The Changing Face Of Philadelphia Series

• Philadelphia Inquirer - In G-Ho, the pendulum swings again
• Budget Cuts Are A Threat To School Safety In Philadelphia

The Inquirer documents the changes facing the City Of Philadelphia that the 2010 US Census has uncovered.

This story is part of a series on the changing face of Philadelphia as reflected in the new 2010 census figures.

Per my recent visit to the city of my birth with my vision from 25 years intact - I did not need a census or a newspaper series to clue me in on the obvious:   The neighborhoods in large expanses of this historic city remain stagnant.   With the political victories won - the key institutions for community uplift are falling short of their mission to provide the pillars of support in this effort.

It comes as no surprise to see that this is the case when such a large representative sample of the Black Community consciousness from Philly and other cities are more focused on what their ideological and political enemies are doing instead of keenly focused on actually reforming the institutions to deliver the benefits into the people as promised when they struggled to achieve this controlling order.  The opportunity cost of this diverted attention for use by other interest groups is evident to anyone who applies a more transparent analysis of the situation at hand.

The information that a historic Black church which once served as the backbone of the Black community's spiritual and social services needs is now being torn down.  The decline of the physical building closely paralleling the decline in the headcount of Black people in the area.

Most articles which appraise the fortunes of these traditional Black sections of cities focus upon the present state as a metaphor of the consequences that isolation and purposeful marginalization hath wrought.  Few people note that in this narrative there is some incumbent reference to the obligation that the main stream society had to this "despised" segment.

Rarely do we hear the narrative of the popular choices that were made inside of the domain in question.  In as much as "equal human beings" were seen living in these spaces the adults among them and the leadership which strongly influenced the messages that became the prevailing consciousness of the people deserve some inspection.

It is only when the people begin to ask the question - in a dispassionate manner: "Do we stand stronger today after matriculating through the process which we fully assisted in to power over our institutions?" - that anything about these communities will change.

• Why were the Black people who departed the community after the VICTORY (as defined by the leaders) was won choose to leave?
• If, in fact, that which was delivered was far short of what was promised along the way as we were compelled to be UNIFIED in order to achieve the greater victory - WHO will take the hit for the failure?
• Is it possible that those who called for UNITY did so as a means of avoiding having to field the necessary questions that needed to be asked?
• WHAT corrective policies are now in place to prevent the same scheme from being executed upon the Black community in the future?    This to prevent "a WIN" to certain interest groups but a catastrophic LOSS to the interests of the Black Community?
• How many Korean, Chinese, Dominican or Indi/Paki owned retail stores with bullet proof glass are concentrated in this community that is featured in the Inquirer article?  What VISION of potential did they see in the community that many of the residents did not?

From The Article

IT WAS a cold and sunny February morning this year when the Rev. Clarence Martin Sr. returned to the site of his Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, at 20th and Fitzwater streets, and saw the historic building already partly demolished, its red bricks caved in by a backhoe.

Martin didn't want to see its destruction. But he had to visit a congregation member who lived across the street.

"It was very painful," he said last week. "That's why I didn't really want to go down there."

Now on the site, in this gentrifying neighborhood south of the former Graduate Hospital, nicknamed G-Ho, the wooden framework for new three-story town houses with rooftop decks and parking garages is already up.

The demolition of the African-American church and the building of new town houses is a stark symbol of the dramatic changes that have swept this neighborhood.

The area - also known as Southwest Center City, or South of South, bounded by South Street and Washington Avenue, Broad Street and the Schuylkill - is one of the areas in the city that saw a huge decline in its black population from 2000 to 2010.

According to census data, the neighborhood witnessed a drop of about 4,000 black residents, replaced by that many white residents. There was also a small increase of about 600 Latino and Asian residents. Overall, the area grew by 1,000 people.

In 2000, black residents comprised the majority, or 72 percent of the population. Ten years later, whites make up the majority, at