The drug market is so strong in Kensington and the joblessness and institutionalized racism so engrained, the community struggles while the state flounders with resolutions. Every day Jorge Rosario, 52, a resident of the Kensington section Philadelphia cleans the sidewalk along the 2700 block of Kensington Ave., Philadelphia. They declared a statewide disaster over the drug epidemic in 2017. Please give today. The entire estate consisted of 191.5 acres of land, much smaller than the present-day Kensington area. (Instead of a paywall). There is also a charter school, Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School. No one denies this. That camp was cleared, and another formed. The City of Philadelphia, Police and social services are along Kensington Avenue near Willard Street on Wednesday morning August 18, 2021, clearing the streets of homeless in the center of the opioid epidemic in the city. Even more concerning are the fetishizations of the corridor, which go something like this: Yes its bad, but it can be fun to visit because its bad. The right to shop locally in your community is enjoyed by most Philadelphia residents, and Kensingtonians are taking their corridor back. Philadelphia, PA (February 26, 2023) - After noon on Sunday, February 26, a serious eight-vehicle collision with injuries took place in Philadelphia. Despite lobbying council members and state representatives, no change has been made. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed in the United States over the last two decades, and Philadelphia is no exception. Even Dr. Oz took the time to show us a Kensington Avenue as a "hellscape." Within Kensington, various sub-neighborhoods including Kensington (the Heart of Kensington), Harrowgate, Lower Kensington, West Kensington. Drug activity is not hidden here, especially not when heroin can go for as cheap as $5 a bag. On the night we visited, police cars cruised past, their lights flashing, but never stopped. Clifton Mills, Building 4, 1809-11 N. Howard Street, Kensington (185263). Kensington was originally a blue collar neighborhood that thrived on the factories built there. In the absence of a larger plan, he was certain those encampments would grow in the coming weeks. The super brief history is Kensington was a thriving industrial area of factory workers until deindustrialization happened which left the neighborhood impoverished and jobless. Addicts say the police came down hard on indoor drug establishments. [52], The neighborhood has gained nationwide attention and great notoriety because of extensive press coverage of its thriving narcotics drug scene, often described as the largest on the east coast. A textile factory will feature apartments and commercial space. [5] The current greater Kensington area roughly coincides with the former Kensington District, Richmond District, Aramingo Borough, and Northern Liberties Township. Mattresses lie in the mud along the railway where prostitutes trick, and rapes and assaults are common. This lack of message parity is harmful to the corridor. All About Max Winkler. The School District of Philadelphia operates public schools. Any given day, a walk down Kensington Avenue yields ample reminders that the neighborhood is the "aortic valve of the region's opioid crisis," as Billy Penn's Max Marin recently put it. Philadelphia Kensington Avenue, What happened on Monday, June 28 2021. Several men rush to be the first to make a dollar selling her a syringe. These are bakeries, daycares, artist spaces, and coffee roasters; businesses selected to draw foot traffic and fill much-needed service gaps. They were en route to more serious crimes going down to the west in the Badlands. Today, the neighborhood is full of decrepit two-story rowhouses and many abandoned commercial spaces: defunct factories and vacant lots. The most conservative boundaries of the neighborhood, shown in the map below, are Front Street and 5th Street to the west, the Amtrak train tracks to the North, Trenton Avenue, the Trenton Avenue train tracks, and Frankford Avenue to the east, and Cecil B. Moore Avenue to the south. Folks are going to migrate to wherever they can go, McKinney said. A new phase of the Wayne Junction revitalization plan is underway. Violent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. Many progressives endorse the idea of allowing addicts to get high in certain sections of cities without fear of arrest. The city has a higher rate of violent crime than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. The situation toward Allegheny Avenue grew even more intense after SEPTA briefly closed the Somerset El stop in January. Police confirmed that a total of eight vehicles became involved in a messy collision in the [] Im out here too, and I think its fucking insanity. Look, he says, junkies got rights, too. Two smiling beat cops dressed in crisp, pressed uniforms foot-patrolled the areas perimeter but steered clear of the crowds around Somerset Street. Since then, drug activity and homelessness has intensified in the shadow of the El between the Somerset and Allegheny stops on the Market-Frankford Line. The neighborhood has long been a catchment for people from the suburbs, Delaware and New Jersey who suffer from addiction, and yet the city has been left on its own to clean up the mess. West Kensington is similar to Norris Square and Fairhill in that it has a similar demographic to most of Kensington while having a more North Central Philadelphia identity,[citation needed] but unlike the other two neighborhoods it remains certainly part of Kensington. You can do that in Amsterdam, Will Sims says, comparing hard-ass Kensington with what he perceives to be the touchy-feely Netherlands, but this is Philly, and Philly aint Amsterdam.. These 4 nieborhoods are very simialer as far as their economic situations. Port Richmond has a historically Polish population but is becoming more mixed, and Olde Richmond, an area just north of Fishtown, is experiencing similar gentrification. [8] People suffering from addiction and/or homelessness concentrate around the Somerset and Allegheny train stations, in nearby parks, and on residential streets, angering long-term residents. Then enter opiates. ', "Kensington residents ask: 'Why would you think this is acceptable for us? WHYY provides trustworthy, fact-based, local news and information and world-class entertainment to everyone in our community. Central Kensington, or "the Heart of Kensington" as it is called in a recent Impact Services neighborhood plan,[6] stretches along Kensington Avenue from Tusculum and Somerset Streets to Tioga Street (see Impact Services plan[6] for a more accurate map). Before the Act of Consolidation, 1854, the Kensington District included portions of the neighborhoods known today as Olde Kensington, East Kensington, West Kensington, and Fishtown, with its northern border at Lehigh Avenue. While Kensington is still the centralized location in Philadelphia for buying and using drugs, some community members, like Bingham, don't believe the neighborhood is the ideal place to get treatment and maintain recovery. It is similar to Central Kensington but is slightly quieter and has fewer crimes. Adjacent neighborhoods are Northern Liberties (ZIP code 19123), Fishtown and Olde Richmond (ZIP code 19125), Port Richmond (ZIP code 19134). Sign up for the free Billy Penn newsletter and stay in the know. The majority of the neighborhood is renter occupied, 55.6% overall, and up to 66.3% in one tract. Answer (1 of 7): I live and minister here as a pastor. The drugs are just too cheap and too accessible. Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave. Story. From there, drug dens sprung up across the neighborhood and allowed for gangs to breed in the area. This energy is not relegated to existing businesses. Emerald Street, Tulip Street, Kensington Avenue, Frankford Avenue . WHYY offers a voice to those not heard, a platform to share everyones stories, a foundation to empower early and lifelong learners and a trusted space for unbiased news. The drug overdose rate in Philadelphia is also concerning. At stake in all this, is the soul of a place where Philadelphians have made a living, shopped and socialized for generations. SBC News 188K subscribers Subscribe 5.3M views 7 months ago #SBCNews Documentary by SBC News covering Streets of. For too long, Kensington residents have resorted to other neighborhoods to shop. But this is an ongoing process. Soon, thanks to this effort and efforts like it, they wont have to. Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave Story, (Short Clip #53) Monday, Sept 6, 2021. But since Januarywhen 22-year-old Antonio Rodriguez, a PCP-smoking petty drug dealer from the notorious adjoining Badlands neighborhood, was arrested and charged with the murdersaddicts say that police have retreated, leaving them to do their drugs in relative peace. But Gladstein said many people remain shelter resistant for various reasons and the number of emergency beds near Kensington where people actively use drugs is limited. The Avenue runs 3 miles through what is now a dangerous and crime-ridden neighborhood. On March 21, 2021, SEPTA indefinitely closed the Somerset Station of the Market-Frankford Line (MFL). The city has a higher rate of violent crime than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. Estimates vary between 300 and 650 people living on the street. In Philadelphia's Kensington district, home to one of the largest open-air drug markets in the United States, crowds of sellers and buyers flock to corners as if there never were a pandemic. To the east of Kensington, Port Richmond and Olde Richmond are each predominantly white neighborhoods. The few other businesses Chinese take outs and Irish pubs have missing persons signs hung in the windows. Multiple people were injured after a messy crash in the Kensington section of the city. The Tracks, a mile-long wooded stretch of shipping railway cutting across the Badlands, is a section of Philadelphia long ago ceded by law enforcement to drug users. However, some sections of the neighborhood have been revitalized in recent years, especially those near Frankford Avenue, Kensington's neighbor south of Lehigh Avenue, and Fishtown, another traditionally working-class neighborhood which has seen rents increase. These self-described low-bottom dope fiends havent bathed recently, and many have been running and gunning around the clock for days, selling needles and prescription pills, or prostituting on the Avenue to hustle up enough money for another bag of heroin. Suffice to say it is not a place to go at night.
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