One year after Mayor Nutter and Commissioner Ramsey targeted nine high-crime police districts, is the city safer? Three new districts have been added to the targeted list. Can one, Police District 23rd, improve?
Mayor Nutter’s five-year plan in Philadelphia contains the goal of reducing homicides citywide by 50 percent in five years. Is this achievable? Police Office  Denise Dixon, the community relations officer for the 23rd District, thinks so. 
“It is feasible,” says Dixon, who was born and raised in North Philadelphia. “But the public has to understand …

“Assalamu alaikum,” Jahed Chowdheury welcomes a pair of women who enter his shop with the traditional Muslim greeting meaning, “Peace be with you.”

The two women are Muslim, like Chowdheury. They are black and dressed traditionally for Muslim women, in hijab. They have headscarves covering their heads, faces exposed, and they are wearing modest, loose-fitting clothes.

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