Final Farewell

South of South Street's transformation to Southwest Center City

For the past several weeks, our group has thoroughly surveyed the south of South Street neighborhood. Our boundaries for the assigned neighborhood were 2nd to 24th street and South Street to Washington Avenue. After about two days in our neighborhood, we discovered that the most interesting section was above Broad Street. Therefore, we remained in that section and as a result uncovered several exciting stories.

As the weeks passed by, and the days grew hotter we discovered that the neighborhood most of us had never visited was one of great promise. Southwest Center City, as residents refer to it, is quickly growing into a vibrant and dynamic community. Virtually every block is subject to some type of construction. Whether it be new construction, reconstruction or general renovations, the result is still the same. The same gentrification that has already spread over neighbors like Bella Vista is stretching up to the south of South Street area.

The residents of our neighborhood were welcoming of our camera and us. With the exception of a few suspicious longtime occupants, nearly everyone we encountered was interested in sharing their opinions with us. We encountered gentrification on every level, and before long citizens of this area should expect to be residents of Southwest Center City.

Overall, the experience was humbling and taught us a lot about being reporters in a major metropolitan area.

From group 13

Reflection, Group 10

When you first come to Temple, or at least from a hometown that doesn’t have a 215, 610 or 856 area code, Temple University is North Philadelphia. Your friends and family worry about, fears created by the same set of prejudices you came in with- that Temple University is North Philadelphia, and North Philadelphia, of course, is ghetto, the place that puts the ‘kill’ in Killadelphia. But something funny happens, usually sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving that first year. Temple University isn’t North Philadelphia; its North Broad Street 20 blocks away is City Hall. Half that distance away is Osteria, Philadelphia Magazine’s best restaurant in Philadelphia- a ten-minute walk from the Cecil B. Moore subway stop. Being in that place, taking it in, getting that level of comfort where you subconsciously find yourself j walking across Broad st. at rush hour, for example, takes time. But eventually the final transition happens- Temple isn’t North Broad Street, it’s home.

Spending six weeks in a place, and not living there, always being there with an agenda- that’s not the ideal convergence of circumstances to gain the subconscious comfort. But it’s what you have, and you learn to make the best of it. Olney is always first and foremost going to be, for me, where the Broad St. run starts- a light warm up jog around the track at Girls High School, getting off the subway with thousands of people early in the morning the first Sunday in May. That’s always Olney, first and foremost. But now it’s something more. It’s the store-lined, five lane north fifth st, where the street signs are in English and Korean and looking down the street from atop the gentle slope that street is blessed with makes you forget for a second you’re in Philadelphia- it’s a stretch of street unlike the kind you normally come in contact with, much like watching the sun come up over Camden in the morning from in front of the US Custom House on Chestnut st. and imagining for a minute that you’re in some far away, idyllic place that your immediate surroundings have taken you to, far away from Philadelphia.

Olney and Logan are North Philadelphia, to be sure: they’re not quite Brian O’Neill north, but north nonetheless. They’re not the North Philadelphia you see on TV, in the movies, when you read about violence and murder rates and how we need harsh new gun laws. They’re working class. They’re neighborhoods that you are born, raised, marry and die in. The row homes, the row homes that sometimes seem to stretch as far as your eyes can see, they’re passed from generation to generation- no need for a realtor when you’re family. It’s the kind of neighborhood that you always leave with the nagging feeling that it would be nice to live there, to spend a couple years becoming ingrained in the community, because that’s what stands out most. The community. The community that you feel walking down Liacouras Walk or waiting for a bagel at one of the food trucks- the kind of community that your parents never see when they drop you off for the fall semester and your friends never understand when they come to visit for the weekend.

Germantown Homes

For the past 6 weeks we have been visiting Germantown a couple days per week. We noticed one thing that stood out more than the others as we spent more timie there, the range. There was an odd range in everything that was in the area. There were upper middle-class parts of the neighborhood with beautiful old fashioned homes. There were average homes and residents with average salaries. And, there were decrepid homes, boarded up and abandonded by families or persons with no money.

We set out to find an explanation for this gap in Germantown. We spoke to contractors who build and repair the houses. Then we spoke to architects who design the houses. We spoke to people who own houses and apartments and rent them in Germantown. And we found a group of them, who with a local lawyer are teaming together to buy up and repair property in the area. They are rebuilding and replacing these destroyed parts of the area one house at a time, and trying to make Germantown a better place.

Then we set out to see what other organizations were lending helping hand in Germantown. We spent time with a Habitat for Humanity group that is doing similar things, except they rent only to people who probably couldn't afford to live in a house without their help. We went and talked to one such recipient as she and volunteers helped to paint and repair a house for another family.

Germantown, apparently was once a beautiful area. People like these are trying to make sure that one day it is once again.