AS CITY LEADERS yesterday gathered under a tent cooled by
fans to make speeches about the more than $500 million rebuilding plan to
transform the tattered Blumberg Apartments and the surrounding Sharswood
community, they couldn't hear the grumbling of residents who are being forced
out this fall.
Kelvin Polanco, 32, said he has not been able to sleep
since receiving a letter from the Philadelphia Housing Authority in July
stating that he had 90 days to move from the Oxford Street building where he
operates a mini market on the ground floor and lives with his wife and two
daughters upstairs.
He'd been renting the place since 2001, and was able to
buy it for $118,000 in 2013. Under eminent domain, the city is offering him
$56,000, Polanco said.
"How am I going to provide for my family, my mom and
my two employees?" he asked after the groundbreaking ceremony, which
featured Mayor Nutter and City Council President Darrell Clarke, among others.
"We don't want to leave the neighborhood, we want to
stay," Polanco said. "If the case was that we would have to leave
after all, at least we want to get paid what we deserve."
The city officials said area residents have long deserved
a much better neighborhood than the violent, rundown North Philadelphia place
they call home.
Kelvin Jeremiah, PHA president and CEO, said the ultimate
goal is to make "Sharswood a neighborhood of choice."
Jeremiah told Polanco that the July letter he received
was the start of the process, and the "onus" was on Polanco to
demonstrate that his property and business are of greater value than what he
was offered.
"This is not just about bricks and mortar. It's
about kids being able to play in the street. It's about adults having a great
roof over their heads. It's about seniors being able to truly live their lives
with the respect and dignity that they deserve. That's what transformation is
really all about," Nutter said to the audience, which gathered under the
tent on a gravel-filled vacant lot at the corner of 24th and Bolton streets.
On that lot - and two other lots adjacent to it - will be
built the first phase of the 10-phase "Sharswood/Blumberg Transformation Plan."
It calls for $22.2 million to be spent on the
construction of 57 rental units in a mix of duplexes, triplexes and townhouses.
The project is scheduled to be completed next August.
When the entire project is completed in about 10 years,
the officials said, 1,200 new residential units would have been built,
including 420 affordable and market-rate homeownership units and 100
market-rate rental units.
The Ridge Avenue commercial corridor will be rehabbed to
feature small, local businesses and a supermarket; additional recreational
facilities, green space and community gardens will be added; and adult
education, job training and health programs will be offered to residents.
PHA also plans to move its headquarters to the
neighborhood.
To make way for the new, this fall two of the three
Blumberg high-rise apartments and 15 low-rise apartment buildings will be
razed, while the high-rise for seniors will be emptied and renovated.
An additional 1,330 privately owned properties in the
area are being taken through eminent domain, though city officials said most
are blighted and vacant.
A few dozen Blumberg residents who are being forced to
relocate to other public housing communities across the city, came out of their
homes to watch yesterday's ceremony from across 24th Street.
Several said they were being moved into smaller
apartments in parts of the city that they are not familiar with, and which are
more dangerous than Blumberg. Some said they had to sell furniture and
appliances because their new units are so small.
"All I'm saying is, I don't mind going if I got to
go, but give me something suitable and safe," said Jacqueline Brock, 46,
who lives with her two adult sons.
While 60 percent of Blumberg's residents have already
moved, 452 families have yet to do so as of yesterday, PHA spokeswoman Nichole
Tillman said.
Source: Philly.com
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