If you haven't made this one of your weekly rituals, I suggest that you take a few minutes every Thursday to check out the Letters to the Editor in The Northeast Times. In addition to the usual rants about the weather, daylight savings time, trash on the sidewalk (um... isn't it easier just to pick up the trash rather than write a letter complaining about it?) and the latent racism (scroll down to "A new idea for Section 8 recipients") found in many of the letters, you also get wonderful examples about why the level of civic engagement in this town isn't as high as we might like it to be:
Isn’t it bad enough that we have to hear about this voting crap on our T.V.s, billboards and newspapers, etc.? But now I can’t even drive to work without seeing miles of these signs.
Emphasis is mine. You can read the whole letter if you scroll down to "Sign, sign, everywhere a sign . . ." Thanks to Mr. Wagner for his commentary on one of our pretty useless rights - the right to vote. Ok, to be fair, he never says he's opposed to voting just opposed to attempts by campaigns to educate people about who he might be voting for. Makes it so much easier to choose when you don't know nuthin' 'bout nobody.
In fact, I want to encourage the readers of this blog to check in every week with their favorite gems.
Comments (19)
Hmm. To be fair, I see no evidence that the letter writer isn't informed about the mayoral election, just that he doesn't like advertising. He could be totally uninformed, or he could be a blog/newspaper reader who would rather form his own opinion of the candidates. Hard to say.
As far as the Section 8 letter, the person obviously doesn't think very highly of welfare recipients, but I didn't see any racial references. I wonder if the writer knows for sure the inhabitants of the unkept properties are welfare recipients, or is just assuming because everyone in NE blames Section 8 for the decline of their neighborhoods (never mind that people have been moving out in droves over the past few years -- many with good reason, but still).
Posted by Dave![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blogs.phillynews.com/dailynews/nextmayor/nav-commenters.gif)
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April 9, 2007 5:00 PM
The South Philly Review is just as good.
Posted by Adam B![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blogs.phillynews.com/dailynews/nextmayor/nav-commenters.gif)
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April 9, 2007 5:20 PM
With regard to the political advertising signs littering up Northeast Philadelphia, I have yet to see current candidate running for mayor who has the slightest inkling of understanding what's best for Northeast Philadelphia. There was one candidate earlier on -- Jonathan Saidel -- but he's out of the race now.
As for Section 8, when implemented in Northeast Philadelphia it becomes far removed from being a well-meaning program. In brief, when implemented here it amounts to human dumping, which is neither healthy for the Section 8 recipients nor for Northeast Philadelphia itself. And believe me, when Northeast Philadelphia voices objection to Section 8 housing, welfare, etc., racism has NOTHING to do with it. Rather, the race card is what the out of touch politicians and bureaucrats from elsewhere play every time Northeast Philadelphia voices objection to it. And if Northeast Philadelphia is "racist" as it's so often accused of being, I can assure you it would come right out and say it and that it's not ashamed of it. You'd see a branch office of the KKK up here right out in the open among other things.
At the same time I will not hide the fact that there isn't racism up here. For oh there most certainly is. But it's not racism that's of here. Rather, it's racism on the part of those not indigenous to here and who for the most part don't belong here.
To give you a better idea what I'm saying there, think Councilwoman Joan Krajewski. If you're not from here you would probably mistake her as being synonymous with here. But speaking as one who's actually from here, I don't see her as being of here. Rather, I see her as an appointee to here from Philadelphia's highly racist Juniata section, which is a totally different place from Northeast Philadelphia. And is there racism throughout her Northeast councilmanic district as a result of her? You bet there is! But, just as with Krajewski herself, it is not racism that's of here, but rather, it's that which has been dumped here from elsewhere...just as she was.
Confused?
Come live in Northeast Philadelphia for a time, and I can guarantee that a year from now this will all make sense to you.
Posted by Steve W. | April 10, 2007 2:57 AM
Why do people in NE philly believe that what they "need" is different from what other people in the city need? I don't get that. It's as if the NE is the only area where there are any hardworking people in Philly. Like it or not the NE is not a separate city and there are many in various city neighborhoods who value the same thing as residents of the NE.
BTW, Philly in general has a litter and property upkeep problem. This is not limited to Section 8 residents by any means. As I understand it, people in the NE think that any colored people who move into their "once proud working class neighborhoods" can only be there thanks to Section 8. I have seen trash all over this City, even in areas in Center City which are hardly overrun with freeloading Section 8 residents. Of course, most NE residents arent familiar with other parts of the City so they are unaware that litter is not some isolated problem that only exists in front of black households in the NE.
Posted by sj | April 10, 2007 8:43 AM
We need a Salvator like leader to push for the NE to seceded from this dump.
Posted by Addin Rybaes | April 10, 2007 12:09 PM
At this moment, and it's been this way for quite some time now, Northeast Philadelphia is very much a separate place from the rest of the city. The reality of this first came to the public's attention when young Eddie Polec was brutally chased down and murdered in Northeast Philadelphia's Fox Chase section back in the early 1990s while the city's 911 operators -- based down in Center City -- didn't even know where Fox Chase was, let alone where to dispatch the police officers to.
Later, the disconnect between Northeast Philadelphia and the rest of the city came to light even more when the "Acres of Skin" scandal at Northeast Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison suddenly came to the world's attention.
But the disconnect between Northeast Philadelphia and the rest of the city was really driven home in 2004 when the Fox Chase Cancer Center proposed expanding onto Northeast Philadelphia's historic Burholme Park, and the rest of the city thought it sounded like a "good idea" while Northeast Philadelphians themselves were horrified. For anyone who knows that part of the city knows that the infrastructure for that area could not even begin to support an expansion of that magnitude without destroying all the residential neighborhoods right around it for a very wide radius in the process.
And what is it that has Northeast Philadelphia so seperated from the rest of the city? One simple thing: The Badlands that exist between Northeast Philadelphia and Center City itself.
The "Badlands" were once Philadelphia's thriving industrial areas that made the city of Philadelphia all told, that is, as one city, so great. But when this mid section of the city (Kensington, North Philadelphia, etc.) fell into total collapse the city was indeed divided into two totally seperate places. And it's been this way ever since.
Back when the "Badlands" were thriving industrial areas, commuting between Center City and Northeast Philadelphia was common place, not to mention how many who worked in these areas resided in Northeast Philadelphia itself. And it was an era when people looked forward to traveling through that mid-section of the city to see all the hustle bustle going on there. You could feel the pulse of the city's greatness every time you did.
But after the industry fully collapsed there it became a totally different story. And it was precisely then that the city very much split in two. For at that point Center City to one side and Northeast Philadelphia to the other became complete strangers.
While Center City today is fully aware that there is the Badlands and that they're a problem, the part of the city that exists beyond them -- Northeast Philadelphia itself -- is a world it knows nothing about anymore. So much so that it doesn't even know there's a day and night difference between Bridesburg and Holmesburg. Nor does it especially care, given how Northeast Philadelphia is a world fully removed now.
But while it might be easy for Center City to no longer care, Northeast Philadelphia doesn't have that same privilege. Catching the brunt of Center City's gentrifying the Badlands, spurred by the ever ongoing Center City real estate boom, it is being asked to take on meeting the needs of those it can't even begin to support, let alone provide a future for -- hence the ever ongoing Section 8 mess up here.
What is really needed is for Philadelphia's Badlands to return to full scale industrialization. That is the ONLY thing that CAN bring this city back to being one entity once more, and with all parts benefitting as a result. But to see it that way you pretty much have to live in Northeast Philadelphia. Or the Badlands. And by the latter I don't mean as a newly moved yuppie to there.
From Center City's viewpoint, doing very well financially as it is, it doesn't think that way. But we up here in Northeast Philadelphia have to think in those terms. For it's either that, or all this land up here will be stark ghetto come tomorrow. For right now Center City's prosperity as it currently is isn't doing us any good. All we're doing at this moment is catching the downside of it, while Center City, at this moment a totally seperate place from here, doesn't care. Yet it's still governing us at the same time, a place it no longer knows anything about due to the great Badlands divide.
Posted by Steve W. | April 11, 2007 1:13 AM
I hate to poin this out, but there are neighborhoods in the city beyond Center City and the Northeast. I thought this was common knowledge. Most recent CC residents do not venture into or care about the rest of the city as a whole, not just the NE. The NE is actually one of the more solid areas in terms of lack of abandoned homes and in tact neighborhoods. When I think of areas in serious trouble, the NE is generally not on that list. Sorry, but there are plenty of areas with more pressing problems and I don't lose any sleep at night because some blocks in the NE have to deal with a handful of section 8 tenants. To blame section 8 problems in gentrification in center city is a stretch. CC is mostly white and has been for some time. There are more blacks in the outlying areas that are being gentrified but most development in those areas is at the expense of vacant lots and abadoned homes. There is no mass migration of littering black residents from Fairmount/Graduate Hospital/Northern Libs to the clean NE. Give me a break.
Posted by sj | April 11, 2007 9:32 AM
In my opinion, one of the biggest causes of the increase in section 8 housing in the NE is decreasing property values due to an exodus of residents to Bucks County and South Jersey. With property values that low, landlords can often get more money out of the section 8 program than by renting at market rates (from what I hear, you can get up to $800/month out of section 8, while market rates in Juniata, last I knew, were along the lines of $400-$600/month). NE Philly seems to be going through similar changes to what the rest of the city went through 2 or 3 decades ago (and probably handling it a lot better, I might add).
Having said that, are there any specific things that the NE would benefit from? For instance, would the creation of an office park at Cottman & the Blvd help? Seems like a lot of folks up that way work in the 'burbs and are tending to follow their jobs out there to live. I don't know how many people share my ideology but, the way I see it, the way to make the NE more viable is to treat it a little more like a separate entity and give it its own job center, among other things. I also know Steve is against this, but I would think that creating a better rail connection between the NE and Center City could help to "bridge the divide" so to speak (I would've seriously considered moving there if public transit was better -- instead, I opted to move within walking distance of the El).
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April 11, 2007 11:08 AM
Extending the Frankford El northward from Frankford into Northeast Philadelphia would be absolutely disastrous for Northeast Philadelphia, I can 100% guarantee it. It would be the surest way of fasttracking Northeast Philadelphia to fullscale ghettoization -- as if the ghettoization of Northeast Philadelphia isn't moving quickly ahead enough already.
For think of the history of the Frankford El itself. Before it was built, Kensington, Tioga, Juniata, and Frankford were once all very nice, upscale urban communities. And for a considerable length of time they held up that way after the El was built -- that is, if you didn't mind living or operating a business in the shadows of the El.
But when the car came into being, I-95 was built, Roosevelt Boulevard was improved upon and so on, that equation changed completely, and it didn't take long for any place close to the El to suddenly become very ghetto like.
We have ghettoized areas up in Northeast Philadelphia today, Castor, Oxford and Rising Sun Avenues all being excellent examples. But they're not so ghettoized that they can't be turned around.
But I'll tell you what: Had the Frankford El been extended this far up into the Northeast at the time it was built, today people would look at those areas and say, "Forget it," in terms of any hopes of ever turning them back around for the better.
Though it probably wasn't realized at the time, Northeast Philadelphia was very blessed when the Frankford El's northeast-most stop was Bridge Street itself.
The Market-Frankford Line is classified as "light rail service." And on paper that sounds very nice, very progressive, "environmentally friendly" and so on. But the reality simply does not match up with the fantasy. While it does enable people to get from here to there without need of a car, what a terrible price this convenience comes at. For I can't name a single place anywhere under or near the Frankford El that I can't sum up as being gruesome.
And today as we look back in summary, who ever benefitted from the introduction of the Frankford El? We can say that communities to the north of it did because it provided them a ready link to Center City. And Center City benefitted because it enabled it to tap into the Northeast consumer and employee market. But for every community right alongside the El, where was there ever really any benefit? For all those communities had been had when the El got built. And so much so, and it became so gruesome, that quality people stopped using it entirely.
And now Knox wants to extend the Frankford El even farther up into Northeast Philadelphia if he gets elected as Philadelphia's next mayor? No, Knox, I don't think so. For talk about being totally out of touch with what Northeast Philadelphia is ultimately supposed to be all about. For we know what works up here and what doesn't. Time itself has shown that. And anything ghetto-like for up here -- whether it be Section 8 housing or anything else of that crappy nature -- simply doesn't cut it. We can see that firsthand right now as we look at various places up here where ghettoization is being tested, and how it's failing miserably.
My view is that if certain residential properties up here have become so rundown or obsolete that their owners can make more by Section 8, it means they must get torn down and replaced with what's far more fitting for up here.
Look at Winchester Park, for instance. See any Section 8 going on there? No, of course not! And it's because that's the type of housing that's right for up here. The other, such as Morrell Park, is just a lot of crap that needs to be cleared away.
Posted by Steve W. | April 12, 2007 1:48 AM
Section 8 isnt prevalent anywhere where houses can be sold for decent prices or can be rented out for substantial sums. Section 8 is most common in areas with low home values INCLUDING many black areas of the city. The attitude of NE residents seems to be "other" people should have to put up with rowdy renters but they shouldn't. No one who cares about their property or neighborhood wants to be around loud or rowdy neighbors, not even black people. To a large extent, much of the complaining in the NE is really about the changing demographics of some areas. I remember reading that the majority of houses that generated complaints to PHA were NOT PHA properties. In other words, people in the NE assume every black or latino family they see up there is on Section 8 and if they dont like something these people do or don't do they are ready to blame Section 8 and call the people lazy freeloaders. Unfortunately, not everyone who has a job and pays for their own housing is a good neighbor. I was in Graduate Hospital recently near 15th and South near $1M new townhomes and the trash on the sidewalks and in the streets was abonimable.
Posted by sj | April 12, 2007 11:51 AM
I think the decline of Kensington and Frankford had more to do with the collapse of the industrial economy and middle class flight to the suburbs than it did with the construction of the el.
Having said that, I think the shadow cast by the el creates a psychological barrier to revitalizing business corridors that lie in its shadow. If transit were extended to the NE, my preferred method of doing so would be an underground rail line, possibly the proposed Roosevelt Blvd line.
Anyway, times have changed since the decline of North Philadelphia. Rapid, efficient public transit is now considered a plus to many young professionals looking for an urban neighborhood to live in:
http://realestate.msn.com/buying/Article_busweek.aspx?cp-documentid=4427326>1=9323
From the article:
"Kingsbridge Heights has always been a middle-class neighborhood with decent schools, but some surrounding Bronx areas have a less-than-stellar reputation when it comes to crime and school systems. This may have shielded the area from buyers in the past, but the area's proximity to mass transit (you can easily hop on the 1, 4 and D subway lines to Manhattan) has turned it into a hot spot for Manhattan rent refugees.
...
Four things to look at
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- Transportation infrastructure: Is it close to mass transit and highways? Is the transport fast and efficient? 'In a developing neighborhood, the ease of getting in and out is crucial,' Wong says. 'We've seen the highest velocity of price increases in these areas.'"
Posted by Dave![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blogs.phillynews.com/dailynews/nextmayor/nav-commenters.gif)
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April 12, 2007 2:32 PM
Wong says. 'We've seen the highest velocity of price increases in these areas.'"
I think that's where a lot of people totally misunderstand Northeast Philadelphia. For up here the perspective -- at least for those of us who are indigenous to here -- is that it's not all about money. Take the seaside resort of Ocean City, New Jersey, for instance. There's no question that its absolutely best era was when its real estate prices WEREN'T shooting through the roof. Real estate prices shooting through the roof is what totally killed in terms of being a great place to spend a summer in. And there's currently fear among many Northeast Philadelphia residents of the same horrible nightmare happening up here. Making money is important to us, yes. But NOT at the expense of freedom itself.
I mean, do you realize how great it is to take a beautiful ride in Pennypack Park or to attend a free outdoor concert in the summer months and have it be a beautiful beautiful experience with money having absolutely nothing to do with it?
And see, that's one of the very reasons why we hate getting dumped on up here with such things as Section 8 and what have you. For we're simply not that kind of place up here, and such is simply not fitting for up here.
And if people in other parts of Philadelphia wish to say the same of their own neighborhoods, well guess what. We fully agree with them. It's just that we don't agree that the best way they can solve their problems is by dumping what they don't want off on us.
For up this way we simply don't have the resources to meet the needs of such people. On the other hand, Kensington, Fishtown, Juniate, North Philadelphia, Frankford, etc. all do -- IF they commit to getting back to being industrial once more, which they're geographically perfectly positioned to do. Northeast Philadelphia isn't. But those other places are.
I mean, who was the "rocket scientist" who one day looked at this city with its enormous blue collar population and said, "Hey, let's make this a services-based city only"? For when Philadelphia was a thriving industrial mecca it was one of the world's finest. And every other aspect of Philadelphia benefitted tremendously from this as well, from the arts to education to banking to medicine to parks and so on.
And EVERYONE wanted to come here if they could.
Contrast that to now, where the city recently fell behind Phoenix in population size.
In any event, while other parts of the city have lost sight of what their highest calling is, Northeast Philadelphia hasn't, or at least it's trying not to. For what is Northeast Philadelphia's highest calling? To be laid back residential is what, a place where we really don't want our home prices to go through the roof, just that they stay nice. And the rest of the city just doesn't seem to get that. And what are we supposed to do about that? Just dumbly say, "Okay, you're right, we're wrong"? And just stay quiet when Section 8 and other crap such as that keeps getting dumped on us, and say, "Oh, look at the 'nice' grafitti, and litter and so on" when we look for Northeast Philadelphia getting back to what it's supposed to be?
Posted by Steve W. | April 13, 2007 1:37 AM
Oh, I wasn't suggesting it should be all about money. However, you aren't going to keep the section 8 out unless a) property values rise significantly or b) there's so much demand for owner occupancy that people interested in rental properties are forced to look elsewhere (which will increase property values).
Regardless of whether or not you're trying to make a buck off your property (and I'm not... at least not short term), rising property values are a sign of a healthy neighborhood. They don't have to be shooting through the roof, but if they're staying the same or decreasing, it's generally a bad sign (they should at least keep up with inflation).
Anyway, it's all about who the neighborhood's attracting and, since the NE no longer seems to appeal to the type of people who traditionally have lived there (working middle class), it's going to get an influx of either young professionals or the working/non-working poor. Currently, it's getting the latter.
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April 13, 2007 9:11 AM
BTW, I agree that, ultimately, we need to create jobs for the people in North Philly. The problem with the idea of industrializing is that, as a country, we're no longer industrial (at least not nearly to the extent we used to be). Our national economy has transitioned to being mostly service-based jobs for the unskilled and desk jobs for the "skilled." There are some notable exceptions (for instance, construction will always be around, and there are some auto manufacturing plants, although they're mostly sprawling suburban deals nowdays).
But, yes, in order to keep this short, Philadelphia needs to "find itself" economically or every neighborhood (including those in the NE) will continue to suffer.
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April 13, 2007 9:18 AM
What is all this nonsense about "dumping" undesirable minorities in the NE? Who is behind this bold master plan that people in the NE allude to so often? Who is telling these people to move up there and ruin working class white neighborhoods? There is no secret plot to destroy the NE. Young whites have little desire to live there and thus the housing market is being turned over to investors and increasingly minorities. If there was strong demand amongst the middle class for rowhomes up there they would cost more and owners wouldn't consider turning to Section 8. This notion that the NE is the last section of the city where people have standards is absurd to say the least. To many people, especially recent Philly residents, NE Philly is the last choice as a place to live in the city. It's far from CC, has few rail connections, the architecture is bland, the homes are small, etc. Sure the NE is nice if you want to live in a relatively homogenous area that is largely blight free, but it's hardly the only "good" area left. Unfortunately, low income people are coming up there because there isnt enough demand from higher income people for homes up there. Besides, these issues are really only in the lower and middle sections of the NE where rowhomes are most prevalent. The far northeast is fine.
Posted by sj | April 13, 2007 12:44 PM
Unfortunately because the dot.com boom didn't last -- which enabled Northeast residents (or at least the more thinking ones) to make very good money through investing alone, and in a very positive manner at that -- Northeast Philadelphia's whole fate at this point hinges on its 1) reconnecting with Center City somehow; 2) seceding from the rest of the city; or 3) the grace of God.
Reconnecting with Center City would entail either 1) coming up with some way to pleasurably (or at least tolerably) bypass the Badlands as one commutes between the two; or 2) turning the Badlands around for the better without gentrifying out its longstanding blue collar residents in the process. Of the first strategy, there aren't many good options. To extend either the Market-Frankford Broad Street Line up into Northeast Philadelphia would be extremely costly while there are absolutely no guarantees it would turn things around for the better. Putting it differently, would the benefit justify the cost? Besides, right now when Northeast commuuters make use of these light rail services, rather than them enabling them to "bypass" the Badlands they bring commuters into direct contact with them. Years ago when I worked in Center City but lived up in the Northeast, I can so remember starting out to head to work all clean and fresh, but with it being a totally different story by the time I arrived in Center City. So it's no wonder so many one time Northeast residents who work in Center City finally said the hell with that and moved to there fully. In my case, because I made so many excellent investments in addition to my working downtown and which in time far exceeded what I was earning down there, it no longer made good economic sense to put up with that God awful commute anymore. But then in my own case I was just very lucky. For other Northeast Philadelphia residents, aside from retirees, they didn't have that same option. And resource-wise, Northeast Philadelphia is very limited in being able to create good paying employment opportunities of its own, at least without destroying itself in the process -- which is exactly what will happen if the Fox Chase Cancer Center tries expanding at its current location.
Now if Northeast Philadelphia secedes from the rest of the city, this would enable it to say no to being dumped on by the rest of the city from that point thereafter. But what would be the economic basis for Northeast Philadelphia at that point? For it's a great place when not dumped on and allowed to be laid back and residential. But for it to be maintained that way it would require its having its own quality police protection among other things. Which was why Northeast Philadelphia consolidated with the rest of the city in the first place. And if Northeast Philadelphia became its own municipality once more, where would the revenue come from to provide for that and other needed services?
Intrinsically speaking, Northeast Philadelphia's being made a desireable place to live is not the problem. It has all the resources needed for that. That's part of the grace of God factor. But right now that grace of God factor is going to waste. And if it continues getting dumped on the way it has been, that grace of God factor could all be nonexistent come tomorrow, it becoming the city's "new Badlands" as the current one gets fully gentrified.
It could try to do what currently isn't being done with the Badlands, and to become an industrial mecca of its own of sorts. But geographically, resource-wise, etc., it just doesn't have the right positioning for that. It's too far upriver, too removed from Philadelphia's main hub of commerce, etc.
If China suddenly underwent another of its historic revolutions that could force the city of Philadelphia to change over all the way it's now refusing to. But all the big movers and shakers right now appear fully convinced that China is solidly sustainable ground. Hence why the current direction Philadelphia keeps heading in...
Posted by Steve W. | April 14, 2007 2:58 AM
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