Department of Parks and Recreation, the Trust for Public Land, and the Mural Arts Program, hopes to locate at least a patch of parkland — grass, trees, perhaps a few park benches — within a 10-minute walk of anywhere in the city.

There's a twinkle in her eye when Sarah Maxwell explains that she "upsized" her living space recently. After a July move, the place she calls home went from 700 square feet to an expansive 800 square feet. She insists she really doesn't need all the extra space. Maxwell, a retired Fordham University professor, earnestly believes small is beautiful. And she is living out that credo as an urban pioneer at Philadelphia's Riverfront condominiums on South Front Street. She was the first person to occupy one of 20 units set aside for seniors in the complex, which also has 20 units for non-seniors, bringing together older and younger generations under one roof and creating a mixed-age "community" within the downtown area.

While it's not always readily apparent, Philadelphia was located here because of its rivers. The city streets were laid out as a grid linking one river, the Delaware, to the other, the Schuylkill. In the early days, the riverfronts served as common areas for public use and enjoyment. They also became gateways of commerce and industry, helping Philadelphia grow. But as manufacturing declined in the second half of the 20th century, large swaths of the rivers' banks fell into neglect, creating a physical and psychological barrier between citizens and the riverfronts.

For 24 years, Philadelphia's annual professional bike race has promoted the city's vibrancy to the rest of the world. No section of the city has a bigger claim on the race than Manayunk, where a short, steep portion of the 14.4-mile course is legendary to cyclists as "The Wall. " Devoted fans in Manayunk sell hot dogs, hold day-long parties, and shower grateful racers with a sprinkler hose. It's one of the premier bike races in the country, with an international cast of riders and a route that also showcases the Ben Franklin Parkway and Fairmount Park.

Frozen in black and white, his hands shoulder high and clutching a cutoff broomstick, he could be any working-class boy who ever grew up in Philadelphia. "Boy playing stickball, C. 1950" reads the tag next to his picture at a photo exhibit that opened yesterday in Center City at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. The photo of the nameless boy is one among 52 pictures in "Philadelphia Stories," an exhibit that seeks to convey the feel of Philadelphia neighborhood life - much of it immigrant games, shops, food, worship sites - from the late 19th century to the present.

On the first chilly day of spring, my husband, Ira, our son Michael, and I had to say goodbye to our 12-year-old dog. We cried at his passing, knowing he had chronic lung disease, but not expecting to lose him so soon. Now, without him, I realize that, aside from the unconditional love they offer their owners, dogs make a special contribution to city life. They drag you out walking several times a day, and once outside, you talk to your neighbors and exchange pleasantries with strangers.

When we put the key in the door of our new home nearly two years ago, we literally got a shock. My partner, Nicholas, turned on the basement light, which greeted him with a spark. "Welcome to home ownership," said the neighborhood electrician, who surprisingly answered our emergency call. "Now you need to become one with the house," he added, placing his palm against the kitchen cabinet and closing his eyes during a meditative chant. After that, he told us the best local hangout for all-you-can-eat spaghetti night - my family's old pizza joint, close to my childhood home in a nearby neighborhood decades ago. In this new context, revisiting these familiar spots - and passing my old high school - is still a time-warping experience.

It took me a while to warm to sidewalk dining in Philadelphia; our city's hustle and bustle seemed such an odd backdrop for lunch or dinner. Before the late '90s, dining al fresco meant reservations in a quiet enclosed courtyard, new-green leaves forming a natural lattice against the summer sky and candles glowing softly in the deepening twilight. But sidewalk dining introduced a different feel - tables plunked in the middle of urban life at its busiest. "Let's see if we can grab a table outside," my husband, Ira, suggested one Friday evening when cafe tables first appeared on the sidewalks around Rittenhouse Square.

FROM THE JUMP, the top mayoral campaign issue has been how to reduce crime and violence. Often it's a tried and true political campaign chestnut: "I'll be tough on crime, blah, blah, blah. " Well, who wouldn't make such a promise and still expect to win? But this year in Philadelphia, the political rhetoric is rooted in the blood- soaked soil of reality - 406 murders in 2006, the highest number in 10 years. And 2007 looks no better. As of Jan. 26, there had been 28 homicides, four more than the same period last year.

Jessica McKelvey spent much of her childhood in a small, southern Pennsylvania town where her friends and neighbors were white, where holiday parades down Main Street were led by the high school marching band, and where the Loyal Order of Moose Lodge ran basket bingo nights. "Real country," she said. So inner-city Philadelphia was not high on her list of places to pursue a teaching career until her adviser at Indiana University of Pennsylvania suggested it. Now, the 23-year-old can't imagine teaching any place other than Moffet Elementary, a feisty little school surrounded by worn-down factories and vacant lots in Kensington.