Harrowgate: Outsiders Pitch In When Locals Don’t
Longtime community members fight for their neighborhood one block at a time in Harrowgate. Repelling drug dealers, moving addicts along and fighting opportunistic slumlords starts less with city-wide policy and more with in-person communication and leading by example. Local civic association leaders like Shannon Farrell and Jim Ridgway do it neighborhood-wide. But it’s the block captains […]
How To: Become A Block Captain
The City of Philadelphia provides support for citizens who’d like to become active in their community. While anyone can round up their neighbors to keep their street clean, the city can help by providing supplies and special trash pickups. The Philadelphia More Beautiful Committee (PMBC) runs a Block Captain program, and all you have to do […]
Strawberry Mansion: Tyrone Williams of NAC Teaches Community To Use Its Voice
Now the head of community engagement at the Strawberry Mansion Neighborhood Action Center, Tyrone Williams has worked his whole life trying to better his community. From a young age, Williams took an active interest in reaching out to people. He estimated his history in community outreach went back to when he was 11-years old and a […]
Citywide: The Underrated Army of Block Captains
They pick up trash. They sweep the streets. They turn vacant lots in to community gardens, organize block parties, and keep crime in check on more than 6,000 blocks throughout the city. And they don’t get a dime. They’re title holders of one of Philadelphia’s more underrated – and one of its most important- roles […]
City Hall: Contest Connects, Cleans Communities
For the residents of the 1600 block of Waverly Street, the city’s Clean Block Contest wasn’t just a chance to continue to spruce up the block. It was a chance to connect with all of the neighbors of their narrow side street in Center City. “Here, you walk out and your neighbors are out, there […]
Olney: Neighborhood Looks To Youth For Support
On the 1000 block of Olney Avenue, changes in demographics have beat out community efforts to tighten the threads of unity within the area. Although several homes line the domain of Olney Avenue between 10th and 11th streets, only a few households remain active in their attempts to better the block from the roots up. […]
Hunting Park: Orianna Street Block Captain Inspires Neighbors
“Zombieland.” “Dead man’s row.” “Street of fatherless children.” Those were just some of the nicknames residents rattled off when asked about the 4400 block of North Orianna Street. But things are changing on that block and changing for the better. This is one of the blocks bucking the image of Hunting Park, a neighborhood that […]
Mantua: Residents Strive to Maintain History
At Union and Wallace streets, there is a community garden owned and maintained by Mantua resident Dallas Scott. Scott was born in 1963 in the same home his grandfather owned before he died. “Originally, there was a house right next to ours,” Scott said. “These were two twin houses right here and the one house […]
Germantown: Local Resident Keeps the Community Safe
Looking at Barbara Burnam, it’s hard to believe the 75-year-old woman has much influence and control over her community. However, for the past 50 years, “Miss Barbara” Burnam has served as block captain for the area where she lives on Boyer Street between Locust Avenue and Woodlawn Street. Over those 50 years, the mother of […]