Fishtown

By Donna Cooper In his new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 , Charles Murray uses Fishtown as a prototypical white, lower-class community in decline. Philadelphians know Fishtown as one of a few city neighborhoods attracting urban hipsters and young families. Where Sanka was once considered gourmet, La Colombe is now widely sold. I should know; I've lived in Fishtown for 27 years. An earlier book that Murray cowrote, The Bell Curve , was roundly criticized for its flawed conclusion that blacks are on average less intelligent than whites.

I'VE JUST READ one of the most positive, well-written Daily News letters of all time: "A Celebration of Fishtown " (Aug. 7). I couldn't agree with Mr. Kilpatrick more. Do I live in Fishtown? No, not yet. My family is moving there at the end of the month, and we made our decision based on many of the points this neighborhood son brings up. We knew for years that Fishtown was a solid, family-oriented, working-class neighborhood with quality people. We now live in Fairmount, another great city neighborhood whose residents have many friends and family in Fishtown.

I was intrigued by Monica Yant Kinney's column "City line serves as dividing line" (Inquirer, Nov. 6) but also confused by the statement, "The droves fleeing Fishtown for Flourtown... " While I know Kinney probably used this as a metaphor for urban flight to the suburbs, I can't imagine a more inaccurate one. Fishtown is probably one of the strongest neighborhoods in the city. It did not experience "white flight" in the 1950s, and it hasn't to this day. I am not talking about it being one of the strongest Philadelphia neighborhoods, but one of the strongest in America.

Coming Apart, the book I published a few months ago, tracks the cultural divergences in America's classes from 1960 to 2010, focusing on whites as a way of getting people to understand that the problems I describe aren't driven by minorities. I used Belmont, an affluent Boston suburb, as my label for the white upper middle class, and Fishtown, referring to Philadelphia's own Fishtown, one of the oldest white working-class communities in America, as my label for the white working class.

A crowd of angry Fishtown residents booed Mayor Rendell last night as he left an ecumenical prayer service intended to promote racial tolerance in the neighborhood. "You're not my mayor," several shouted at Rendell as he finished addressing the audience inside the East Baptist Church. Many complained that neither Rendell nor Councilman Joe Vignola had visited the neighborhood to hear residents' complaints about increasing crime and violence. About 100 residents had gathered spontaneously outside the church - about the same number as those who were attending the service inside - after word spread that Fishtown was being bad-mouthed as racist.

George Leisenring was 26, a German immigrant living alone in Fishtown, working as a blacksmith, when President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for volunteers to defend the nation's capital. Virginia had just seceded from the union. Leisenring boarded a train at Broad Street and Washington Avenue with 1,200 others on April 19, 1861. Lacking both uniforms and weapons, the regiment made it only to Baltimore's President Street Station, where a mob of secessionists attacked its train.

A 28-year-old Fishtown man has been charged with two bank robberies in Northeast Philadelphia, police said Tuesday. Brandon Shields was arrested Monday at an apartment complex in Wynnewood by members of the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force and Lower Merion police. Shields, of the 1100 block of East Eyre Street, allegedly robbed a PNC Bank at 6855 Frankford Ave. on Dec. 7 and a Citizens Bank at 6537 Castor Ave. on Jan. 6. - Robert Moran

MARYELISE DOYNE told a packed courtroom yesterday about the early-morning robbery attempt by two men on a Fishtown street that ended with her boyfriend of 2 1/2 years being shot dead on Nov. 13. One man - later identified as Ryan McMunus of Kensington - had a gun, she said during a preliminary hearing, and the other pulled up his T-shirt to cover part of his face. In court she identified the second man as Richard Smith, 19, of Fishtown. Doyne said her boyfriend, Shane Kelly, 27, of Mayfair, argued with the robbers and told them, "If you're going to shoot me, shoot me. " She called police and stopped a passing female motorist at Thompson and Berks streets, and asked for help.

EDWARD John Staniszewski called himself a saver of soles. Yes, soles. What you have on the bottom of your shoes. Needless to say, Edward was a shoemaker. But not only a shoemaker. Edward Staniszewski was a legendary figure in Fishtown, where his Star Shoe Service, at 311 E. Girard Ave., kept businesspeople, lawyers, judges, politicians, celebrities, cops, firefighters and ordinary citizens well-shod for more than 60 years. As his son-in-law, Eric W. Herr, wrote in an obituary, Edward and his wife "became permanently woven into the rich tapestry of the Fishtown community.

PHILLY-NATIVE RAPPER Eve returns to town Wednesday for a free show at the tiny Kung Fu Necktie (1250 N. Front) in Fishtown. The 6-to-8 p.m. party is presented by Reebok Classics and marks the first local performance for the hip-hop and former sitcom star in quite a while. Her last public appearance in the area was for a Jill Scott video shoot last year. To attend, submit your name at tinyurl.com/evekfn . If you're selected, you will hear back from event organizers. Geno's inspires book The famous sticker from late Geno's Steaks owner Joey Vento — "This is America: When Ordering Please Speak English" — has inspired a book.

A deeply offensive comparison I found the commentary "Film's dystopia rings familiar" (Friday) deeply offensive. To compare President Obama's administration, which is trying to bring better health care to all of our citizens and to prevent banks from using our savings in very risky financial deals, to a regime that requires children to kill each other is beyond the pale. It is on the same level as those who have called Obama a Hitler. The author seems to have a searing personal hatred for Obama, not a reasoned argument against his policies.

Coming Apart, the book I published a few months ago, tracks the cultural divergences in America's classes from 1960 to 2010, focusing on whites as a way of getting people to understand that the problems I describe aren't driven by minorities. I used Belmont, an affluent Boston suburb, as my label for the white upper middle class, and Fishtown, referring to Philadelphia's own Fishtown, one of the oldest white working-class communities in America, as my label for the white working class.

The case of a fired Philadelphia police officer on trial for allegedly beating up a female friend took a strange twist Tuesday when a witness had to be brought to court in handcuffs and a damaging phone message was played for the jury. James Kanagie, a lifelong friend of defendant Damien Walto, 32, was arrested Monday and brought to court yesterday on a bench warrant signed by trial judge Willis Berry Jr. after he failed to show up on his own. Kanagie's testimony against his Fishtown buddy got even more interesting when he mentioned that Walto had contacted him by phone to discuss what he would say in court.

THOMAS JOHN LEDERER had his hands full with all those kids. There were his own six children, followed by 16 grandchildren, not to mention nieces and nephews - and even neighborhood youngsters, for whom he was a surrogate father. But Tom loved it. He never lost his zest for living or his optimistic attitude. If you asked him how he was doing, he'd invariably say, "I never had a bad day. " Tom Lederer, a retired surveyor for the city Water Department who helped run water lines across many Philadelphia parks, a lover of nature who planted gardens in his neighborhood and who taught the kids to look at the stars, collapsed and died Thursday behind the wheel of his car on I-95, south of Savannah, Ga. He was driving back to Philly from Cocoa Beach, Fla. His wife of 56 years, the former Rita Lavery, took the wheel and guided the car safely across four lanes of traffic to the side of the highway.

The renowned and controversial conservative scholar Charles Murray has identified the wellspring of all that ails poor white America, and wouldn't you just know, it's in Philadelphia. Fishtown, to be precise; the once-healthy waterfront community east of the El that, over the last 50 years, devolved into a rare white urban ghetto. The residents of Murray's Fishtown - particularly its adult men - are such a godless, shiftless, morally bankrupt bunch that he serves them up as a metaphor for the social decline of white working-class America.

RE: "For Olney Wife, a Ghastly Find" : This article sheds light on the senseless acts of violence plaguing our society. I have lived in Philadelphia for more than 30 years. I would have never foreseen the "City of Brotherly Love" to be as violent as it is. The article sent chills through my spine. It made me realize just how cold and murderous people have become. One can only imagine the pain this poor woman is feeling. The thought of coming home to find your spouse murdered is devastating.

By Donna Cooper In his new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 , Charles Murray uses Fishtown as a prototypical white, lower-class community in decline. Philadelphians know Fishtown as one of a few city neighborhoods attracting urban hipsters and young families. Where Sanka was once considered gourmet, La Colombe is now widely sold. I should know; I've lived in Fishtown for 27 years. An earlier book that Murray cowrote, The Bell Curve , was roundly criticized for its flawed conclusion that blacks are on average less intelligent than whites.

IN HIS new book, "Coming Apart," sociologist Charles Murray does for working-class whites what he did for poor blacks in his 1984 book, "Losing Ground. " He blames them for their own troubles. And this time it's personal. To make his argument, Murray creates a fictional, white working- class area that he names Fishtown after the real Philadelphia neighborhood. Once the home of hard-working men and the families they supported, the current Fishtown is inhabited by male slackers who no longer want to work hard.

Cops seek suspect in armed robberies * Luzerne Street near K A surveillance camera recorded a man who is wanted in a string of armed robberies, and police are asking for help from the public to identify and arrest him. The man robbed a store at gunpoint on Frankford Avenue near Venango Street, in Kensington, on Nov. 2, police said. On Nov. 20, police said, the man robbed a Dunkin' Donuts on Girard Avenue near Berks Street, in Fishtown. He pulled a gun on employees, demanded money from the register and ran off with about $300, police said.