Drama-ville

Drama-ville is a slang and often gang oriented term for the numerous small cities in the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania.

The name became popular from a small-time rap artist using the name in reference to York, Pennsylvania and, from this, the term expanded to local inhabitants to the several numerous cities in the south-eastern corner of Pennsylvania including Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Reading, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Allentown, Pennsylvania, among others. The boundaries for cities lying in Drama-ville are rough, but seem to include all cities surrounding Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the south-eastern corner of Pennsylvania, from York which is far west of Philadelphia to Allentown which is more north of Philadelphia. The actual name Drama-ville named by the local rapper named Scrap Metal which first appeared on YouTube was made from the diversity in the city of York. While the YouTube page has been changed since Scrap Metal had an actual explanation for calling York, Pennsylvania Drama-ville, it can still be seen referred to as Drama-ville. (Reference 4) Drama-ville is also a popular name for the area, specifically Lancaster City, because it defines Lancaster Pennsylvania from Lancaster city in California. All Drama-ville cities share the characteristic of a dramatic diversity, all of these cities being only a small fraction of the size of Philadelphia, are surrounded by suburbs and include more people from different areas than most cities, most of which come from larger east coast cities such as Chicago which can influence static between different financial groups or races. Recently (as of December 2007) there were issues in two Lancaster City schools involving racial violence. (References 1 and 2) The heavy Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York influence in the Drama-ville Cities spark a heavier gang activity than is expected, as well. These cities have never been major centers of crime or gangs, however these activities are rising. In one may shooting, seven year old Brianna Pratt was shot in the back during a gang shootout. This shooting shook up the communities around Lancaster City and caused inhabitants of the city to raise their voices to the violence they had been seeing. (reference 3) There are a large diversity of gangs in Drama-ville cities as well. Street gangs, Motorcycle Clubs, Private clubs and rumored Mafia activity have been appearing more and more over the past several years in the news. Of the most popular gangs inhabiting the area, are the Bloods, Crips, Almighty Latin Kings, MS-13, and locally started gangs which often branch off of these larger, nation-wide gangs. (See references 5-11)

References

References 1 and 2: Racism in Lancaster Schools

1 - http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/2109532 - http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/212284

Reference 3: Brianna Pratt

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=LC&p_theme=lc&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=headline(I+got+shot)%20AND%20date(02/01/2007%20to%2002/31/2007)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_field_advanced-0=title&p_text_advanced-0=(%22I+got+shot%22)&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no

Reference 4: Scrap Metal YouTube Link.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yFM9XeN5nAI

References 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10: Gang activity (Some of the following references are forums or other forms of primary sources. Reliability however is unsure.)
*=includes primary sources.

5 - http://www.abc27.com/news/stories/1007/464760.html

*6 - http://www.city-data.com/forum/pennsylvania/13494-gang-influences-pa.html

*7 - http://www.topix.com/forum/city/reading-pa/TA07HF0GR1LRIHE19

8 - http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-20072.6186584dec15,0,1812833.story?coll=all-newslocalallentown-hed

9 - http://www.allentownpa.org/prDetail.asp?prKey=328

*10 - http://www.city-data.com/forum/pennsylvania/37026-gangs-lancaster-county-unsafe-areas-2.html

Reference 11: gained its own category because it refers mostly to anti-gang press involving route 222. "heroin highway" - this link is also very extensive.

11 - http://www.222antigang.org/PressRoom/tabid/100/Default.aspx