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If you ever travel to the 400 block of East Haines Street in Germantown, you will find a neighborhood with many stories of its proud past as well as stories of the not-so-proud present.
This block is not much different from many neighborhoods in Philadelphia that have experienced problems with crime, drugs and unemployment.
Depending on whom you ask, there are some problems that are bigger than others such as the economy. Longtime Germantown homeowner and Haines Street Block Captain Kenneth Miller, explains while the recent downturn in the nations economy hasn’t affected him, the same can not be said for some of his neighbors, “I’m set. But, I see other people that’s not set you know, and they need help.”
For many people, help can’t come soon enough says retired Germantown resident Tyrone Wilson, “Sooner or later, something should break. And Obama, he’s doing what he can. He gave what three extensions on unemployment from what I understand. Then, you get a lot of people, theirs is about to run out.”
Fortunately, for many of those people Wilson was referring to, help came just in time. On March 2, President Barack Obama signed a stopgap bill into law. The legislation extends unemployment benefits to people out of work for more than 26 weeks.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the national unemployment rate has dropped slightly to 9.7 percent. While this may appear to be positive news, Philadelphia’s unemployment rate is 10.6 percent for the month of February. This was a dramatic increase from the 8.2 percent of unemployed Philadelphian’s last December.
Despite the depressing numbers, Kenneth Miller remains optimistic jobs and an improved economy will return soon, “I think eventually you gonna see things picking up a little bit more now than what they were.”
While Miller can see an imminent rise in the economy, some residents on Haines Street see the economy as a contributor to the rise in criminal activity.
Mora Adams-Williams, a Germantown resident of over 45 years, says the increase in unemployment has a connection to the crime she has seen on her block, “When you have a house where you have to put bars on your window to keep people out, I don’t think that’s good. And it’s not only in Philadelphia, it is everywhere and I think it’s a little because of the economy. People don’t have jobs, and if they have jobs, they (employers) have cut their hours. It’s pitiful it really is pitiful.”
The lack of employment in Philadelphia has had an effect on many people including the youth on this block. And to make money, some of those young people can be found on neighborhood street corners selling or using drugs says, Tyrone Wilson.
On those corners is the next generation of Germantown–a generation that has lost respect for its elders and neighborhood, complains Gary Purnell, a 33-year resident, “They’re losing their lives on the corner selling drugs at which they’re not going no where. They’re not educated; they’re dropping out of school standing on corners just selling drugs. Either they’re going to jail, or killing themselves, and it’s destroying the whole family life.”
Purnell believes the solution for those young people involved in drugs requires a thorough self examination, “The heart of the problem is to find out why we’re drawn to drugs. I mean I came up; I had an experience with drugs myself. But I had found out in my life that I was medicating my own self. And I had to resolve my issues before I could resolve my drug problem. And when I learned to resolve my issues, got an education and resolved my issue, then I had no more desire for the drugs.”
While some residents like Purnell see the drug problem in the neighborhood as a break down in respect and self discipline, Mora Adams-Williams thinks the lack of outlets for young people is the reason for their behavior, “I wouldn’t want to be a child growing up in Philadelphia, because I know how I grew up. Just like you see my grandchildren with nothing to do. They come home from school, they do their homework, where can they go for an outlet, no where.”
Richard Amos Abanyie, special assistant for Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, says the possible solution to keeping young people out of trouble and making Germantown stronger could be to keep them occupied, “If you get kids involved, we can get things built and get things moving.”
Abanyie says the goal to getting the next generation more involved in having an increased concern for their community requires an effort from everyone, “It takes a village to raise a child, and this village needs to be uplifted by being united.”
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