“Surviving, it is a description of life in the Richard Allen Homes…” (Cohn 2) Being relatively new to the city of Philadelphia, I must say, at first glance there is no hope for this place. There are run-down buildings, garbage covered streets and not to mention the very strong and vile smell that hits you right in the mouth when entering any underground subway platform. Unable and unwilling to travel the city—for various reasons—this aggravated truth remained prevalent to me and my perspective of “Philly living.” Over the summer, I had the privilege to actually travel and explore the city, and concluded that “in the designed environment, pain manifest itself as unfriendly or hostile places.” (Greenberger 38) In lieu of that, I decided to stop complaining and to become a part of the solution. I live in perhaps one of the most popular places in north Philadelphia; home of the famous Max’s Steaks, and Black and Nobel bookstore, as well as Temple University Hospital, Broad and Erie Avenue also known as Nice Town. Standing on the corner of Erie Ave and Broad Street, after just leaving one of the local restaurants, a thought rushed me like the breeze of cold winter air. I realized, that by revitalizing the Broad and Erie—Nice Town—section of the city, we can then bring pride to the community, encourage social and economic growth among the residents and attract new residents to the city as a whole.
By revitalizing this small but very popular area, we can bring pride into the otherwise careless community that currently exists there. “The despair that the neighborhood keeps this community in, I think it begins to psychologically affect the people.” (Cohn 3) Buildings aren’t going to fix themselves up, and trash isn’t going to pick itself up, we have to do it. However, we cannot begin this work if no one sees that it is indeed an issue. By educating the residents on the current conditions of the blighted community, we can begin to mold a different point of view and evoke an otherwise dormant desire for change. For starters, things like community clean up days. It doesn’t cost the city any money, for the people to come out and clean up their own neighborhoods. It gives the people the chance to get out and meet one another; it also gives them a sense of pride about their living conditions. However, “… for me, beauty resides in more than the visual characteristics of a place. It resides in the way those characteristics are brought to bear on the life they contain, protect, and inspire.” (Greenberger 39)
Also, by educating the residents on their current social and economic status, we can then begin to change the way that the majority of the people think in the neighborhood. “As a man thinks, so is he” a very popular saying, but holds some of the most imminent truths about how we view ourselves today. So, the idea of changing the way people think of themselves “will” indeed evoke a “required” change in the neighborhood. “It’s not that people who live there don’t care…” (Cohn 5) they are just uninformed. However, we can implement community outreach programs in which we have people volunteer to come and teach the residents how to flourish in the society socially and economically. For example: class on how to obtain and maintain good credit, classes on controlled spending habits, as well as classes on work place preparations (how to build a resume, what to wear to a job interview, work place etiquette and more). By doing this I can minimize the idea that “mentally, it’s not really a home, it’s not really a community,” that “it’s just a place to live until you find someplace else.” (Cohn 3)
Once we have done this, we can attract new residents to the area. “The sweet spot is that place in an environment where perceptions converge in harmony and new connections are revealed, even if only for a moment.” (Greenberger 38)When looking for a new place to live, there are two things that people most commonly look for. The first thing is the property itself and secondly, how the neighbors and the neighborhood are as a whole. The more people that live in an area, typically the more room for opportunity you have. For example: If more business owners live in this area, there would be no apprehension in building businesses in the area. More businesses mean more job opportunities. A man who lives in the Richard Allen Projects in north Philadelphia said “I can see them saying, if you’re able-bodied, you shouldn’t have to get welfare… but they tell you this and then they never tell you about any jobs.” (Cohn 3) With more jobs, people begin to spend more, and taxes can be used to build more resourceful public libraries, and recreation centers, to keep the minds of otherwise disenfranchised youth from being idle. Making the neighborhood even more marketable, because not only is it clean now, but it’s safe.
“Our most important role as designers is to create the network through which the positive energy of life can flow and the spaces in which the sources of positive energy intersect and enrich life.” (Greenberger 38) It may seem a little difficult at first; however, once we get everyone on the same page in the neighborhood then we can start the process. I am sure that the local business in the area would be more than willing to help any way they can. Just knowing that this means that they won’t have to worry that some starving person is going to come in, and steal from them. You can sometimes see the pain that the long time business owners have, they don’t want to leave they want the people to get better. If the area were nicer and had more to offer, I too would stay after I am done with college. “We can successfully apply these skills at the scale of a building and at the scale of the city, as long as we approach our work with a measure of humanity and a belief that events we can set in motion eventually take on a life of their own.” (Greenberger 38-39)
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