Philadelphia Neighborhoods logo
  • Neighborhoods
    • Center City
    • North Philadelphia
    • Northeast Philadelphia
    • Northwest Philadelphia
    • River Wards
    • South Philadelphia
    • Southwest Philadelphia
    • West Philadelphia
  • Topics
    • Amateur Sports
    • Arts and Entertainment
    • Business
    • City Hall
    • Community Meetings
    • Crime
    • Economy
    • Education
    • Elections
    • Environment
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Government
    • Health
    • History
    • Housing
    • How To
    • Immigration
    • LGBTQ
    • Mental Health
    • Music
    • Police
    • Politics
    • Poverty
    • Property
    • Religion
    • Science
    • Social Issues
    • Sustainability
    • Technology
    • Transportation
    • Veterans’ Affairs
    • Zoning
  • Special Reports
    • Anatomy of a School Closure
    • Latino Communities
    • All Special Reports
  • Philadelphia Neighborhoods Map
  • About Philadelphia Neighborhoods
  • Awards
  • Our Code of Ethics & Guiding Principles
  • News Orgs: Want To Use Our Stories?
  • Tips/Contact
HomeAuthorsChristian L Barnes

Articles by Christian L Barnes

Fairhill

How Community Gardens are Fighting Erasure and Displacement in North Philadelphia 

January 16, 2026Christian L Barnes

In Fairhill, rents have risen over the past decade even as thousands of parcels of land sit vacant. This piece follows residents who steward these lots to resist development and examines the policies that quietly reshape daily life—and the people pushing back.

Recent Posts

  • People stand on a sidewalk beneath a pale gray sky. The street behind them is between two tan stone buildings with floor-to-ceiling glass windows on their ground levels, and the multicolored glass exterior of a parking garage shines further down the street, next to some taller red brick buildings. Glass windows are visible behind the people on the sidewalk. Some of them wear raincoats or windbreakers, and some of them hold umbrellas of various colors. Two men in the right half of the image, one southeast Asian and one white, wear clerical collars. They are all waving wooden rods with thick red ribbons tied to the ends of them in the air. Most of the people present appear to be white and/or over the age of 50. One bearded, middle-aged man in a gray and black windbreaker and black pants points a camera towards the bottom right corner of the image, where a blue banner reads “GOD STANDS WITH THE OPPRESSED.” To the banner’s left, a canvas with a monarch butterfly painted on it is draped over a concrete sidewalk barrier. A blue bicycle is parked behind the man with the camera, and a black car in the street drives past the group of people.
    ‘These are our people’: Weekly vigils unite faiths on ICE’s doorstep
    July 7, 2026
  • “To Be Here” weaves a web of Philadelphia experiences, told by and for the community
    July 3, 2026
  • The crowd during a performance by The DOJD, Claire Brown's band, in a West Philadelphia basement. (Image-Jacob Magaldi)
    How Philadelphia’s DIY music scene is helping fund gender-affirming care
    June 7, 2026
  • Video Style Guide: Pictures-Video-Photography
    May 27, 2026
  • Inspired by ACT UP, this queer Philly collective is throwing mutual aid parties 
    May 4, 2026
Philadelphia Neighborhoods Student Reporters
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • RSS

© 2026 All Rights Reserved. Philadelphia Neighborhoods: A program of the Department of Journalism at the Lew Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University.