Last place you'd want to move to in Philly right now (Philadelphia: renting, crime)
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Last place you'd want to move to in Philly right now
Philadelphia has been doing pretty great the past decade or so and a lot of talk of late has been about great new areas that are being revitalized.
But there are definitely some areas that are still pretty messed up and some of them have gotten worse in the past decade.
If you ask me the last place I'd want to move right now is point breeze. not only is it a dangerous neighborhood but residents there are forcibly resisting it's gentrification.
Not trying to hate on point breeze or attack the people who are against it's gentrification. I understand that gentrification means that some people who have lived there for decades will no longer be able to afford property taxes and stuff like that if point breeze becomes the next northern liberties, so i see where they are coming from. but bottom line if i'm looking to buy a house in philly right now the last place i'd want to buy one is in point breeze.
...........but bottom line if i'm looking to buy a house in philly right now the last place i'd want to buy one is in point breeze.
The same problem exists in all the poor neighborhoods that haven't been completely abandoned. (which doesn't happen much anymore) At least Pt Breeze is close to Center City. There are still areas in North and West Philly that are much worse.
Personally the last place i'd want to move in Philly would be the fairhill neighborhood in North Philly. Every time I drive through it, it seems like a third world country...that has a big drug problem. It has all the drawbacks of Kensington, without the proximity to the el and fishtown/port richmond.
Out of curiosity what was the reputation of the Northern Liberties pre-gentrification? I haven't heard much about what the neighborhood was like prior to its establishment as a premier neighborhood to live in in Philly.
The same problem exists in all the poor neighborhoods that haven't been completely abandoned. (which doesn't happen much anymore) At least Pt Breeze is close to Center City. There are still areas in North and West Philly that are much worse.
oh for sure it's a great location and i think in the future it will be very desirable... but i think it's going to take a lot longer than people think.
i mean i was living in mantua a few years back when it was first being gentrified and working with a community clean up group with drexel. there was an existing group there called mantua cares and while it seemed clear to me that some there were not happy that new and different people were moving into the neighborhood and getting involved the overwhelming feeling seemed to be a welcoming one and i eventually became involved with mantua cares itself working alongside people who had lived there their entire lives.
some opposition to gentrification is to be expected... but i mean what's going on in point breeze is not something that is happening in other areas. it sort of borders on violent opposition. some members of the community group the Point Breeze Pioneers (made up of new residents) have been apparently threatened by residents of point breeze and forcibly removed from a park they were cleaning. now apparently these people weren't as polite as i'd be and seem to be kind of pushy, but still.
i've attached a flier which was posted up in point breeze, calling on it's residents to fight gentrification.
bottom line i don't want to be a part of that. revitalizing a community is supposed to rewarding, who wants to move into a developing area with the intent to make it better knowing that the some of the residents there oppose what you're doing... possibly with violence.
oh for sure it's a great location and i think in the future it will be very desirable... but i think it's going to take a lot longer than people think..
Don't misunderstand. I wouldn't even consider renting in point breeze, let alone buying. The place is a horror. But it's not the last place in Philly that I would go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phillies2011
i mean i was living in mantua a few years back when it was first being gentrified and working with a community clean up group with drexel. there was an existing group there called mantua cares and while it seemed clear to me that some there were not happy that new and different people were moving into the neighborhood and getting involved the overwhelming feeling seemed to be a welcoming one and i eventually became involved with mantua cares itself working alongside people who had lived there their entire lives.
some opposition to gentrification is to be expected... but i mean what's going on in point breeze is not something that is happening in other areas. it sort of borders on violent opposition. .
Frankly there aren't many areas in Philly that people are trying to gentrify.
Wasn't Brewerytown the last place that had neighborhood opposition to gentrifcation?
Don't misunderstand. I wouldn't even consider renting in point breeze, let alone buying. The place is a horror. But it's not the last place in Philly that I would go.
Frankly there aren't many areas in Philly that people are trying to gentrify.
Wasn't Brewerytown the last place that had neighborhood opposition to gentrifcation?
brewerytown was against gentrification but, in what to me was a far less personal manner. they were against town home developments that are being built there. some of them are gated communities. and they fought their construction in court.
but being against gated communities of town homes being put in your neighborhood is one thing... personally opposing people moving into your neighborhood, into existing houses, and threatening communities groups who are trying to clean up parks... well that to me is a whole nother story.
besides said townhomes are being built in brewerytown... despite their ugliness. i really hate gated communities but that's besides the point. the gentrification is happening there, and i don't think the new people moving in have to worry about the type of opposition that people in point breeze are facing.
and gentrification is def happening in Philadelphia right now. gentrification is of course the influx of higher income residents into lower income neighborhoods... i don't have those stats right now but i do have a chart kidphilly posted that shows the change in the percentage of minorities and whites in all the neighborhoods in philly. of course this isn't as useful as chart which show household incomes but a large influx of white people generally means gentrification and the following communities saw at least a 70% increase in the amount of white people in the previous ten years:
north philadelphia west 479%
mantua 331
sw center city (graduate hospital) 198
west philadelphia cobbs creek 83.3
allegheny west 81
kingsessing 78
north philadelphia east 72
Northern Liberties/fishtown 70.9
first off i understand demonstrating gentrification in terms of a population increase of whites may be viewed as at best flawed and at worst racist. but i think it's not that bad of a tool, and if you think it's racist get over yourself. sure there are crappy neighborhoods where the majority of the people are white (cough cough port richmond) but come on a bunch of poor white people are not suddenly moving into these areas, these are areas that are being gentrified.
now you can dismiss northern liberties who saw an increase mostly due a population boom, it was already predominately white. but that still leaves 7 different areas where we are currently seeing gentrification, which can basically be consolidated into 5 areas of gentrification.
1. Graduate Hospital, the area below rittenhouse and above point breeze.
2. Mantua, basically becoming north university city
3. West philadelphia below market and above southwest... basically in between market and the 13 trolley (west philadelphia cobbs creek and kingssessing)
4. the area around temple especially west of broad (north philly east and west)
5. the brewerytown area/north of the art museum (allegheny west)
so i def think there is currently quite a bit of gentrification going on in philly.
just realized i've taken my own thread of topic.
but yea the point is there are other places that are being gentrified and none of them are seeing resistance like in point breeze which isn't even being gentrified at nearly the rate in which these neighborhoods are.
so as awful as some of the other neighborhoods in philly are i'd rather move into any of them over point breeze, in the other neighborhoods i'd only have to worry about the crime, in point breeze i've got terrible crime to deal with on top of being accused of gentrification and becoming a target.
the change in the percentage of minorities and whites in all the neighborhoods in philly. of course this isn't as useful as chart which show household incomes but a large influx of white people generally means gentrification and the following communities saw at least a 70% increase in the amount of white people in the previous ten years:
north philadelphia west 479%
mantua 331
sw center city (graduate hospital) 198
west philadelphia cobbs creek 83.3
allegheny west 81
kingsessing 78
north philadelphia east 72
Northern Liberties/fishtown 70.9
first off i understand demonstrating gentrification in terms of a population increase of whites may be viewed as at best flawed and at worst racist. but i think it's not that bad of a tool, and if you think it's racist get over yourself. sure there are crappy neighborhoods where the majority of the people are white (cough cough port richmond) but come on a bunch of poor white people are not suddenly moving into these areas, these are areas that are being gentrified.
If your point is that Philly has a lot of residents who are black, prejeduced and racist toward whites and other minorities, I completely agree, but I don't think it's limited to Point Breeze.
The Northeast section which was once known as "the great Northeast" is taking its last breath...
Amen to that Frank!
It used to be the place to be.
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