Decades of decay followed the Philadelphia riot of August 28,1964, where parts of Columbia Ave (now Cecil B Moore Ave) remain abandoned, unlike Newark, New Jersey where a strong, committed partnership was forged by clergy, community and city leaders to plan and rebuild for a better future. The New Community Corporation (NCC) was birthed out of the ashes of the Newark riot, setting a standard for urban renewal through community and economic development. In stark contrast, Philadelphia officials punished our North Philadelphia community with systematic withdrawal and deprivation of financial resources leading to furthering the erosion of property and sense of community. To his credit, Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr, a housing professional, commissioned the North Philadelphia Plan, early in his first mayoral term. Unbeknownst to his voting constituency, Councilman John Street reversed the trend of redeveloping the architecturally unique, three story vacant rowhouses, within the 5th councilmatic district, deeming them too expensive to rehabilitate. This, in preference for mass demolition to convey whole blocks of land to developers for development. Following implementation of these destructive practices, Street would have the audacity to use blight elimination and neighborhood transformation as platforms for his mayoral candidacy. This plan to fix up neighborhoods that he messed up did nothing to restore the historic architectural integrity or sense of community that was lost. Streets successor and protege Councilman Darrell Clarke continued and advanced policies and practices that are proving to be revealed tactics for gentrification of North Philadelphia. Particularly suspect, is the abundant use of tax credits on housing development projects, as tax credits typically expire in 15 years freeing the developer from initial land use commitments. Tax credits become an effective means of flipping neighborhoods under disguise of developing low to moderate income housing when at the 15 year expiration the developer can sell the land at full market rate and/or convert from affordable housing. In the spirit of Sankofa, I reach back to the past to bring forward to today all that is valuable for securing our future. Longtime residents and families of North Philadelphia who have been the strength of our neighborhoods stand fast to stay, see better days and challenge displacement. Its past time to fix up for us to stay - the riot was 50 years ago today.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 11:05:04 +0000
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