M's Story
M arrived in Hawthorne just over 3 years ago. He is a young, married, white professional. When asked why he chose Hawthorne as his new home, he said:
"My wife and I looked a lot of areas within the city. Between the two of us we have lived in the Rittenhouse area, Graduate Hospital, Fairmount and we were looking for a place where our dollar would go a little farther while still feeling safe. Our neighborhood has a lot of restaurants and shopping that we enjoy and we feel like it is less crowded than center city (North of South Street). I would describe our neighborhood as a quaint area between the Italian market and South Street sandwiched between Broad and Bella Vista. The park has attracted a lot of younger families that are friendly and looking to get involved in their community."
This follows Hawthorne's historic reputation as an "in-between" neighborhood. Quiet, but convenient in its proximity to center city, as well as other South Philly neighborhoods with lots to do. M and his wife moved to the neighborhood to settle down and plan on having kids in the near future.
M is active within the community. He is a member of the Friends of Hawthorne Park: "we do all of the planning for activities that take place in the park, we schedule all of the neighborhood clean-ups with the parks department and we also work with the zoning board to determine what gets built in Hawthorne." As we heard in our meeting with the Hawthorne Empowerment Coalition, these are some of the key events on which that the neighborhood prides itself. M considers community involvement one of the key elements of Hawthorne's identity: "Hawthorne is a racially and socioeconomically diverse and most people are interested in being involved in the community."
Though M is active in the community and cares about the neighborhood, he acknowledges some of the divisions that neighborhood changes have caused, even in his time there: "The area has drastically changed in my opinion since the completion of the Hawthorne Park. It has become friendlier and less violent. I think neighbors [sic.] some neighbors are not happy with all of the gentrification that has taken place in the neighborhood especially those that will be displaced from Hawthorne as taxes continue to increase."
When asked about the long-term plans of his family, M says that, though they love the neighborhood, "Our ideal plans would be to keep our residence in Philadelphia and rent it out once we have 2 kids." He cites the disparity in quality of school districts between Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs: "I love the convenience of being in the city, but education is paramount for us and we’d rather move to a great school district than stay in the city and leave our children’s education up to chance of getting into a charter school."
This is not cut and dry, though. M notes many folks in the community share his concern but remain optimistic about the role community action could hold in making big changes in the neighborhood schools: "Many young families that I have spoken with are firm that they will stay in the city and that we need our district to get the Jackson schools to where we would like to see them."
Hawthorne certainly has a wealth of community capital, in a vibrant collection of community organizations, and enthusiastic residents. With the unity of purpose the neighborhood schools could provide, the community could do great things for public schools in Hawthorne.
For a full transcript of M's interview, click below.
|
To return to The Stories page, click below.
|