Let's turn now to the film Northern Liberties by Steve Janas of Delanco. Steve is an experienced film maker and a Philadelphia-area native, who returned to Philly in 2003 following a 10-year stint living in Los Angeles.
This film focuses on one neighborhood in particular - the oft-written about, hipster mecca of Northern Liberties. While exploring the dominant themes of change that have come to characterize the Northern Liberties story, the film is a little light on the tension that those changes have created. Aside from a brief admonition by Pete Saunders of Ortlieb's Jazz Haus who hopes that the developer-driven interest in the neighborhood doesn't displace the "artists" who helped to revitalize the area, there is little discussion of gentrification. Judging from recent news about the area, I think the "starving" artists have already been forced out, leaving for the frontiers of Kensington, Fishtown and Bridesburg.
The film focuses on the benefits that this eclectic mix of stores, bars, venues and people have to offer for the visitor and resident alike. At times the film becomes like a travelogue, hosted by DJ Frosty who also owns a building in the neighborhood. He takes us on a tour of the hot spots including Ortlieb's, The Standard Tap and Silk City. DJ Frosty also gives us a quick refresher on the history of Northern Liberties, a history told in the multiple layers of abandoned, renovated and new buildings. Cut Northern Liberties open, count the rings and you can see a story of many Philadelphia neighborhoods played out.
A bustling manufacturing and commerce center is reduced to the ashes of an urban wasteland. The seeds of a fledgling artist community fall among the enriched soil and begin to regenerated the area, eventually to replaced by the looming condo towers to cover the landscape like their predecessors - the factory smokestacks - once did.
Northern Liberties shows us the end result, the "climax forest" stage of growth, that can happen in so many other neighborhoods if the conditions are just right. Now, figuring out those conditions... that's the hard part.
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