One of the things we discussed during the first semester in class was the way that Chester’s negative reputation often creates a stumbling block as new programs are implemented to bring in money and improve people’s livelihoods. An aura of danger and laziness surrounds many Philly-area people’s views of the city, and even mayor Roots parroted some of these ideas when we met with him. Despite his roots (no pun intended) as a Chesterite himself, he had said that some gentrification was necessary to pull the city up by its bootstraps, whether that be through investment in making Chester more appealing to the middle class, or through his more expansive definition of gentrification that would encompass bringing in more immigrants who bring with them fresh ideas and energy. While I think there is some truth in these statements, I think the people of Chester don’t get as much credit as they deserve.
Over the last few weeks, I have been working on setting up focus groups with different CEI stakeholders, in order to get a better understanding of what’s working, what’s not working, and what could be expanded upon. I have so far held two “focus groups” – which ended up being more like a series of interviews – with people at CEI’s Open Table soup kitchen program. I came in with prejudices of my own, expecting to see many unhoused people dealing with substance use disorders or mental health problems which would make our conversations difficult. What I came to find was that while many of the people at this program were indeed unhoused, I got to talk to people of varying housing situations, levels of employment, ages, and even hometowns.
One of the series of questions that I asked during each interview was what they thought was Chester’s biggest strength, and what was its biggest problem. While people’s thoughts on the biggest problem ranged from homelessness to addiction, I found their ideas on what the biggest strength was to be the most interesting and in fact quite inspiring. The two responses I heard time and time again were “Nobody should go hungry in Chester,” alluding to the abundance of food insecurity programs, and “the people”. When I heard the second response, I thought back to our conversation with mayor Roots and the stereotypes of Chester that we had talked about last semester. The clear disconnect made me think about all the potential that Chester is missing out on after years of injustice have locked people out of opportunities.
If I were advising mayor Roots and city council as they continue the daunting task of deciding the best steps forward for Chester, I would tell him to not lose hope on Chesterites. While significant investment is needed in addition to what is already being done to bring people up to speed in terms of job training and job availability to name a few things, the administration should do everything in its ability to bring the community along every step of the way.