Above: West Park High-rise. A Philadelphia Historic Site
“Kelvin Jeremiah, PHA president and
CEP says that privatizing part of the property can be a win.
“The site is an enclave. It isn’t
integrated into the larger community,” said Jeremiah. “You know that it is a
public housing site not only because of the type of structure- the high-rise
and the brown brick, but because it is not accessible or resident-friendly.
This is warehousing the poor.”
If elected, PHA and Kelvin Jeremiah and Van Stone will go to war over the West Park sale dispute.
First things first. This is my
story. I grew up in the Westpark neighborhood of West Philadelphia called
“Westpark High-rise Projects” (Apartment Complex), completed in its entirety by
1966.
The section located in Philadelphia
County was formally named the Mill Creek Country Farm, and then, afterwards
renamed Blockley Retreat.
It was renamed Blockley retreat
because Blockley Road was Market Street before the city began to pave the
country roads into urban streets. Speaking about Market Street, for the record,
Blockley Road was renamed West Chester Roads (today, West Chester Pike) and
then, once again renamed Market Street as far as where the road meets Chester
Pike at 69th and Market Street today. Eventually, Market Street,
continuing above 69th and Market Street, became West Chester Roads
and is now known as West Chester Pike.
Meanwhile, speaking about pikes,
streets, roads, Westpark territory, Mill Creek landmass, Mill Creek Farmland,
and the flowing Schuylkill River that ran around about and beneath the Mill
Creek Country Farm area, all of the country woodlands and farm land of the
Westpark neighborhood was originally the home of my peoples anyway.
The Delaware Indians, the Lenni
Lenape Indians. To be continued...
