The School District of Philadelphia operates public schools. According to Philadelphia Police, the accident happened at 3300 Kensington Avenue in the Kensington section of Philly. Billy Joel & Stevie Nicks floor seat tickets. [32][failed verification] The majority of its population is Hispanic or Latino (59.9%), consisting primarily of Puerto Rican and Dominican Americans. The help is there, but its not enough. In addition to having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% of Philadelphia's overdose deaths involved opioids, and Kensington is a significant contributor to this figure. During the hunt for the strangler, the area was flooded with cops. Kensington has traditionally been known as one of the working class centers of Philadelphia. Man stabbed to death in Kensington, attacker seen running away Police: Man dead after shooting in Kensington 2 people shot in separate incidents in Philadelphia overnight Police seek suspects. Philadelphia officials developed what they call the "encampment resolution" process in 2017 after the city swept a . 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. [35][citation needed]. Watch on Most dangerous street in Philadelphia Kensington Philadelphia Drug & Crime Problems Violent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. Of the non-Hispanic or Latino population, 19% is White, 15.1% is Black or African American, 3.6% is Asian, and 2.2% identify as two or more races. Soon, thanks to this effort and efforts like it, they wont have to. SBC News 188K subscribers Subscribe 10K 1.4M views 1 year ago #SBCNews. The drugs are just too cheap and too accessible. 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 drug market is so strong in Kensington and the joblessness and institutionalized racism so engrained, the community struggles while the state flounders with resolutions. Addictions a medical problem; cops dont want to deal with that. Many progressives endorse the idea of allowing addicts to get high in certain sections of cities without fear of arrest. 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 has become a welter of crisscrossing needs and opinions, a civic puzzle no one's been able to solve. They eventually set up a new encampment under another railway bridge nearby. Eyes on the Street brings new ideas and fresh voices into the conversation about Philadelphias changing cityscape. [10], By the mid-19th century, Kensington became one of the leading centers of the textile industry, particularly in carpet. You can see people with there faces smashed. Knowing Kensington Avenue like I do, I am distressed by its predominantly negative and fetishized depiction in the media. Max Marin (he/him) was Billy Penn's investigative reporter from 2018 to 2021. Dozens upon dozens of people lived there. Kensington Ave - Everything You Want To Know About Philadelphia's Skid Row Written by Mariska Lee in Pennsylvania Close to the I-95, and a stone's throw away from the scenic Delaware river, Kensington is a neighborhood in northern Philly with quite the reputation. A Google search for Kensington Avenue Philadelphia yields horrendous images of sad-eyed people slumped over in varying poses of despair. These sites have proven to avoid overdoses and connect users to long-term help. ', "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. Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave. Story. Police confirmed that a total of eight vehicles became involved in a messy collision in the [] It happened just after 12 p.m. Sunday on the 3300 block of Kensington. This street wears its heart on its sleeve, triumphs, and failures on full display. Looking to be close to Center City by both car and transit, young white collar workers have been moving to cheaper neighborhoods around downtown. But the Tracks, like Kensington Avenue, resemble a libertarian utopia gone wrong. But arresting heroin addicts? Additionally, 65.8%, almost two thirds, of Kensington residents can be described financially as "poor or struggling" (defined by a Ratio of Income in 2020 to Poverty Level of under 2.00). Drug dealers at the corners. It happened Monday around 10:40 p.m. on the. [Meta] Sticky Comment. 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. Local news should be free and accessible, which is why we ask readers like you to support our work rather than charging a fee to see it. Despite lobbying council members and state representatives, no change has been made. Its central to the neighborhood and offers an ideal place to shoot up and camp out. There have been many petitions by residents to take care of Kensington. No one denies this. Called the largest open-air narcotics market on the East Coast, Kensington Avenue has, without a doubt, made a name for itself. The white residents fled to the suburbs and people of color and limited means moved in. Worse, still, are the articles characterizing this commercial corridor as an adventurous destination for the open-minded shopper. Gladstein acknowledged the problem is too vast to contain with just targeted actions like the one Wednesday morning. A new phase of the Wayne Junction revitalization plan is underway. But since Januarywhen 22-year-old Antonio Rodriguez, a PCP-smoking petty drug dealer from the notorious adjoining Badlands neighborhood, was arrested and charged with the murdersaddicts say that police have retreated, leaving them to do their drugs in relative peace. With the promise of rent subsidies and financial technical assistance from Shift and partners, nine new businesses will be opening shop on Kensington Avenue by this summer. 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. During my career I concluded we werent making a dent in drug addiction or related crime. Read more ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer by Alfred Lubrano Published Aug 5, 2021 It is not safe . Overnight, people are getting stabbed. Close to the I-95, and a stones throw away from the scenic Delaware river, Kensington is a neighborhood in northern Philly with quite the reputation. However, sensationalizing poverty, fetishizing small businesses, and minimizing the collective efforts of a community on the rise are the cheap tactics of bad journalists. Through it all, I consistently found myself impressed in awe of the merchants on Kensington Avenue and hopeful for their entrepreneurial futures. The problem is that Kensington Avenue is largely unseen by Philadelphians. Yet the city has promised zero tolerance for encampments before, and the crackdowns have not yielded a long term solution. Because of the high number of drugs in Kensington, the neighborhood has a drug crime rate of 3.57, the third-highest rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia.3 Like a lot of the country, a big part of this issue is a result of the opioid epidemic. Philadelphias police force is inarguably overwhelmed by the scope of the citys addiction problems. Estimates vary between 300 and 650 people living on the street. When we can make the right connection for people, its really successful, Gladstein said. As of right now, I dont think anyone is confident that theres any sort of larger plan that can account for each person.. While the moniker Killadelphia implies gangland warfare, Kensington is plagued by another culprit: the drug trade. Any given day, a walk down Kensington Avenue yields ample reminders that the neighborhood is the "aortic valve of the region's opioid crisis," as Billy Penn's Max Marin recently put it. We have four outreach teams out in Kensington every day. Fishtown, formerly a small subsection of Kensington, has transformed with a new population of more college educated white people as well as increased investment from real estate developers. Many died there. Frankford Avenue Baptist Church, 2347-49 Frankford Avenue, Kensington, Philadelphia, PA (1889). 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. 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. Each program mixes interviews with guest travel experts, your call-ins with questions and comments, and music. Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave Story, (Short Clip #53) Monday, Sept 6, 2021. The increase in violent crime, homelessness, and out-of-control drug use in Kensington are far greater threats to residents of Philadelphia. There is no hands-free zone' in the city of Philadelphia, and there never will be, says public-affairs officer Lt. Ray Evers. Violent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. History set Kensington up for a steady decline. City personnel help to clear an encampment on the 3200 block of Kensington Avenue, raze a large-scale encampment known as El Campamento, after SEPTA briefly closed the Somerset El stop. At stake in all this, is the soul of a place where Philadelphians have made a living, shopped and socialized for generations. During our visit, addicts casually moved in and out, bringing and injecting their Badlands-bought heroin. A rail-thin woman with hollowed-out cheeks rushed from beneath the El tracks. Everything You Wanted To Know About Los Angeles Skid Row, Everything You Wanted To Know About Los Angeles' Skid Row, Is Philadelphia Safe To Visit? Not everyone who takes advantage of the trade on Kensington Ave lives nearby, though. They tried to institute safe-injection sites, where users can shoot up without fear of prosecution. When officials shut down the four bridge encampments between 2018 and 2019, Gladstein said 65% of people went into housing, and of those, more than half remain in housing today. City workers arrived in the early hours to clear out two homeless encampments the latest dustup in a years-long saga in Kensington and try to get the roughly 50 people living there into housing or recovery services. [15][16][17], Listed on the National Register of Historic Places:[18], Kensington has a population of approximately 42,000 people according to data from ASC 2020 survey. To the east of Kensington, Port Richmond and Olde Richmond are each predominantly white neighborhoods. Not by the thousands who call it home and certainly not by the merchants who, every day, open their businesses. For too long, Kensington residents have resorted to other neighborhoods to shop. ', "Kensington residents ask: 'Why would you think this is acceptable for us? They declared a statewide disaster over the drug epidemic in 2017. It is known for pawn shops and check-cashing joints. Clifton Mills, Building 4, 1809-11 N. Howard Street, Kensington (185263). Kensington is home to a number of community development corporations working to improve housing conditions and economic activity in the neighborhood: Kensington is represented on the Philadelphia's City Council by Districts 1 and 7. [5] The current greater Kensington area roughly coincides with the former Kensington District, Richmond District, Aramingo Borough, and Northern Liberties Township. More recently fentanyl is being replaced with an animal tranquilizer called Xylazine or Tranq. The city has a higher rate of violent crime than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. Forgotten by whom? The citys violent crime rate is higher than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas.1 Also alarming is Philadelphias drug overdose rate. Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave Story, Here's What Happened Today, Tuesday, Sept 7, 20 . Weisbrod & Hess' Loading Room, Condenser & Storage/Boiler & Wash House, 2117 E. York Street (189091). The majority of the neighborhood is renter occupied, 55.6% overall, and up to 66.3% in one tract. Well probably have a detail stationed [there], Alexander said. Soon, it too will house a commercial tenant and NKCDCs new offices. Stop writing about Kensington Avenue like its Mordor. As momentum grows, more and more entrepreneurs are looking at Kensington Avenue as a viable corridor for their businesses. initially postponed due to a lawsuit filed on behalf of residents. Now home to fifty-one residents, this former source of blight is transformed to a beacon of hope. City data supporting those numbers was not readily available. Were trying to make sure people are attaching to services rather than moving, Gladstein said. What sort of reprieve Wednesdays action will offer neighbors and business owners remains unclear. "The blocks [where drug dealing takes place] never closed," said Christine Russo, 38, who's been using heroin for seven years. As with all neighborhoods in the city, the lack of any official designation means the boundaries of the area vary between sources over time and are disputed among locals. Its an environment, they say, that is more tolerant of drug use than ever. Then they, like Kensginton, began to decline further. "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 . 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. Safehouse, a nonprofit founded in 2018 with the purpose of opening the first supervised injection site in the country, sought a location in Kensington after their proposed South Philly location ran into opposition from neighbors of the site. They were en route to more serious crimes going down to the west in the Badlands. If BP helped inform you, join as a member today! I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. [48], In 2011 the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced the closures of three Kensington Catholic schools, as their student numbers had declined: Ascension of Our Lord, St. Anne, and St. Hugh of Cluny.[49]. We talk about our favorite travels in Europe, as well as travel anywhere in the U.S. and the rest of the world. It happened just after 12 p.m. Sunday on the 3300 block of Kensington Avenue. Strong community groups and nonprofits in Kensington have used the neighborhood's empty lots as an opportunity to create community garden spaces. Two emergency shelters closed along Kensington Avenue within the last year. It is part of the River Wards section of the city, a group of neighborhoods close to the Delaware River in North Philadelphia. Philadelphia Kensington Avenue, What happened on Monday, June 28 2021. kimgary 263K subscribers Subscribe 24K Share 3M views 1 year ago Most dangerous street in Philadelphia Kensington. This should not be ignored, and is, in fact, impossible to avoid. [4] It was also the birthplace of the K&A Gang, currently known as the Northeast Philly Irish Mob, an Irish American organized crime network. Whos got works? she calls out to nobody in particular. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed over the last two decades in the United States and Philadelphia is no exception. These boundaries have since shifted so that a large area north of Lehigh Avenue is now considered part of Kensington, while Fishtown is no longer considered part of the neighborhood. Subs are Suboxone, a pill containing buprenophine, a drug that eases the pain of heroin withdrawal. Kim Gary shared a video drive-through of Kensington that will leave you speechless that city Democrats are ignoring the real problems in their city. They marched from Kensington to Oyster Bay, New York, carrying banners demanding, "We want to go to School and not the mines! I n the underworld of Philadelphia, beneath the elevated subway line along Kensington Avenue, tears were as prevalent as needles. The most conservative boundaries of the neighborhood, shown in the map below, are Front Street and 5th Street to the west, the Amtrak train tracks to the North, Trenton Avenue, the Trenton Avenue train tracks, and Frankford Avenue to the east, and Cecil B. Moore Avenue to the south. The situation toward Allegheny Avenue grew even more intense after SEPTA briefly closed the Somerset El stop in January. The shooting happened on the 3100 block of Kensington Avenue around 5:30 p.m. Jason Meyer watched from his wheelchair as city personnel tried to clean up the chaos near Kensington and Allegheny avenues on Wednesday morning. Who is Henry Winklers Son? Subs and Xany bars, subs and Xany bars, chant men in cockeyed baseball caps while pacing the corner, searching the crowd for potential customers. [55] It is also known as an area of prostitution. 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. [39], The proposal to open a supervised injection site in Kensington has faced backlash from residents, despite the area's prevalent public drug use. 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. As it is just north of Fishtown, higher income residents have been moving further up, increasing property values and rents. This area is the aortic valve of the regions opioid crisis, where an estimated billion dollar drug trade draws thousands from all over the region into the post-industrial neighborhood. 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. They have attempted to clean up the neighborhoods, planting trees and replacing broken street lights. But about 15 people remained around 8 a.m., many shielding their faces from news cameras as outreach workers helped them fill plastic bins with their belongings. Juniata, the neighborhood to the north, and Kensington are similar demographically, yet the former is slightly wealthier and has more green space. "[12][13][14], Deindustrialization eventually took hold in the neighborhood in the 1950s, leading to a significant population loss, high unemployment, economic decline, and abandoned homes. A "person of interest" in the case, Antonio Rodriguez, was arrested in January 2011. All About Max Winkler. 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. Documentary by SBC News covering Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave.Philadelphia's most dangerous street.Problems with Drugs and Crime in Kensington Ave, PhiladelphiaIn Philadelphia as a whole, violent crime and drug abuse are major issues. Addicts duck into vacant lots on the Avenue after returning from dope corners a couple of blocks away and, barely concealed by high weeds, casually cook and shoot speedballs. They're visible within seconds of exiting the subway: injections in broad daylight, tent encampments, legions of trash and squalor. Two men nodded in a drug-addled stupor on a sidewalk on Kensington Avenue. One such is the cluster of businesses just off the Huntingdon Market Frankford Line stop, where two of Phillys best Vietnamese restaurants, Thang Long Noodle Restaurant and Caf Pho Gha Than Than reside. This is Kensington Ave my friend. Kensington, colloquially known locally as Kenzo, is a neighborhood in Philadelphia that belongs to or divides Lower Northeast and North Philadelphia. SBC News 188K subscribers Subscribe 5.3M views 7 months ago #SBCNews Documentary by SBC News covering Streets of. They draw a diverse crowd: tight-pantsed hipsters and long-time residents alike enjoy the delicious food in equal measure. [7] Police, after a year and a half, removed these encampments causing its residents to spread up Kensington Avenue. 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. The city's violent crime rate is higher than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas.1 Also alarming is Philadelphia's drug overdose rate. 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. Words such "hopeless" and "dystopian" punctuate an endless scrawl of depressing articles. Dealers stand out in the open, hawking their wares. [38] However, the decision to close the station "indefinitely" led hundreds of Kensington residents to march from Somerset Station to Allegheny Station in protest, recreating the longer trip many of them had to take to access the MFL since the closure. Philadelphia Kensington Avenue, What happened.. 14 19 . 4 2023 , ! Some people cleared from the street sought out permanent housing or treatment, he said but most of the population wouldnt leave an area where they had easy access to drugs. The opioid epidemic has played a significant role in this problem, as it has in much of the rest of the country. Disinvestment and general neglect has led to high abandonment in some sections of the neighborhood, catalyzing several grassroots actions from its residents. Parts of it were once called the 'Badlands' and it is hell on earth. Together we can reach 100% of WHYYs fiscal year goal. On January 4, 2016, Jim Kenney was sworn in as the 99th Mayor of Philadelphia. Construction has started on Penns Landing park over I-95 highway trench. Johnson knowseven with a colorful awning and bright lightingher cafe might not get a lot of consumer street traffic. Using proceeds from the sale of the Hope Farm estate (present day Port Richmond), which included three enslaved people named Abraham, Hannibal, and Phillis,[9] Palmer purchased what was called the Fairman Estate, located along the Delaware River in the Northern Liberties Township (area just north of the City of Philadelphia on the Delaware River).