kensingtonplan.org<\/a>, a group which focuses on a resident-driven framework for change.<\/p>\nLate last month, Mayor Cherelle Parker arrived at McPherson Square Library and Park to celebrate her 1,000th day in office and to break ground on a $21.7 million renovation of the historic Carnegie library and its six-acre surrounding park, signs she said were evidence of the changes to improve the quality of life in Kensington.<\/p>\n
McKinney credits officials who helped secure the investment but questions the public ceremonies held by elected officials touting how much better things are in Kensington. \u201cAre things better or have things just changed?\u201d he asked. \u201cBecause the core issues haven\u2019t been addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real issues here aren\u2019t just cleanliness and crime,\u201d he added. \u201cThe problems are jobs and education. That\u2019s what\u2019s at the root\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Dr.](\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\")
<\/p>\n
Dr. Bill McKinney, NKCDC executive director, points to the Ruth Street Civic House, which is affordable housing available to rent. \u2014TRIBUNE PHOTO\/KAYLA BROWN<\/p>\n
Kayla Brown
\nTRIBUNE PHOTOGRAPHER<\/p>\n
He compared the city\u2019s efforts to the way he tidies up his office before guests arrive. \u201cI straightened up a little bit before you all came,\u201d he said to a group of journalists. \u201cAll my trash is under my desk right now. It\u2019s still here.\u201d<\/p>\n
McKinney sees a familiar approach across successive administrations. \u201cPolicing and sanitation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The executive director acknowledges that some streets are cleaner, violence has declined, and fewer people are dying from overdoses. But he questions whether these changes have improved Kensington families\u2019 financial circumstances.<\/p>\n
McKinney worries that cleaner streets and new buildings will not be enough if poverty persists and long-time residents cannot afford to stay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a brutal job,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the most brutal job I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cAre things better or have things changed? Kensington is still just as poor as it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
One Philly Kensington Blitz<\/p>\n
City officials point to several areas where the community has improved.<\/p>\n
First Deputy Managing Director Crystal Yates-Gale, who oversees Philadelphia\u2019s health and human services departments, said the Parker administration is working to improve conditions through an intensive, coordinated effort across city agencies.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr. Bill McKinney, NKCDC executive director, stands in the Tusculum Gateway Garden in Kensington. \u2014TRIBUNE PHOTO\/KAYLA BROWN<\/p>\n
Kayla Brown
\nTRIBUNE PHOTOGRAPHER<\/p>\n
The effort, known as the One Philly Kensington Blitz, began on Sept. 5 under Managing Director Carlton Williams.<\/p>\n
The city divided Kensington into three geographic zones and concentrated services in one zone each week. Workers clean and power-wash streets, remove trash and abandoned vehicles, address dangerous properties, collect discarded syringes, and connect people experiencing homelessness or substance use disorders to treatment and shelter.<\/p>\n
The operations involve the Police and Fire Departments, Emergency Medical Services, the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services, the Office of Homeless Services, the Health Department, Streets and Sanitation, Parks and Recreation, Licenses and Inspections, the Water Department, and the Philadelphia Parking Authority, said Yates-Gale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do from the managing director\u2019s perspective is more coordination and collaboration across many city departments,\u201d Yates-Gale told the Tribune.<\/p>\n
During the first six operations, she said, city crews collected more than 8,000 discarded syringes and cleaned 1,166 blocks. The city also reported 51 shelter placements through homelessness and behavioral health services and the distribution of 620 naloxone kits.<\/p>\n
The Managing Director\u2019s Office said the blitz builds on the Monday-through-Friday cleaning already done by the Sanitation Department and the Community Life Improvement Program by extending cleaning and outreach to people experiencing homelessness or substance use disorders to weekends and sometimes Fridays.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr. Bill McKinney is the executive director of the New Kensington Community Development Corporation. \u2014TRIBUNE PHOTO\/KAYLA BROWN<\/p>\n
Kayla Brown
\nTRIBUNE PHOTOGRAPHER<\/p>\n
Since Sept. 5, the office said, crews have also cleaned 751 graffiti sites, removed about 80 tons of debris, filled 126 potholes, and towed or impounded 296 abandoned vehicles. Those figures do not include the most recent blitz.<\/p>\n
Yates-Gale also cited reductions in shootings, homicides, and fatal overdoses as evidence of progress, though she could not provide the specific figures during the interview.<\/p>\n
McKinney and other neighborhood advocates believe that organizations already working with residents should play a greater role in shaping the city\u2019s response.<\/p>\n
Yates-Gale acknowledged that the government cannot achieve its goals alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that the residents can\u2019t solve it alone. And we know the nonprofit organizations can\u2019t solve it alone. We have to all do it together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Displacing residents<\/p>\n
McKinney shared several challenges his group faces. For example, he pointed out that a nutrition education program tied to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ended on Sept. 30. The organization also lost a federal housing counseling contract and faced cuts that affected its Cure Violence work. McKinney estimated total funding losses to exceed $1 million.<\/p>\n
NKCDC has spent years helping families avoid eviction, access housing assistance, and preserve affordable homes. McKinney estimated that its housing counseling programs prevented 700 to 800 evictions over a three-year period.<\/p>\n
The organization has also acquired 24 single-family homes and two five-unit buildings to preserve affordable rental housing.<\/p>\n
Additionally, NKCDC is building 17 single-family homes, each costing about $350,000 to construct. City subsidies and additional fundraising help reduce sale prices to about $180,000 to $190,000, and without that financial assistance, McKinney said many Kensington families could not afford the newly constructed properties.<\/p>\n
Ta\u2019Nika Thornton-Trice, a longtime Kensington resident and block captain, fears that rising real estate values could eventually displace residents who endured the neighborhood\u2019s hardest years. She said she wants the neighborhood to improve and for longtime residents to share in its recovery.<\/p>\n
The are some positive signs: She credits NKCDC with helping residents access housing counseling, rental assistance, and other services, while noting that her own housing experience has been difficult.<\/p>\n
After her first child was born, Thornton-Trice considered leaving Kensington because she feared raising a family near the drug market. She said she sought help from a city-run housing assistance program but was told she did not qualify.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was told that I have to literally live on the street to get help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Unable to find another place to live, she stayed.<\/p>\n
Today, she is raising two children, expecting a third, and helping organize neighbors on the same streets she once wanted to leave.<\/p>\n
The Economy Nobody Replaced<\/p>\n
McKinney estimates that Kensington\u2019s illegal drug economy now exceeds $1 billion annually, citing a 2021 figure by then-Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who described the neighborhood\u2019s open-air drug market as possibly the largest in the nation, with heroin sales generating as much as $60,000 a day on some blocks. McKinney said that estimate furthers his concern about the enormous financial power of trafficking.<\/p>\n
He believes the city should invest more in job training, education, affordable housing, addiction treatment, and support for local businesses.<\/p>\n
Yates-Gale agreed that lasting improvements require efforts beyond policing and sanitation. \u201cIt is really a comprehensive approach that\u2019s needed here,\u201d she said. \u201cOne single thing is not going to create a change.\u201d<\/p>\n
She cited the city\u2019s work on behavioral health, homelessness, children\u2019s services, and employment opportunities, but deferred questions about specific business-development initiatives to the Department of Commerce.<\/p>\n
McKinney has participated in neighborhood planning efforts, including Co-Creating Kensington, which convenes residents to identify priorities and develop solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are beautiful people that come through this space,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ll see their power.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is particularly troubled by the growing number of Black and Latino residents he has seen struggling with addiction in the neighborhood. \u201cWe should be ringing every alarm,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause our folks are dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
For parents like Thornton-Trice, the hope is that their children will one day know McPherson Square as a playground rather than as the place where they first witnessed an overdose.<\/p>\n
Still, he refuses to surrender Kensington to the drug trade or abandon the families who have endured its worst years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful that I\u2019m able to serve my community this way and do what I do, and I\u2019ll fight,\u201d McKinney said. \u201cI\u2019m willing to lose it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other articles in this series<\/p>\n
Stay informed and connected \u2014 subscribe to The Philadelphia Tribune NOW! Click Here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is another in a series of articles on life inside one of Philadelphia\u2019s most challenged neighborhoods. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[131117,8921,19077,128127,131118,69,71,70,9327],"class_list":["post-323539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-dr-bill-mckinney","tag-kensington","tag-mayor-cherelle-parker","tag-nkcdc","tag-one-philly-kensington-blitz","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-renovation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}