Between Mayor Cherelle Parker’s first 100 days commemoration and a bill passed during last Thursday’s Philadelphia City Council meeting, Kensington got a lot of attention that day.
By Denise Clay-Murray
For much of the first 100 days of this edition of Philadelphia City Council and the administration of Mayor Cherelle Parker, Kensington has been the name on everyone’s lips.
Last Thursday, Mayor Parker took her entire cabinet to a magnet school in Kensington to unveil what the group has done in its first 100 days in office. Boarding the SEPTA Market/Frankford Line, the group rode to the event and the mayor walked to the school. She also took suggestions and comments from people on the street along the way.
(I saw the comments that the folks who covered this from the Philadelphia Inquirer were able to print. I don’t want to think about the comments that didn’t make the cut due to the fact that, like the SUN, they are a family newspaper.)
Now honestly, if you paid any attention to the mayor’s race, this emphasis on Kensington is no surprise. How to solve the problems of substance abuse and homelessness that plague that section of the city took up a lot of bandwidth during the race. It even attracted conservative commentator Ben Shapiro to the area.
(I would have loved to hear what the folks on the streets had to say to him. We probably couldn’t print any of it.)
Among the things that were discussed a lot on the campaign trail were the encampments of homeless people that line the parts of Kensington that people keep describing as “open-air drug markets.” It’s hard to get around to shop, go to school or meet friends when you’re dodging things such as human waste, human beings, and needles.
This week, City officials have been going to the people currently camping near the intersection of Kensington and Allegheny Avenues, where the heart of the problem is, and letting them know that they’re going to be breaking these encampments up in the not-too-distant future.
A bill passed in City Council last Thursday reinforced those intentions and gave Managing Director Adam Thiel a mandate to provide City Council with reports every other month detailing the number of police interactions with people who are attempting to pitch a tent on the street, where camping is happening most often, what city services are being offered to get people what they need to get them off of the streets and whether or not people are taking the resources offered.
A companion bill will also require the managing director’s office to give Council monthly reports on the city’s use of Narcan. The bill would require information on how many times within a 30-day period people have needed to be revived from overdoses and where this occurs most frequently.
Once the information is acquired, the idea is to use it to (a) see where the problems are concentrated (b) take a look at the resources available and (c) apply those resources to places in the most need.
Hopefully, once that information is gathered, the problem can be solved somewhat. It’s a problem that’s been around for a while.
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