community organizing

Created in the early 1960s as an experiment in affordable home ownership for low and middle income families, Yorktown is one of North Philadelphia’s great success stories. Built on land that the Philadelphia Inquirer once dismissed as a gang and drug-ridden "slum,” Yorktown’s transformation was initiated by Bright Hope Baptist Church and 650 neighbors who banded together to address the housing needs of their community. They partnered with a development organization and formed a 98% black-owned housing cluster on 150 acres of prime land in North Central Philadelphia.

Lancaster Avenue in Ardmore, Pennsylvania is a picturesque street of small family-owned shops, the heart of the community and a historic district in this village on the west side of Philadelphia. Some businesses on the avenue have been in local families for several generations, and residents say that the community has an intimate, small-town feel that they love. But in 2004, Lower Merion Township approved the Ardmore Redevelopment Plan.

In 2004, much of the stable, working class community of Cramer Hill in Camden, New Jersey was slated to be bulldozed. The City Planning Board had authorized $1 billion redevelopment plan that would have demolished 1,200 homes under eminent domain law. Although parts of the Cramer Hill waterfront had fallen into disrepair, residents say that their charming neighborhood on the Delaware River had a vitality that the City failed to recognize. An isolated neighborhood adjacent to a marina, Cramer Hill's forested shores are a unique natural sanctuary.

The Taking of Bodine is a harrowing glimpse into one of the darker episodes of Philadelphia's urban revitalization saga. In 2002 and 2003, residents of the multi-ethnic Norris Square/West Kensington neighborhood received notices that their homes would be repossessed by the city under the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, a redevelopment plan. Blight criteria included "economically or socially undesirable land use," allowing developers to make requests to the city repossess land belonging to long-time residents.

Many older Camden residents have fond memories of a healthier, safer, more vibrant city and can trace its tranformation from a bustling center of industry after World War II to the present. "It was a beautiful place," says Reverend Heyward Wiggins III. "Such a beautiful place to grow up."