get on it today if you can

The worst neighborhood I have ever been to in my life was in North Philly, Kensington aka Badlands area. Cambria Street/Lehigh St. I think it was. I could not believe people actually exist and live in a neighborhood that bad. Every other building was boarded up, burned out, or falling down. Never seen anything like that anywhere, NYC (including South Bronx), Newark, Baltimore, even Camden. It makes Compton/Watts look like a nice quiet Palm treed, middle class suburb.
Sad thing is my grandparents were raised in Kensington many years ago. People were as poor as now there but it used to be a very nice safe area.

 

I work in Hampden. It's really not bad. Lived in the south part of Fed Hill for 3 years -- lot's of petty crime but not a lot, if any, murders in the SBIC. Nearby Locust Point is solid. Did get held up outside of Patterson Park last year. But there are definitely some really nice parts of the city (way nicer and safer than downtown) -- Roland Park is one (lot's of money there) as is Mount Washington -- but those feel more like suburbs than part of the city.

 

Yeah, Rolland park is gated and a fortress for good reason... Hampden isn't bad, but I have heard some gunshots while eating at Holy Frijoles back in the day.

 

I like how this morphed into the hood thread.
Newark had 110 murders in 2013 up from last year. I've used to hang there in my late teens and early 20's. I spent much more time hanging in Plainfield, New Brunswick, Crown Heights, Spanish Harlem, and the Village though. I was in the city, as we called it, at least once a week partying, fighting, and being a ding dong. We had lots of fun, but very bad things happened at times. Very bad.

 

I drove through Compton when I was in LA one time... Its like Disney world. Little cul-de-sacs with beautiful homes. I mean, section 8 housing there has big hards with fences... Its like a joke that they are so violent. Its is seriously probably the nicest ghetto in the country... I dont know what all those rappers were talking about. They dont even have housing projects there that I could see.

Anyway, if you haven't had the delight of visited a baltimore ghetto. Reminder: 60% of city row homes are still currently vacant. Boarded up, burned down... Filled with dead bodies, rats etc... thats right. 60%....

Enjoy the photos

Baltimore

More Baltimore

And More Bmore

And more

I could go on all day posting more.... I can't find a good shot of the old project towers that they tore down (a la the wire). They knocked down all 13 high rise tower projects in the whole city because they were using sniper riffles and taking out cops and ATF when they would try and raid the buildings. Not even Chicago has seen anything like that before. McCullough homes were the last ones there and they tore them down while I lived downtown in the first season of the wire. The whole show was filmed in the McCullough homes. ANd the tit*y bar was the Ritz in Fells point....

anyway, I know every city has a ghetto. Every town has a bad area. But if you havent explored out of the tourist area in Baltimore, you won't really understand....

The last place i lived in bmore was on the 200 block of East Preston Street. 2 blocks away on Greenmount and Preston street was one of the most violent street corners in the city. My girlfriend, now wife used to wake up every other night when she heard the gunshots. I would sleep right through it. The bridge on my corner ran overtop of the 83 and most of the crime stayed one block over...

but if you don't know about Baltimore Ghettos, drive down to my old block, 200 east preston street and drive east for about 20 blocks... You will not believe what you see. And if you think thats bad, turn left and go up to 25th street, make a left down Barclay Street until you hit North Avenue.... No power. Guys are hiding in the trees as look outs. Every stop light or corner you hit, you will get approached and surrounded by armed thugs.... Everybody has a "burner" around there. Everyone. You will probably be lucky to make it out of that little road trip unscathed, unless its about 10am... and even then, guys are out. Guys were out on every corner on Christmas morning. Snow storms. Whatever. No matter the weather, I will give it to these guys, they have some serious work ethic for gangsters. There is no time off. They got the morning crews, the night crew, the lunch crews... 24/7 operations. The graveyards shifts.

 

And a lot of what you saw in the wire were based on true stories. The whole show was written by the x police chief and a lot of the actors were people he had locked up and helped out when they were released.. I.E. for about 2 years straight in the early 2000s, some guys from NYC and Philly tried to infiltrate the drug market in west Baltimore. So everyone on the east and west side start blowing peoples heads off for wearing Yankees and Phillies hats. It used to be cool or trendy to be a thug in any city wearing a New York hat and once they start killing anyone who looked like an out of towner, all the gansters started wearing Orioles hats again... A bunch of local guys got murdered for wearing the wrong hats... Sent a good message out. I think its season 4 of the wire when they start walking down the street looking for guys in Yankees caps and they just start shooting. People from up north have always tried to come down to Baltimore and set up shop. A few weeks later they are in the police blotter dead.

 

shouldnt you computer nerds be surfing right now?!?! get on it today if you can!

 

We are trying to brah. We were waiting until the wind went offshore and calmer. 55 here at the home break and sun is peeking. Man, these tides are weird this last week. Balmy sesh I'm about to charge in. Banner has been placed firmly in the sand. Summahtime is upon us gentlemen!

 

One more hour of work, then I will transform from computer nerd into a surfing machine.

 

Look behind most major drug ring/corner in Baltimore and I'm sure if you scratch deep enough there's probably some NY linkage.

Dude, no one was picking off ATF and other police from the projects in Baltimore. They kill a cop(especially federal) and their operation is done. They'll become target number one, and they'll lose.

Dude, Philly is exactly like you describe except it's larger and exists in greater areas. Camden, Philly and Baltimore streets are indistinguishable. They all look the same. Philly just has more of it.

Crime stats reports are complete BS. You can find them things that has Desert Springs, Ca listed worse than Baltimore. You can find stats that rate Atlantic City more dangerous than Detroit or New Orleans. They're friggin bunk. Plus, Philly learned to under-report a long time ago.

Like Camden always beats Baltimore in the worst city thing. Philly's not even in the top ten. I'd much rather be stuck walking around in Camden than in Philly. Yeah Camden's 100% ghetto, but you can get out of any of it's neighborhoods in five or six blocks.....

Hey the Barksdales got their packages from Philly and New York.

You seem much proud of the Baltimore drug markets. I dig it, but no where compares to North Philly. Not even today, and it ain't even as crazy like it was in the 80's and 90's.

Of course they're out trapping on Christmas, junkies don't take holidays off. Any good corner is 24/7...365. And they love the snow cause the police never bother anybody when there's a foot of snow on the ground.

 

Hey man, this thread's gone all hood rich now but where am I supposed to go for today's score reporting? 55F air today made the water feel the same. Stayed out there for 3 hours straight. Got rides in bunches then had to chase shifty peaks all over. They ranged from thigh high to head high and it really cleaned up when the wind went offshore. Got stoked and scratched hard all afternoon.

Man, I've been charging with this 6'2 CI Pod that I got for a penny in near mint condition basically for the resale value it instantly has. Figured it would be good to charge with now that we all weigh a ton more all padded up in a heavy wet 5/4. I need a board that's got more foam in the chest so it's not as good on takeoffs as my other grovelers, but damn, can that thing handle. It's stable as all hell and is real responsive. I could give two who or what shaped it since it was nearly free. I'd put this in that kook thread but I didn't read any of the board posts, just the chicken ones.

Walking off beach stoked at end of sesh and from a distance my eyes burned out of their sockets. Some middle aged creep is walking into the ocean naked while his wife tapes it and it's still very light out. Wow. Which one of you Chesters went for a dip?

 

I used to skate in the great state of Philadelphia as a punk teenager. It was never THAT bad, sure there are ghetto areas, but come on its only scary if you you let it scare you. The junkies, drug dealers and murderers are all over the place in the city.

One time someone threw a grapefruit at my truck while i was driving down 30th and market ( right up the way from the station).....

...i knew it was a grape fruit cause I stopped to make sure I didnt run some poor sap over and some dude yelled out of his 8th story dwelling, "that was a grapefruit ****er, what ya gonna do" I laughed gave him a thumbs up and drove off.

I love that city

 

Loving the grapefruit story. Classic^^^^^^^^

 

Skating in Love Park and University City is not a real good representation of Philly. Though Center City is one of the more crazy downtowns of America.....

Go skating in Kensington, Fairhill, Brewerytown, Mantua, West Parkside, Kingsessing, Point Breeze, Grey Ferry......I could go on and on.

The people in these neighborhoods hate skaters, especially if they ain't buying anything.

SPICOLI: You must have one hell of a local, as there's always tales of wonderment going on there. Didn't your air temps drop throughout the day as THE POLAR VORTEX neared? The temps started in the 50's, in The Garden State, but started to drop by mid-morning.

On my way to the surfing beach, it was raining, sleeting and snowing .......at the same time. Dude, Delilah Road pissed-me-off yesterday. It wasn't really cold yet at all, but the mixed precipitation flew. Then after 30 minutes in the water, it started to clear and the sun came out, sort of. Oh glorious glorious fabous day.

Waves were fun, clean 3-4' with some plus sets. Tide was still a little too high, and it was a bit too peaky, but it was decent. Plenty of time to talk to yourself while waiting for a peak with some wall to it. No one around - clothed or naked. No seal either. Cracker bailed on me, I reckon. Just another day in New Jersey...........

 

We must have been different brah. It was 55 here early afternoon. Didn't get back to 35 until about 6pm and after. It's the same system, but we are hundreds of miles apart. People I talked to in CT said their temps were more like yours. Coastal life brah, anything can happen anywhere. Didn't we discuss these manifestations the other day? I was sweating for 3 hours while surfing. Fun, but not great before listening to the SI yoga thread and trying out Bikram yoga for the first time right after in 108 degrees.

You're right about the tide. Did you score pizza after?

 

Spicoli, I was just axing if your temps dropped considering where THE POLAR VORTEX originates. I wasn't trying to catch you in some kind of tale. I do understand there's some distance between New Jersey and Massachusetts. I've been there a few times. A few 50 times. I've even been to Somerville and Sandwich.

I reckon THE POLAR VORTEX spread more quickly to the Southeast than towards the East-EastSouthEast. Actually, Atlanta was mo' colder than us last night. And I reckon, youse guys were still peaking on the south wind warm-up during the day. I was just axing.

Spicoli, I know you know more aboot waves, geography, and the weather than me. I already know that.

You know, it being New England and all, a New Jersey dreamer just expects it to be colder up there and for y'all to get hit by THE POLAR VORTEX sooner. I reckon it spread more diagonally mo' quicker. I know never assume...

Sweating? What kind of contraption are you wearing? Some of you guys on here are just cold water animals....like otters or bull seals.

And aboot these manifestations.....both areas cleaned-up yesterday afternoon, right? Swell from the same system and everything.

Thanks for acknowledging the tide, ese.

Had leftover pizza from a fairly solid pie bought on Sunday evening, while hating on Aaron Rodgers, who by the way is an A$$.

God, I just love Italians. They make the pizza......and lend me money.....and take my bets......and extort me.......

 

You love your #buzzwords don't you sage? It's highly debatable if I know more ocean hydrodynamics than you. I know more meteorology than about the sea and I'm studying hard every day bout that here ocean, brah.

I had on the 5/4 Drylock and although the water was 40-41F, the air was warm and the sun was poking out most of the time. Plus, I didn't stop scratching at the water as it was a #beachbreak so my thermogenesis was rampant. I reckon I don't fancy the cold but can certainly tolerate it. The yoga-ista running the class last night was talking about cold yoga. Doug, where do I go for that?

Rodgers in the State Farm commercials is hilarious. I can't believe mad younger people these days don't know the Da Bears skit. They probably like Family Guy instead.

 

I was being snarky, bru. Oh look at that....threw some Saffa at you. Hooooooo.

I've been watching The Weather Channel for 25 years.

Hey, do you really think you know more aboot this stuff than seasoned crackers in less than a year? I know you are the intellectual pride of Weymouth, but really? Already?

Hey, I know you are stoked and all, but you do hit this surfing thing with the zealousness of the smart kid in grade school when given a class project. Just relax. You don't need to study for this. Just surf and you'll learn. Actually, the less you know the more fun it is.

I'll repeat that: The Less You Know, The More Fun It Is............

 

Oh, I find it oddly fascinating that one who uses pidgin, and makes ten pop culture references in each post comments on my "buzzwords."

And really, "highly debatable...?"

You are a character Emass. Just imagine if you did drugs.....You'd be unstoppable.

 

I like you're buzzwords. They're funny and reminiscent of LASER BEAMS and ONE MILLION DOLLARS in Austin Powers. I'm not giving myself practice tests out of the NOAA book or anything. More looking to get in as many waves as I can. That entails knowing the right days, times and places to charge as well as the type of wave to paddle into and where and how on that wave to paddle. Anything that reduces the amount of scratching I do through shifty chop for a good lat and trap workout and increases takeoffs and good rides. I'm looking to score. Not float, not wallow, not get spun (gotta have it sometimes though), and not duck dive through crap with no apparent end in sight. The less I feel like wave repellant the better.

Wouldn't it be nice if I could get rides at will on a wave like I will on the bowls at the skate park tonight. It's not like that though. For each wave we take off on, we've thought about that ride for 6 hours and 18 minutes, drove an average of 31mi for it, paddled 394 strokes in a thick wetty in cold water, and had 2 kook LBers drop in on us and shott our heads. It's probably why I'm so stoked that I'm cackling when each ride comes.

How's brewengineer's day going though? Is he smiling and laughing? What's the over/under on peeps he's told on to the authorities on and offline today? God Bless the vigilantes.