In 2017, officials moved to raze a large-scale encampment known as El Campamento that had long existed, hidden out of sight along the Conrail train tracks. These territorial disputes happen in clear daylight, theres no concern for the repercussions. Stories About Kensington - CBS Philadelphia During our visit, addicts casually moved in and out, bringing and injecting their Badlands-bought heroin. Commissioner [Charles] Ramsey does not support it; no one in this department does. He adds that the department does the best it can to guarantee public safety and stop drug use with the resources it has, but that it cant lock up people without good reason. Just before 5 p.m. the following day, in the 2100 block of North 20th Street, police found Dawson Johnson . There still is no answer for the full number of people out here, McKinney said. Gladstein acknowledged the problem is too vast to contain with just targeted actions like the one Wednesday morning. But Meyer, a 35-year-old whos spent years bounding between rehab and the streets as he battles his addiction, said it felt like deja vu. Kensington, as most long-term residents view it, refers generally to the area consisting of Kensington, East, or Lower Kensington, West Kensington, and Harrowgate. Many now-users originally sought out street drugs due to injuries or post-surgery pains and couldnt afford the legal medicines to soothe their pain. Kensington homeless encampments are set for Aug. 18 clear-out. Many . The original area of Kensington is now more commonly called "Fishtown," mainly because of the shad fishing that was one of the dominant businesses in Kensington in the 18th and 19th centuries. I n the underworld of Philadelphia, beneath the elevated subway line along Kensington Avenue, tears were as prevalent as needles. Theres a significant number of people who commute to this space to pick up what they need, making the residual effects of the narcotic empire spread far and wide. The government has shown attempts at trying. The Tracks, a mile-long wooded stretch of shipping railway cutting across the Badlands, is a section of Philadelphia long ago ceded by law enforcement to drug users. gdpGdp GDP . Officers will issue code violation notices and try to prevent new spots from forming. 'They Need Support': Philadelphia Officials Break Up Homeless He also sold to recent German fishermen immigrants. As momentum grows, more and more entrepreneurs are looking at Kensington Avenue as a viable corridor for their businesses. Photographer Reveals The "Addicted" Side Of Philadelphia | Bored Panda [Meta] Sticky Comment. This section of Philadelphia is considered the center of opioid drug use and the city and community are working to bring the crisis under control.Read more ANTHONY PEZZOTTI / Staff Photographer The Free Library of Philadelphia operates the McPherson Square Branch at 601 East Indiana Avenue,[50] and the Kensington Branch at 104 W Dauphin Street. On the night we visited, police cars cruised past, their lights flashing, but never stopped. But Gladstein said many people remain shelter resistant for various reasons and the number of emergency beds near Kensington where people actively use drugs is limited. Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Avenue, What happened - YouTube The United States Post Office operates the Kensington Post Office at 1602 Frankford Ave.[47] The U.S. The situation feels like its at a breaking point for some. Juniata, the neighborhood to the north, and Kensington are similar demographically, yet the former is slightly wealthier and has more green space. Arrest made after deadly crash in Kensington, Philadelphia police say The incident happened at the intersection of G and Tioga Streets around 4:40 p.m. Nov 13, 2022 00:17 Arrest made after. The adjacent Fairhill and Norris Square neighborhoods are more separate but may be included in Kensington; Fishtown and South (Olde) Kensington were previously included but have developed new identities with gentrification. Jackie is missing. Despite research on the positive effects of these sites, the Trump administration blocked them from being established. The part of Kensington below Lehigh Street, or as it has been rebranded[citation needed] "Lower Kensington" or "East Kensington", is the part of Kensington most clearly experiencing gentrification. As of right now, I dont think anyone is confident that theres any sort of larger plan that can account for each person.. The New Kensington Community Development Corporation, Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services, WHYY thanks our sponsors become a WHYY sponsor. And public homelessness ranks high on the list of concerns. No one denies this. Community garden spaces in and around the neighborhood include Kensington Corridor Trust Community Garden, NKCDC Garden, Las Parcelas - Norris Square, El Batey - Norris Square, Collins Smith Barrick Play Garden, Emerald Street Community Farm, Rainbow Park, House of Grace Community Garden, Port Kensington, Hart Lane Farm, Circle of Hope / Frankford Ave Garden. Harbisons' Dairies, 2041-55 Coral Street (1895). Postal service considers 19134 (Richmond Station) as the area known as Port Richmond. Since 2015, 295 people have been shot within a five minute walk of Kensington and Allegheny, a busy intersection at the heart of the neighborhood, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer analysis. However, heroin and fentanyl is without a doubt the most popular drugs. Johnson knowseven with a colorful awning and bright lightingher cafe might not get a lot of consumer street traffic. [33] Such a phenomenon is happening across Kensington, causing long-term residents to be priced out. On Wednesday, Steve, a 30-year-old fentanyl user who declined to give his last name, said he sympathized with the residents plight. Kensington Hospital for Women, 128-40 Diamond Street, Kensington, Philadelphia, PA. Peter Woll & Sons, Curled Hair & Bristles, 173 W. Berks Street, Kensington, Philadelphia, PA. Second Associate Presbyterian Church, 1523-25 N. Front Street, Kensington, Philadelphia, PA (185254). The City of Philadelphia, Police and social services are along Kensington Avenue near Willard Street on Wednesday morning August 18, 2021, clearing the streets of homeless in the center of the opioid epidemic in the city. Kensington's Recovery Plan - The Philadelphia Citizen [5] The current greater Kensington area roughly coincides with the former Kensington District, Richmond District, Aramingo Borough, and Northern Liberties Township. Kensington Ave Phila : r/philadelphia - reddit Driven by a resident engagement process, this is a best practices model for how to equitably manage what could be a tidal wave of gentrification as Philadelphians continue to discover the under-the-radar appeal of the area. "PR," age 41, of Philadelphia, PA, was convicted at trial of all counts with which he was charged, including conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and possession with intent to distribute crack and heroin, arising from his leadership role in supplying a drug . Words such "hopeless" and "dystopian" punctuate an endless scrawl of depressing articles. Neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Neighborhood of Philadelphia in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States, primarily white young urban professionals, H.W. Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave. Story Most encampment residents had moved out from the former site before Wednesday morning. Called the largest open-air narcotics market on the East Coast, Kensington Avenue has, without a doubt, made a name for itself. Parents will walk their children to the bus stop, even if it can be seen from their front door, and wait there with them until the bus comes. The panel was developed in part by Tony Heriza, a documentary filmmaker working on a film about the Storefront, an art and community services hub set up in Kensington by Mural Arts Philadelphia. The conflict between clean residents and dealers can escalate, sometimes so high that a person once threw a Molotov cocktail through a residents window. Fairhill and Norris Square are separate from Kensington with a more central North Philadelphia identity; however, exactly where the neighborhoods separate is subject to much debate and there are people within both neighborhoods who identify with Kensington. [52], The neighborhood has gained nationwide attention and great notoriety because of extensive press coverage of its thriving narcotics drug scene, often described as the largest on the east coast. The area is densely residential, but crime rates are highest in this part of Kensington and, because of relocation actions taken by Philadelphia's Police,[7][8] it has the highest concentration of homeless and opioid addicted residents. With such a high concentration of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have focused on the neighborhood in an attempt to address Philadelphia's problem. Subscribe to SBC News: https://www.youtube.com/c/SBCNewsYouTube?sub_confirmation=1#SBCNews [56], In 2010, three women (Elaine Goldberg, 21; Nicole Piacentini, 35; and Casey Mahoney, 27) were strangled to death in the neighborhood. It is this sort of activism, buoyed by engaged (and zoning savvy!) The avenue runs on a north/south slant and unofficially includes the neighborhoods of Kensington, East and West Kensington, Fairhill, Port Richmond, and Olde Richmond. In 2017, the city cleared it out in an attempt to begin to tackle the cyclic issue of homelessness and drug use. But the Tracks, like Kensington Avenue, resemble a libertarian utopia gone wrong. 2913-15 Kensington Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19134 (215) 634-5272 Prevention Point Philadelphia is a harm reduction center that provides syringe exchange services, free medical care, linkage to drug treatment, housing services, HIV/HCV testing, free meals, mail services, medical care, legal services and overdose prevention, and reversal training. The city of Philadelphia has set a deadline of Aug. 18 for encampments of people living homeless on the sidewalks of Kensington to be cleared. Persuading the federal government to change its prohibition stance will prove difficult, considering how fiercely divisive the issue is among law enforcement. Shes comparatively clean cut, probably from the suburbs or middle-class Northeast Philadelphia, whose residents with a taste for heroin are drawn to Kensington for its freewheeling addiction-bazaar atmosphere. The intersection of Kensington and Allegheny Avenues (commonly referred to by Philadelphians as "K & A") is a major transportation and retail hub in the Kensington neighborhood, as it is served by the Frankford Elevated portion of the MarketFrankford Line which, running on top of Kensington Avenue, dominates the intersection. But arresting heroin addicts? February 28, 2023 Police seek person who cut Comcast lines on Super Bowl Sunday, causing panic among Eagles fans Approximately 17,000 Xfinity customers in Fishtown and Kensington were affected by . Different tactics are required for each site, depending on whether its public or private property, he said. All About Max Winkler. SEPTA City Bus routes 3 (on Kensington Avenue, running underneath the "El") and 60 on Allegheny Avenue, with route 5 nearby on Frankford Avenue, also serve the K & A area. You have to do [legalization] right if youre going to do it, otherwise you create more problems, says Franklin of LEAP. Learn more about Social Responsibility at WHYY. That camp was cleared, and another formed. [51] After Philadelphia Police forcibly removed a large encampment of these people from an abandoned railroad track by Lehigh Avenue, several smaller encampments formed under the tracks. Kensington has traditionally been known as one of the working class centers of Philadelphia. Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave Story, What happened Today, October, 05, 2021. kimgary 266K subscribers 348K views 1 year ago Most dangerous street in Philadelphia Kensington. Between the two encampments targeted on Wednesday, half a dozen other spots continue to grow. Philadelphia officials developed what they call the "encampment resolution" process in 2017 after the city swept a . Estimates vary between 300 and 650 people living on the street. Kensington Independent Civic Association), This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 14:40. "You can't buy, use, and recover in the same neighborhood," Bingham said. Violent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. This should not be ignored, and is, in fact, impossible to avoid. Close to the Delaware River where factories have since closed it is called the Walmart of Drugs and it is the world leader in heroin sales and usage. The number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50% from 2013 to 2015, with more than twice as many deaths from drug overdoses as deaths from homicides in 2015.2 A big part of Philadelphias problems stem from the crime rate and drug abuse in Kensington. Kensington was featured in Nat Geos 2013 docu-series, Drugs Inc. in the episode about Philadelphia. initially postponed due to a lawsuit filed on behalf of residents. [57] Rodriguez confessed to the murders and was sentenced to life in prison in 2012. ', "Trapped by the 'Walmart of Heroin' Housing Alliance of PA.org", "Philadelphia's Kensington Avenue: Heroin, Prostitution, and No Police", Police arrest 'Kensington Strangler' person of interest, "9 people shot outside bar in Philadelphia: report", "9 shot outside bar in Kensington: Philadelphia police", New Kensington Community Development Corporation, Graduate Hospital / Southwest Center City, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kensington,_Philadelphia&oldid=1140536041, Articles using NRISref without a reference number, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox settlement with possible area code list, Pages using infobox settlement with no coordinates, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2022, Articles with failed verification from June 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Between 2013 and 2015, the number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50%, with more than twice as many deaths from overdoses as homicides. Kensington mostly lies under the 180th State Representative District, being represented by Jose Giral. This Philly neighborhood is purportedly the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the East Coast with many neighboring residents flocking to the area for heroin and other opioids.4 With such a high number of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have zoned in on this area to try and tackle Philadelphias problem. You can do that in Amsterdam, Will Sims says, comparing hard-ass Kensington with what he perceives to be the touchy-feely Netherlands, but this is Philly, and Philly aint Amsterdam.. Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Avenue, What happened today, Aug, 2021. kimgary 267K subscribers Subscribe 5.3M views 1 year ago Show more 1.9M views New Orleans Tourist Traps and Things to. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed over the last two decades in the United States and Philadelphia is no exception. More recently fentanyl is being replaced with an animal tranquilizer called Xylazine or Tranq. For too long, Kensington residents have resorted to other neighborhoods to shop. Philadelphias District Attorney Seth Williams risked backlash from hardcore law-and-order types when he recently stopped criminally prosecuting minor marijuana offenses. SBC News 188K subscribers Subscribe 5.3M views 7 months ago #SBCNews Documentary by SBC News covering Streets of. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed in the United States over the last two decades, and Philadelphia is no exception. Construction is slated to start this week on Arguto Court, an adaptive reuse project featuring office space and a cafe. Nine years later and were still talking about it. My name is Mariska and I'm living my best life while living the van life. Not everyone who takes advantage of the trade on Kensington Ave lives nearby, though. [40] In Kensington, most residents have opposed the plans and organized against the site being located in Kensington, including leaders of five civic organizations in the area. The number of drug overdose deaths in the city . City Managing Director Tumar Alexander, who oversees the police response in Kensington, said there will be a zero tolerance policy for new encampments on the two targeted blocks. At A and Indiana, an anxious crowd gathered, their eyes filled with the weary desperation that is so emblematic of addiction. Kensington was the birthplace of the K&A Gang, an Irish American organized crime association known for their distribution of methamphetamine in the 1980s. A former bank will become a commercial kitchen and event space. Mattresses lie in the mud along the railway where prostitutes trick, and rapes and assaults are common. City workers clear two encampments on Kensington Avenue - Inquirer.com These are bakeries, daycares, artist spaces, and coffee roasters; businesses selected to draw foot traffic and fill much-needed service gaps. Even Dr. Oz took the time to show us a Kensington Avenue as a hellscape. These articles tell an intentional narrative, one which has no room for hope. Some merchants, like Widdy Darts, a 108-year-old dartboard manufacturer, have been that way for a long time. Kensington's river ward identity puts it in contrast with the neighborhoods to its west. Groups of Irish Americans, Polish Americans, and Asian Americans also make up the neighborhood. Kensington was previously known for its large working class Irish Catholic community and was the site of the Philadelphia Nativist Riots in the 19th century. They're visible within seconds of exiting the subway: injections in broad daylight, tent encampments, legions of trash and squalor. Philadelphia Kensington Avenue, What happened.. 14 19 . 4 2023 , ! The super brief history is Kensington was a thriving industrial area of factory workers until deindustrialization happened which left the neighborhood impoverished and jobless. They were en route to more serious crimes going down to the west in the Badlands. Crack houses and shooting galleries were raided because women could easily get raped and killed there. Whos got works? she calls out to nobody in particular. More simply, some define Kensington as the triangular area bounded by Erie Avenue to the north, Front Street (and sometimes Fifth Street) to the West, and Trenton Avenue to the East. The citys unrelenting heat wave has left them worse for wear, their exposed skin coated in a glaze of sweat, their tank tops and shorts smeared with street grime. Drug activity is not hidden here, especially not when heroin can go for as cheap as $5 a bag.
