MOVE Bombing & West Philly Gentrification

 While I was not familiar with the Black Bottom neighborhood in Detroit when we covered it in class on Tuesday, it is a familiar story. I did my undergrad in Philadelphia and was fortunate enough to take an urban studies course “Urbanization and Its Discontents” which covered difficult topics such as gentrification and the displacement of minorities. One of the key events that we studied and visited the site was the MOVE bombing in Philadelphia. It  has been on my mind a lot this past year with the Black Lives Matter Movement making it even more poignant and relevant. 

The MOVE bombing is when the Philadelphia Police Department bombed a residence of black activists in the black militant anarchist group; it’s the only time police have ever bombed civilians. It was an escalation after the group was classified as a terrorist organization and arrest warrants were served. (There is a complicated sub-plot, but the main point is an unprecedented use of force and who bombs their own people and kills kids?!) Eleven people, including five children died in the fire and 65 row homes were destroyed. The fire spread and wiped out a predominantly black middle class neighborhood in West Philly. It is controversial about whether it was ethical to let that many building burn; the police held back the firefighters for fear that the MOVE activists would shoot at the firefighters.  It sounds similar to Black Bottom, but this was 1985!   

Unlike Black Bottom, the land was not so quickly swept up and gentrified. The residents had a messy fight with the city to rebuild them but they were shoddily built — to the point that the original contractors went to jail because the money was misused. The homeowners pushed for rehabilitation of the buildings but ultimately the city stopped and offered to buy people out for $150k per building. The buyout resulted in a max exodus of the neighborhood and is priming the set for a gentrification opportunity. Ultimately this event completely ruined a community and opened it up to being vulnerable for gentrification. 

Going along with the storyline fo West Philly development, this urban studies course taught me an alternative history to my own university. The glossy marketed image of Penn is that it was originally in the center of the city but moved across the Schuylkill River to have more room to grow in 1870; only it is never mentioned that West Philly was already developed. It was the poorer section of the city where mainly minority groups settled. Penn’s iconic castle-like quad complete with gargoyles is built where the city’s almshouse once stood. Even its structure or creating interior courtyards is aggressive as it keeps West Philly out as if a fortress. The gentrification of the area has only amplified in the last century and a half.

These events raise a lot of questions about how the city can control who are welcome inhabitants and how far they can go to get rid of those unwanted. The ways in which it can support some development activities over others is very evident. My favorite project typology is adaptive reuse which constantly makes me question myself and how complicit I am with gentrification. As a designer, I’ve been trying to be better by learning about the history of a site from multiple sources to get a fuller picture and learn all sides. However our jobs are dependent upon creating and selling updates to places; what happens when we are at odds with those who don’t want change?