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Community Preservation Network Launches in Philly
by
Aaron Couch, Philly IMC | 06.24.2006
A rally in front of city hall yesterday marked the launch of the Community Preservation Network. The coalition of groups from across the city is dedicated to supporting communities as eminent domain abuse and gentrification displace many in developing neighborhoods.  Home of Don Manuel Velez slated for removal  Community Preservation Network “We have to fight the forced taking of our homes and other methods of displacement," remarked Lisa Segarra before a crowd of a hundred supporters. "Poor people are not barriers in the way of progress. We deserve to be around to benefit from improvements in our communities.” Speakers included Lisa Segarra and Don Manuel Velez (Community Leadership Institute – West Kensington), Al Alston, (African American Business and Residents Association – Brewerytown), Carolyn Thomas (community activist and victim of eminent domain abuse - Cobbs Creek), Ralph Widener (Multi-Community Alliance of Nicetown/East Falls), and Mary Sanders (victim of eminent domain abuse - North Philadelphia). The action took place on the anniversary of the landmark Kelo vs. New London Supreme Court decision which granted the government the right to take private land for private development. Members of the Community Preservation Network have suffered this kind of displacement in neighborhoods across the city. When developers move in the poor are often pushed out in the form of liens and foreclosures as well as the abuse of eminent domain. "How are you planning to build something where someone still lives?" said Segarra of a developer who is planning a factory at the location of the home of Don Manuel Velez in Kensington. "The developer said I don't have anything to do with that. The city is going to take care of that." The story of Don Manuel Velez highlights the forces that the Community Preservation Network are united against. His residence in Kensington is slated for demolition by the Redevelopment Authority. While he is resigned to the move he scoffs at the $18,000 the RDA has offered. "A house for a house," he insists. Recently the RDA presented him a choice of three apartments that are "way out of the city." Following the rally the Network held a tour of neighborhoods in which people are being pushed out including Kensington, Cobb's Creek, and Brewerytown. "What the city doesn't understand," said Segarra in the living room of Mr. Velez, "is that when you grow up in a community and that's all you know and they make you move then the only thing that you know is being taken from you." |
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