Next Thursday, Philadelphia’s City Council will consider a resolution creating a group that would address the specific issues related to Kensington. Hopefully, what they do will be scalable.
By Denise Clay-Murray
How do you solve a problem like Philadelphia’s Kensington section?
That’s a question that people have been asking for a very long time now, because Kensington has been a problem for a long time.
From an opioid crisis that has made the neighborhood’s children see things no kid should see, to the gun violence that often accompanies the practice of distributing street corner pharmaceuticals, it’s a problem that has made local and national news.
It was also at the center of last year’s political races. I don’t think that I’ve heard the word “Kensington” in political conversations at any other time since I’ve been covering politics here in the city. And I remember the days when being low on gas at the intersection of Kensington and Allegheny — K&A to the locals — was the most frightening experience you could have.
The problem is such that businesses in the area have problems getting what they need to serve customers due to how unsafe it appears.
So, I was particularly interested when I received a press release from Councilmember Quetcy Lozada’s office announcing the formation of a City Council caucus that would center Kensington and what it needs. And not just because it would be the first such caucus ever formed.
Councilmembers Lozada, Mark Squilla, Mike Driscoll and Jimmy Harrity make up the group. Lozada, Squilla and Driscoll have parts of Kensington as part of their legislative districts and Harrity, an at-large councilman, is a resident of the neighborhood.
They hope that their combined efforts can make an improvement in a section of the city badly in need of one, Lozada said.
“By joining together, we’ll be putting together legislation that will improve the quality of life for Kensington residents,” she said.
And the residents will be guiding their steps, Lozada said. The group has been speaking with community groups and other stakeholders to get insight on all of the things needed for Kensington, not the just the things that are the most obvious, she said.
Toward that end, the group plans to work with state, local and federal officials to fulfill those needs.
Now when Kensington came up as a topic of discussion during last year’s elections, the main thing that was discussed was the issue of crime. And let’s face it. When people keep using the phrase “open air drug market” in connection with your town, crime is going to be a focus.
Mayor Cherelle Parker has already made some movement toward helping Kensington with that particular need with the appointment of Deputy Commissioner Pedro Rosario to oversee the police response. Rosario is the city’s first Latino deputy commissioner.
But as it always is in the City of Brotherly Love and Far Too Many Poor Folks, some of the things that Kensington needs are going to require political will and a lot of money. For example, getting addicts off the street and to where they can get help is going to cost money, especially since there are not nearly enough drug treatment centers in the city.
(Contrary to rumor, One Day At A Time — a prolific recovery program known as ODAAT to the locals — can’t be expected to help all of the city’s addicts. So, I’m going to need for all of the folks who vehemently opposed safe injection sites, including Mayor Parker, to come up with an idea of where these addicts who need help are supposed to go. And also, who is going to pay for it, because one thing that most addicts don’t have is health insurance.)
If you’ve ever sat down and talked to someone from Kensington, some of the stories they share are kind of harrowing. Like I said at the beginning of this piece, this section of the city has been troubled for a long time and could really use a break.
But while I know this effort is geared toward Kensington, my hope is that whatever this caucus comes up with is scalable.
Now, what do I mean by that? I mean I hope it works well enough to be applied to the rest of the places in Philadelphia where folks feel trapped in their homes because of the havoc poverty tends to wreak. While Kensington’s issues were so “in your face” you couldn’t miss them, there are different versions of what’s happening there happening in other sections of the city.
Before things get to the point where everyone needs a caucus, why not apply what works to everyone?
Lozada and company introduced a resolution creating the caucus during Thursday’s council session and the full body will consider it next week.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, The Philadelphia Sunday SUN, the author’s organization, committee or other group or individual.
Related Posts
Leave a Comment