Post Eighty Five - The Pearl?

It's been billed as a beacon of hope for a long-troubled neighborhood - the glistening seven-screen Pearl Theater near Temple University, the first movie house in North Philadelphia in six decades.

But last night, the only beacons were the floodlights from police helicopters, as a streetside shooting just outside the two-story steel-and-glass theater left a 16-year-old in critical condition, while other people were arrested - police were ordered not to say how many - in a chaotic scene after police cleared out the movie house. The Pearl was not only shut down for the night, but its entrance was surrounded by yellow crime tape for a time.

The violence outside the Pearl came on the second night of a $1-movie promotion to herald the grand opening of the theater, and it was jarring to North Philly moviegoers who had been thrilled to finally have a place to see films.

"It frustrates me that my children and I can't go to a decent movie anywhere within two miles of my home, because people don't show respect," said 35-year-old Genea McCrea of Kensington, who had arrived hoping to see a movie with her two sons, ages 9 and 15.

It was not clear whether the initial shooting had anything to do with the movie theater. Around 7:30 p.m., according to police, a 16-year-old boy was shot in the scrotum on Montgomery Street near 15th, near the theater complex. The teen was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital in critical condition.

As a result of the shooting, about 100 paying customers were evacuated from the theater. Detectives were unsure last night who had decided to evacuate the theater, but they confirmed that it had led to chaos, with numerous fistfights breaking out. "Basically, they all went crazy," said one detective. "We don't really know why, either." (the rest here)

I do not understand this, at all. It is truly saddening, for a community that is already nothing but sadness. Seeing that the theatre is run by Temple, I am sure that it will be taken away from the said community as well, and that is just awful.

Why are people this way, why are they so pent up and angry, besides all the obvious facts, like a crumbling neighborhood and a major major major drug infestation. If my community were poor, and hope brought to it, I would hope that I, as well as everyone else around me could come to peace and celebrate the fact that SOMEONE has in trusted us, as neighbors to be the protectorates of this establishment.

Very sad.