Critics refer to it either as a laid-back "la-la land" or, conversely, as a place reeling from earthquakes, fire, smog, gang warfare, and riots.
Then, the report said, the police "opened fire on gang members who came out of their cells barefoot, their hands raised above their heads in surrender".
So it frustrates Mr. Pruitt, a retired high school social studies teacher, that 1970's fires and gang wars dominate the way that outsiders retell Morrisania's recent history.
James set up command posts round the perimeter of the fire, press-ganging any men of the lower classes found in the streets into teams of well-paid and well-fed firemen.
In exchange for holding fire, the gangs were granted transfer of their leaders from a maximum-security prison to jails closer to their families — and their foot soldiers — with expanding visitation and access to cellphones.
Rapper The Game said he's raised $17,000 for the family of a 7-year-old boy who died in a Mid-City drive-by shooting and is calling for a cease-fire to gang violence over the holidays.
The crime was horrendous a 32-year-old counselor beaten with a phone, dragged down two flights of stairs and set on fire by a gang of girls at the Pleasantville Cottage School in Westchester County.
In between, Dunaway strokes Beatty's pistol and does suggestive things with a Coke bottle, the bank manager is shot through the eye, and a blinded Estelle Parsons screams hysterically as the police open fire on the gang.
"A lot of supernatural tales stem from Chicago's rich history, which includes the Great Chicago Fire, prohibition-era gang activity and the Civil War," said Alex Haried, a local Redfin real estate agent.
Police suspect Tayloni was struck by a bullet fired by Kane Cooper, 17, as he fired at rival gang members.
