Carla Clarkson owns The Link Studios, a salon located in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood, a historical district that borders Center City, Northern Liberties, and Society Hill. Year round, the neighborhood attracts thousands of tourists and passersby. In the summer, you’ll see people dining al fresco, shopping, jogging, and walking their dogs. You may even spot a celebrity or two.
This January, as I walked from the corner of Front Street and Market Street to meet Clarkson at her salon, I didn’t have a care in the world aside from escaping the falling snow. With my head slightly tilted to shield my eyes, I didn’t fear for my safety or well-being.
Clarkson feels the same way. “Because I’m so used to being in Old City, I don’t really think about gun violence as much,” she said. “I always feel safe, but I don’t know if other people are feeling safer.”
My visit to The Link was part of my quest to see whether Philadelphians have felt the recent drop in gun violence — with homicides declining nearly 37 percent — in their daily lives. To answer this question, I stopped by a few salons where people congregate and often speak without holding back. A few conversations told me that unlike Clarkson, many people still don’t feel any safer — and that their sense of security depends on where in the city they are.
Even Clarkson isn’t immune to fears about gun violence. While she feels at peace in her main location, gun violence is a factor she’s considering while planning a potential move. She’s thinking about expanding her business, and an opportunity to do so recently presented itself. “When I was on 52nd Street a few weeks ago looking at a potential location, I thought about safety,” said Clarkson. A stylist who knew the area well told her she should be worried.
The building in question is in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood. “I felt reservation, too, and had thought to myself, don’t let your comfortability of being in Old City overshadow the violence that may be happening somewhere else,” said Clarkson.
Clarkson went on to share that she thinks certain neighborhoods are unfairly stigmatized. “I didn’t realize that North Philly was an OK place until I lived there,” she said. “If I were driving by a (different) neighborhood that has a bad reputation and I don’t live there, I wouldn’t want to get out of the car,” Clarkson said. “I’d be like, oh no, it’s dangerous.”
I spent the majority of my evening at The Link talking to Clarkson and her students about gun violence and their safety concerns. The next morning, I visited NBeauty Inc. Salon Suites for coffee and conversation. There, I asked clients and stylists if they were feeling any safer now than they did one or two years ago. I’m sharing some snippets of our chats in an effort to shed light on what it really feels like to live in Philadelphia right now.
In general, Philadelphians don’t feel safer
Hattie White has lived in North Philadelphia for most of her life. “No, I don’t feel safer,” she said. The 75-year-old used to walk every day, but now she doesn’t. “It’s different than from years back,” she said. “I don’t even sit outside of my house anymore, it’s too dangerous.”
Saharra Collier, a student stylist who lives in North Philly, says she’s noticed an uptick in youth violence, too. “I feel like young Black boys think that shooting is a game, and it’s really not. You only have one life to live,” said Collier, who is Black. “It’s crazy how we already have almost 30 homicides (in 2025). People are shooting on New Year’s Day. You can’t go out and celebrate. Can’t go and watch the ball drop. They might shoot downtown, that’s like the hotspot.”
Some residents struggle to believe that the recent overall decline in shootings will stick. “No, it’s still the same. Because the same thing is still going to happen. It’s normal,” said Taylor Johnson, a North Philly resident and student stylist. “But it shouldn’t be a normal thing that I could go outside and be like, oh, this person just got shot, and I knew them. But I can’t feel no type of way, because I knew it was bound to happen.”
Some are feeling a tiny bit of improvement. Delrickya Wymns, an Uptown resident and stylist at NBeauty Inc., said she’s noticed “just a little bit” of change, but “it will definitely get worse before it gets better.”
Similarly, Shantel Belton, a millennial mother of two, said she’s had mixed experiences. “People are still being violent, driving up on people and robbing them amongst other things,” she said.
Bottom line, said Bishop Michelle Cherry-Pugh, is that she hasn’t felt any safer — but she’s “happy about the statistics.”
A sense of inevitability
I asked the women why they think gun violence remains a persistent problem in Philly. They had many ideas about the cause, including social media. “Some people still don’t care, and they go on their (Instagram) story and start dissing the person that shot them,” Johnson said. “Social media is one of the problems.”
Collier chalked it up to apathy. “The shooters don’t care until they end up in a courtroom and hear that they’re going to get 20-plus years or life,” she said.
White blames parenting. “They do not raise their children like we used to,” she said. “They have no control.”
Diana Mendez, an NBeauty Inc. stylist, pointed to cultural influences. She said, “I feel like it’s such a shame to say it, but a lot of people in our cultures just be preying on each other, and there’s a lot of senseless violence within the community.”
How Philly can keep driving down shootings
Lastly, I asked the women what they think would help make them feel safer. Several mentioned law enforcement.
“Sometimes when I’m on Wayne Avenue and in the Germantown vicinity, seeing the police cars or seeing the police officers walk up and down the street, that makes me feel safer,” said Cherry-Pugh. “But that’s not all the time.”
People need more inspiration, “more opportunities or people need to have more motivation,” Wymns said. “They need to see that it’s other things out there for them to do.”
White continued to bring up parenting. “If the children go to school like they should, instead of staying on the streets, it will be safe,” she said.
And Mendez pointed to gentrification’s silver lining. “I live in Fishtown and have seen the community change for the better because of gentrification,” she said. “You have outsiders coming in and it’s like, oh, you don’t want to get caught committing crimes against them. So, there hasn’t been as much violence because the community is more diverse and there is a little more law enforcement. The additional police presence helps, but overall more people are out and there is a growing sense of community.”
Altogether, I got a sense that some people believe that things are getting better, but that sense of security isn’t yet resonating with everyone. There’s still fear, and there’s still crime, including shootings. Some wonder if the declines will last. As Wymns put it, “If we want to see change, it’s going to take the village.”
