Murals in Philadelphia: Part 2

I have received the survey back that i spoke of in an early post. There were 3 rating questions    (1-5), and two open ended question. 

1)How often do you visit/use the parks in your neighborhood? 1=often 5= never

2)How clean is your park that you visit? 1= clean 5= dirty

3)How big of an impact do you think you have on your park? 1=big 5=small

4)What would you want to see be changed in your park?

5) How important do you think parks are to an urban environment? 

For question one, 6 out of 17 people said they visit their park often. 7 though said that they never use their parks. The remaining votes fluctuated in between the two ends. A reason for the higher number of people not visiting their neighborhood parks could be that there is no real park around them. Many of the smaller community parks in different districts do not have proper upkeep. Asphalt is tore up on basketball courts and benches are turned in to make-shift beds for the hundreds of homeless on the streets. 

Very surprisingly though with question two 8 out of 17 stated their parks were clean, and 4 out of 17 saying that their park was pretty dirty (4). There was a 5 (meaning extremely dirty) along with a 3 (moderately dirty). This came to a surprise to me after seeing the results from question one. If the parks in their community are clean then how come they don't spend time there. I know the grass root community members are the back bone of the parks and public spaces, so why wouldn't they want to take advantage of their surroundings. 

With question three 10 out of 17 students said that they feel as if they have very little impact of their neighborhood park. 4 of them said though that they feel they have a large impact on their park. It is hard to say if the students recongnize the impact that they truly have just by either using the park or choosing not to use the park. Both I feel have a huge impact regardless of which you choose. By using the park, it would hopefully be in a positive way so that your input can create a favorable outcome. With not using your park you are having a negative impact, not utilizing all the resources of the park/public spaces in a positive way can leave the area empty and run down. 

The last two questions I chose to leave as open ended so that i could get some actual feedback from the class as to what they would want to see changed, along with how important they feel the parks are to the city. 

The majority of the answers for the first question were the idea of innolving the community more along with the youth. This can be done by more events that will cater to the youth, while bringing out the residents so that can communicate with one another about what they want to see be get acomplished in their community. A few others mentioned ideas of more jogging paths, better dog parks, and simply "clean it up". 

When asked how important do you feel parks are to the city, the natural response i got was very important. The parks are what tie most communities together. As I will explore more with upcoming posts, the parks are protection for the neighborhoods. If a park or community garden is left to rot then it will cause blight with in the surrounding blocks. Having a safe area for residents to hang out in and grow their own vegetables will have a encouraging output amongst all the community members. With the new merger that is joining the Recreation Center of Philadelphia, and the Fairmount Park Commission it will be interesting to see what happens with all the park land that is also involved with social institutions. (church, school)

Francisville, Philadelphia

With in most urban communities you will find grass roots organizations that are the foundation of communities and have a direct influence upon them. It takes just one voice in a community to start a new way of thinking.  As mentioned in the previous post Grays Ferry was an area of disregard. Similar to Grays Ferry a community in North Philadelphia had residents who spoke up and wanted to undo the years of disregard. Residents of Francisville, Philadelphia were awarded a grant in 2007 from Wachovia Regional Foundation to residents along with other organizations to revamp the community of Francisville.  This area was once a vibrant community that had several commercial corridors within its small area. Years of racial feuds destroyed the infrastructure and many of the buildings were not covered by insurance and were never rebuilt. This lead to years of neglect resulting in broken social and economic ties in the community. There are still many steps to go for this neighborhood to be where it once was, and it will take the efforts not just from the community members but political officials as well. 

Murals in Philadelphia

All around Philadelphia there are hundreds of murals painted on walls. As noted in "Philadelphia murals and the stories the tell", early murals were first used for political activism. Years later it became a part of communities and gave residents "the plain folk" a chance to say what they wanted to see everyday.  Although Philadelphia is credited for having the most amount of murals for a city, when I see most of them are located in areas where graffiti once stood and economic and social despair continues. The early forms of murals were strictly public art and not community art based. Most murals now will tell a story of the history of a community and members alike. Anit-graffiti movements are also involved but the focus of mural programs in Philadelphia remains based off of community outreach and encouragement programs. Areas like Grays Ferry where the "The Peace Wall" was painted following a racial charged altercation in 1997 that put a negative spotlight on the city of Philadelphia. The mural depicts guardian angels that look over the community. This area which is some times referred to as the "forgotten bottom".  At that time there was also a number of housing projects that were deteriorating in the housing market and with suburbanization occurring. Some say that people are now beginning to move back to the city, which in turn would create a more diverse community. 

Standard of Living

In 1919 the Bureau of Municipal Research in Philadelphia conducted a report that outlined the standards of living within Philadelphia.(Workingmen's Standard of Living in Philadelphia).There were over 200 families involved in this survey, all of them meeting certain requirements to be involved. The researchers estimated each family had five members; husband, wife, two boys and one girl. It was dated that in 1918 a family could not maintain a fair standard of living on less than $1,636.79 a year. When thinking about this in comparison to today's standard of living it is astonishing. Most researchers would say though since then the normal standard of living has increased ten-fold. Although this is true for many, the standard of living for the lower class has not changed at all. Since the push of suburbanization the people who have the better standard of living have moved out of the cities and on to their own lots of land. This has left many areas with numerous vacant buildings along with acres of unoccupied lots. These are the lots that will attract blight. Although some say that the suburbanization period is coming to an end and people are moving back in to the city, it is the areas that have been neglected the most that are still not receiving the influx of people or money.  This is a form of social segregation that occurs daily within the city. It is clear from just walking around the city that a normal standard of living is much different now then it was back then. The richer stay rich and the poorer get poorer. Once a fair standard of living is maintained across the economic spectrum of all residents in Philadelphia, then neighborhoods will once again be revitalized. 

Escape from Suburbia

Just the other morning I caught the tail end of a great documentary Escape from Suburbia: Beyond the American Dream. There were several points that were brought up for the change that environmentalists seek when thinking about re-planning their own communities. One in particular is Willits, CA, this community has banded together to create a more sustainable community through both eco-villages, and other sustainable practices. The preservation of the community was sought out by the people and they did just that. A localized economy was built through supplying all of their own power. It was solutions like these that kept the community with its head above the rest.  The majority of the actions that were implemented from grass roots groups in the community that wanted a change, and were not going to wait for others (Goverment) to do it for them. 

Broken Window Theory

The concept of the Broken Window Theory is basically the more a neighborhood is taken care of (trash pick up, positive use of public space), the less blight an area will attract. This idea seems simple enough in its context, yet there are still several neighborhoods in the Philadelphia region which have mounds of trash where play grounds and gardens used to be. The play grounds provide to children a safe place to play, while gardens like the one above can provide food for the people of the community. Also with less blight it will provide a more positive feel for the people of the communities. Specifically in North Philadelphia where I live there are several forms of public art which are used in areas where abandon buildings and areas of neglect have attracted several forms of blight. Along Girard Ave. in particular as you walk over the bridges to West Philadelphia you will find they have several murals and recycled mosaics along them.  This area of Girard is used heavily by people using public transportation, which makes me feel that these forms of public art have and will continue to contribute to a more positive environment.  I can firmly say that because across from the intersection in the above picture I have personally worked on the land there cleaning up trash and planting trees during my internship with Fairmount Park this summer. Months later I have noticed there is not as much trash as there once was. Although it is not a true form of public art, planting trees and trash pick up can encourage others to do the same. 

What a busy couple weeks its been, and what better way to start a new week then with some snow.  As I was walking to class today since I couldn't ride my bike. The homes closer to campus had trash pickup this morning. But because of the snow it wasn't picked up right away, as I passed by the majority of the homes there had bags full of cans and other recyclables. It always makes me wonder why are people still not recycling? I know people personally (my Dad) who i yell at about not recycling. The benefits out weigh the effort that is put towards separating recyclables. There are numerous items that can be made from recycled items, everything from insulation with blue jeans to counter types from glass.  R-E-C-Y-C-L-E !!

end/rant

In these past few weeks there has been major discussions from Obama about how America will prevail and with that we will have a stronger economy. The back-bone to this is the idea of sustainable living. More and more green jobs are being created. The Northeast will maintain the manufacturing end of green jobs, the sun belt will focus on solar and the Mid-West will have wind. Having the Unites State shift its focus on this concept of sustainable living is a good thing and gives hope that years from now we will be able to forget about the trouble we once were in.

As for my personal focus with parks and public incorporating recycled art, I have gotten the okay to do a survey with a group of high school students in an after-school mural program. I will also have interviews and photographs of various forms of recycled public art through out Philadelphia once the snow clears. I will also use this to show case other images from around the city.