From Van Stone: Democrat Candidate For PA State Rep 190th Legislative District 2020- My Fight For The Neighborhood Of West Park (Historical Community Site Territory) And The Origins Of West Park For Life Family Story! Series. Part 5?

From Van Stone: Democrat Candidate For PA State Rep 190th Legislative District 2020- My Fight For The Neighborhood Of West Park (Historical Community Site Territory) And The Origins Of West Park For Life Family Story! Series. Part 5?

Speaking of rivaling neighbors and neighborhoods that rivaled others in West Philadelphia, West Park is also a neighborhood that is just shy Northwest of the neighborhood section called the “Bottom”.

The Bottom is a neighborhood that is located from 31^st Street to 42^nd Street, Market Street to Haverford and Lancaster Avenues. I am not talking about the Black Bottom neighborhood though.

Although it too is in the 190^th state rep. district, and at the same time shares apart of neighborhoods in the 188^th state rep. district, the Black Bottom is an altogether completely different neighborhood which is located in the Greys Ferry section of Southwest Philadelphia sharing its own history in Philadelphia.

Now as for anyone growing up in West Park, a poverty-ridden and crime-ridden neighborhood then and today, we residents lived in one of the three 19-story towers.

The 3 towers and their addresses are, starting with the first of them, 4445 Holden Street, 300 North Busti Street and 400 North Busti Street. I lived in the first of the 3 towers. Each tower had a front entrance, a rear entrance, 2 elevators and 2 stairwells.  

The apartment complex was built as the first of many beautiful historic high-rise buildings that were developed throughout sections of West and North Philadelphia in the mid-sixties.

The West Park towers complex, a sight to behold from as far away as from downtown Philadelphia, would become more than just an ordinary one hundred and thirteen-acre site.

I am confident that the high-rise buildings built later throughout the city have their own unique histories.

The West Park campus site was built as a neighborhood transformation plan for working, yet still struggling and at-risk, Black American families during racial segregation rules and laws. 

Discrimination in the sale and rental of housing on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, disability school systems, businesses, the American military, other civil services and the government was still the norms if you were a kid about to live in West Park then. 

When the plan was announced by the City of Philadelphia City Council and Philadelphia Housing Authority and the Philadelphia School District that the West Park campus site would be urban development for primarily Black Americans the plan was furiously met with opposition due to blatant racism, prejudice and discrimination. 

In the meantime, the plan was all worked out between the joint property purchaser, which was the city council and the housing authority.

To be continued…